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Cricket: Gavaskar vs. Tendulkar

I'm a huge fan of the game of Cricket.

(For the average American sports fan who doesn't understand how a game can be played for a whole day in the shorter version, and upto 5 days in the longer version, I've got two metaphors for you: War and "Reality Show". I'll have more on this another time.)

Too many Indian cricket fans lack historical perspective or the ability to make unbiased observations.

I've been a huge fan of both Gavaskar and Tendulkar.

Far too many times I've been left seething with anger and frustration by Tendulkar in the 2nd innings of India in a test match (and in ODIs, when chasing - especially a daunting target - like in the 2003 World Cup final).

And I've seen way too much criticism of how slowly Gavaskar played that's not matched by appreciation for how often he played match-saving or match-winning innings for India.

Here's an article (just found while randomly googling for interesting articles on cricket. It does a very good job of comparing the fighting qualities and mental strength of both players.

[Originally posted on my personal blog at muralikd.blogspot.com, December 16, 2007]

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