THE CHARM of Border-Gavaskar trophy is resonating great enthusiasm all around the world and many Australians cricket lovers believe that the India-Australia series may leave the Ashes series far behind in coming years. Indian cricket team is scheduled to travel Australia this month. The Australian media has started giving an unprecedented importance to the series. Indo-Australian cricket will also celebrate its diamond anniversary and the cricket lovers would certainly watch a great contest between both the teams during the Border-Gavaskar trophy. From Indian point of view, Tendulkar has regained his sublime touch and magic and his performances will be great to watch. This is being said and reported in Australian media that the threat by Australian skipper Ricky Ponting as taking over the recognition of best batsman from Tendulkar will further impel master blaster for conquering greater heights in coming series.

 

Noted cricket writer Mike Coward said: “Australia’s planning of giving grand reception to great Sachin Tendulkar is a showcase of high-level of maturity of the Australian cricket community. Tendulkar has been rated as the greatest batsman in world of cricket on several occasions and Sir Don Bradman had also given him the similar respect. His upcoming visit will provide us a priceless opportunity to pay him the honour. However, he further said that historically Indian teams have not been greeted with affection and enthusiasm in past as England team and West Indies teams, for a period, received in Australia. Now, the sphere of influence in world cricket has revolutionized dramatically in past some years. India has been transformed itself as power-breaker in the game of cricket. It has now started demanding the respect and recognition that was denied by the entrenched attitude of traditionally Anglo-centric legislators.

 

The recent inaugural Warne-Muralidharan trophy attracted considerable criticism in Australian media because of the lack of publicity and promotion. Muralidharan also failed to overtake Shane Warne’s record of maximum number of wickets in Test cricket. Sri Lankan team also suffered defeat in both the Tests played against Australia without offering any major resistance to home team. The series even fetched a controversy when South African umpire Rudi Kortzen declared Kumara Sangakkara out when he was on 192. However, Kortzen later accepted his mistake for giving him out and expressed his regret to the batsman but the damage had been done and Sri Lanka could not save the second test against Australia despite the heroic effort showed by Sangakkara.

 

In world of cricket, people consider Tendulkar as the most self-effacing man and he feels discomfiture every time when anyone links his name with Bradman. Everyone knows that when Tendulkar had toured Australia in the initial phase of his International career, Bradman was very much impressed by his batting. He even reportedly told his wife Jessie as: “Doesn’t he remind you of me when I was young?” In 1998, Bradman had invited Tendulkar as a special guest in Adelaide on the occasion of major celebration of his 90th birthday. According to some media reports, both, Tendulkar and Bradman, had discussed more about the evolution of the game than the techniques.

 

If we talk statistically about their performances, Bradman will always stay far ahead than Tendulkar. But, if we go deep in analysis we find that Bradman had played only 52 test matches in 20 years of his international career. He had started his career in 1928 and played at just 10 grounds located in eight cities in Australia and England. On the other hand, Tendulkar, who has just entered in 19th year of his international career as a Test player, has already played 141 Tests in 52 grounds located in 13 countries. He has just crossed the milestone by surpassing Allan Border’s total runs in Test matches in the first Test against Pakistan in a home series. Tendulkar now has 11,183 Test runs, moving ahead of Border’s 11,174, while Brian Lara stays on the top with 11,953. Tendulkar took just 141 Tests, Border needed 156 Tests and Lara’s runs have come in only 131 Tests.

 

At the same time, he has repeated the stunning performance in one-day form of the game by scoring more than 15000 runs. The Australian media has also started featuring articles about the preparation of an emotional farewell for master blaster from cricket lovers in country. For them, it will be a privilege to see him playing in their favourite grounds Down Under.