Kolkata plans lavish birthday party for Tendulkar

Kolkata: Welcoming batting legend Sachin Tendulkar to the club of 40, former India skipper and Mumbai Indians mentor Anil Kumble on Tuesday said a win over Kolkata Knight Riders Wednesday will be the best way to celebrate April 24 - the maestro's birthday.

"I welcome Sachin to the club of cricketers past 40 and wish him all the best. The best way to celebrate his birthday would be a win over KKR Wednesday," Kumble told mediapersons here.

Tendulkar's Mumbai take on KKR in an IPL match at the Eden Gardens here Wednesday.

Special celebrations have been lined up for the master's birthday when the Mumbai Indians batsman completes 40.

While the Cricket Association of Bengal has arranged for a 40-pound cake decorated with 40 different photos of Tendulkar, his IPL franchise too has planned a special evening for the batsman with team owner Nita Ambani likely to be present.

Tributes for the legend have been pouring in from across the world as former and current players heaped praises on Tendulkar.
If Tendulkar's former captain and opening partner Sourav Ganguly described him as the "greatest cricketer he has ever seen", then former Australian opener Mathew Hayden called him the "Indian Don Bradman".

Amul butter has come out with a special cartoon for the special occasion where the legend has been described as "4 X Ten dulkar" depicting his age as a wish below reads "Happy Butterday Sachin".

To mark the occasion, a life-sized wax figure of the Indian batsman was unveiled at the Sydney Cricket Ground earlier in the week. The statue will later be displayed at Sydney's Madame Tussauds wax museum.

India needs introspection at the top​

There have been a number of changes since India’s failed return from England and Australia, and the drubbing at the hands of England in the four test series, was the defining line that it was time that India made sound changes in to their batting order.

The common factor to all the series was there was a serious batting collapse. Barring the double century by CheteshwarPujara in Ahmedabad, there was noting much for India to talk about. The bowling department wasn’t ably protected and the lack of a premier fast bowler hampered the chances for India in bagging 20 wickets. The over dependency of RavichandranAshwin proved that the bowler was over bowled thereby getting over exposed to the opposition.

While there have been a string of brilliant performances in the domestic circuit, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’sdependency of on his loyal few has made things easier for the opposition and it was the Alastair Cook led English team under coach Andy Flower exposed the entire batting and bowling line up and made sure that the Indian team toiled to defeat.

Michael Clarke led Australian side must have slumped to a resounding loss at the hands of the Indian bowlers where it was the second time of Indian history that the spinners scalped all the 20 wickets on a deteriorating track quite reminiscent to the Mumbai potholes. However, Clarke will have an advantage to his side as India’s complacency has got the better of them in the past. While the middle order looked good after most of the Indian players performed well in the RanjiTrophy season. However, certain surprises were in store during the selection process with the inclusion of MuraliVijay who played in the first test despite a dismal outing superseded many of the inform openers to make a comeback.

However, with Shikhar Dhawan showing good form in the tour games and Virender Sehwag looking rusty, the omnipotence of Dhoni’s decision making skills makes onwonder whether to pick players who are in-form or by measure of their past. If the former is taken, then it would have definitely been Wasim Jaffer who would have opened the innings for India. Now that he wasn’t selected, the ‘waterboy’ of the current Indian team, Ajinkya Rahane who has been the part of the Indian team since the series against New Zealand hasn’t found favour with the selection process of the Indian think-tank.

Since he made his T20 debut against the English in England,Rahane has steadied himself as an opener in the shorter format, however his non-selection as a makeshift opener has surprised one and all especially since Sehwag, Vijay andGautam Gambhir [not in favour] have not struck form. In this scenario, playing Shikhar Dhawan and Rahane will be a good option since the Aussies wouldn’t have a set plan. If India continues with the same formula, the Hyderabad wicket will provide a good bargain for the Oz pacers with Pattinson andSiddle gunning down for the top order’s throat.  

By neil joshi