I begin by wishing all my readers a very Happy New Year. I wish that your new year is better and more fruitful than the last. I also wish that we see the Indian cricket team scale new heights this year.

I have spent the last few days reflecting on the travails of the team and the tumultuous events of the last year. I have also received a few comments from some of you. I am going to respond to one of the comments because it is representative of the kind of facile arguments and theories bandied about in various newspapers and websites. I am afraid, it involves Saurav Ganguly. Love it or hate it, Indian cricket is still enveloped by the aura of the man. I had decided to not write any more on this issue but some wider issues are being raised by various people and I feel it is important to set the record straight.

I apologize to those of you already overdosed on this. Because players are being unfairly attacked purely to defend another player, I have to respond. Please refer to the comment made by Just n’ fair at the bottom of my previous article (Somethings never change).

First and foremost, I write my column without fear or favor. Unlike some writers, I do not have a hidden agenda. I write exactly as I see it. When deserved, I give fulsome praise. When justified, I have whole-heartedly praised and defended Saurav (Archives - Sad commentary, Culture of leaks). Aptly, I do not mince my words when criticism is deserved. You may have noticed that I have severely criticized Sachin’s batting against Pakistan in the Madras test (Archives - Of imaginary demons and self .....) even though he is one of the players I admire. I love cricket in general and make a serious attempt to analyze the game and present issues surrounding Indian cricket.

Now that the disclosures have been made lets begin to respond. An all time great is being attacked here and a defense is the least he deserves. Saurav and Sachin have both made an immense contribution to cricket in general and Indian cricket in particular. Each player brings something unique to the game and to compare players head to head is always going to be a somewhat surreal exercise. They are the top exponents of the game and cannot be compared like heads of cattle at a fair.

I feel that merely looking at runs scored tells only half the story. The manner and situation in which they are scored set their true value. For example, the 201 runs in 436 balls scored by Anshuman Gaekwad at Jalandhar against Pakistan cannot be even compared with Sachin’s 114 against Australia scored at Perth in ’92. There is more to understanding the game than just reading the scorecard. Otherwise, instead of thronging stadia across the world to see players in the flesh, we could all just read the scores in the newspaper next morning. Since you have used statistics to base your argument I will play along with you.

Statistics, as the cliché goes, is like a bikini - it reveals the obvious but hides the vitals! ‘Just n’ fair’ has gone a step further in using it to reveal things that do not even exist! Sachin’s total in his last 25 ODI innings is 782 and Saurav’s total is actually 653. You have one missing score (1) in Sachin’s sequence and 2 in Dada’s (2 n.o. and 4). Sachin has 2 unbeaten knocks to Saurav’s one. Therefore, Sachin averages 34 and Saurav 27.2. I have kept your comment because it is typical of the incorrect statistics used by many who can see no wrong in Saurav or themselves.

We will take the test scores next. I can see the cleverness in your choosing the last 18 test innings instead of 20, a nice round figure. You see, Sachin’s 19^th. and 20^th. innings read 60 n.o. and 241 n.o. scored against Australia in Sydney. Nice job!! Your total for Sachin in the last 18 innings before Sri Lanka is correct at 869, but Saurav’s total is inflated. It is actually 683. You are missing several scores (16, 37, 12 and 2 before the 144 at the end). I wonder where you got the scores from! A Kolkata newspaper ? The player in question has also lately taken to inflating his statistics. Sachin was unbeaten thrice which gives him an average of 57.9 to Saurav’s 37.9. If you went to 20 innings Sachin’s total would stand at 1170 (ave. – 78). Saurav’s would be 697 (ave. – 34.8).

I think we are done with numbers.

Form is ephemeral. It imparts greatness when present and humbles the greatest when gone. Every player goes through slumps in his career. Predicting form is difficult and not an exact science. So how does one distinguish a temporary slump from terminal decline? This is a subjective judgment, but the experienced can make a fair assessment by looking at the player when he is batting or bowling in a match situation. I will give you an example to illustrate my point.

Even during the worst slump of his career, Sachin never looked out of his depth. After returning from a long break, he scored 109 against Sri Lanka in the second test, mastering Murali’s spin and set us up for victory. In Australia, he totaled 82 in the first 5 innings in 2003/04. You will remember that the umpires claimed his wicket on more than one occasion! In the final test, he was unbeaten on scores of 241 and 60, taking the team to the brink of making history. Saurav played his last great innings on that tour, scoring a defiant 144 at Brisbane in the first test.

Again, in Pakistan, Sachin helped us win the Multan test, our first test victory on Pakistani soil. People remember that test for Sehwag’s 309, but forget Sachin’s unbeaten 194. Who knows how many he would get if we went on? This, more than all the runs scored, is why Sachin should still be in the side. He is still a class act and remains our most consistent batsman along with Rahul Dravid.

Dada, on the other hand, used to be a class act. He looked out of his depth against Pakistan at home. He looked clueless getting bowled by Afridi. A lot has been made of his 39 and 40 against Sri Lanka in Delhi. More important than the scores is the fact that he was anything but fluent. Apart from a couple of pleasing cover drives it was a struggle. In the first innings he had no clue about Murali’s doosra and just stuck his pad out without playing a shot and was rightly given out leg before. In the second, he again failed to read the doosra and was clean bowled playing a forward defensive stroke. You may remember that Sachin scored his 35^th. century in the same test.

You may also remember that playing spin used to be Dada’s forte. Saurav does not look like he belongs at the highest level anymore. Over the last several months, his dismissals have been soft and predictable. That, I think, is terminal decline, not a temporary slump.