It's the end. But is it a moment India is prepared for?
So I was just filling out my application for tickets to the Old Trafford Test with India in August when I heard that Sachin Tendulkar doesn't plan on being there. Not on the field, at any rate.
It was always on the cards: he's forty years old, and his 200th Test, which he's now announced will be the last, is due on November 14-18, twenty-four years almost to the day since his debut in Karachi. I had hoped he might feel a little sentimental about Old Trafford, where I saw him score his maiden Test hundred in August 1990 (the first of 51, to go with 49 in one-day internationals). But I can see that India would be heart-broken if he made his farewell anywhere else. As I understand it, they hurriedly arranged a couple of Tests with West Indies (who will play anyone at the drop of a hat) specially so that he could play his 200th Test at home rather than in South Africa. Weirdly, with five weeks to go, the BCCI haven't got round to announcing the venues, but I don't see that they can stage that last match anywhere but Tendulkar's home city of Mumbai.
A quick look at Indian demographics suggests that almost half their population were born after Tendulkar's Test debut. To convey his significance, Cricinfo set up a useful poll on "Which cricketer has brought India most joy" and offered the choices Sachin Tendulkar, Sachin Tendulkar, or Sachin Tendulkar. Though I count myself as a Dravid woman, this was the correct answer.
In other news, I gather it is World Mental Health Day. I wish all of us good mental health.
And I have a New Radiator in the kitchen. It's a large kitchen, and the far end, which I believe was originally the coalhouse, has always been chilly in winter, despite roof insulation. So I have obtained a New Radiator. As with all such operations, the engineer expressed his horror on arrival at the failure of the earlier engineer who had inspected the room and produced the quote to realise quite how complicated the job would be (in this case, the floor was more difficult than expected to get up), but somehow he did it and it doesn't look bad.
At some point there will also be photos of my trip to Germany, but I have to wade through 177 of them and decide which ones to put up.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
It was always on the cards: he's forty years old, and his 200th Test, which he's now announced will be the last, is due on November 14-18, twenty-four years almost to the day since his debut in Karachi. I had hoped he might feel a little sentimental about Old Trafford, where I saw him score his maiden Test hundred in August 1990 (the first of 51, to go with 49 in one-day internationals). But I can see that India would be heart-broken if he made his farewell anywhere else. As I understand it, they hurriedly arranged a couple of Tests with West Indies (who will play anyone at the drop of a hat) specially so that he could play his 200th Test at home rather than in South Africa. Weirdly, with five weeks to go, the BCCI haven't got round to announcing the venues, but I don't see that they can stage that last match anywhere but Tendulkar's home city of Mumbai.
A quick look at Indian demographics suggests that almost half their population were born after Tendulkar's Test debut. To convey his significance, Cricinfo set up a useful poll on "Which cricketer has brought India most joy" and offered the choices Sachin Tendulkar, Sachin Tendulkar, or Sachin Tendulkar. Though I count myself as a Dravid woman, this was the correct answer.
In other news, I gather it is World Mental Health Day. I wish all of us good mental health.
And I have a New Radiator in the kitchen. It's a large kitchen, and the far end, which I believe was originally the coalhouse, has always been chilly in winter, despite roof insulation. So I have obtained a New Radiator. As with all such operations, the engineer expressed his horror on arrival at the failure of the earlier engineer who had inspected the room and produced the quote to realise quite how complicated the job would be (in this case, the floor was more difficult than expected to get up), but somehow he did it and it doesn't look bad.
At some point there will also be photos of my trip to Germany, but I have to wade through 177 of them and decide which ones to put up.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.