The Curse of 99 ?

'Will Sachin get his hundredth 100 today?' How many times has this query of hope resonated everywhere around us in the last 6 months? In fact, not 6 months, it seems an eternity since this chant gained momemtum. Fantasies are a strange thing. They flatter to deceive. Of course, that is why they are just 'fantasies'  in the first place. But the fantasy in question is something which is so near to fruition and yet so far. It is a no-brainer whether Sachin will get his 100th hundred or not. Of course he will. When, is where the fantasies begin! And then the death of one fantasy leads to dreaming another fantasy. First it was the World Cup Final. If India's dream-like World Cup victory at Mumbai was not enough to satiate the Indian Masses, Sachins's 100th 100, in the World Cup Final, that too at his home ground, was such a mouth-watering prospect! The ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed had even publicly stated that such a scenario would simply be the icing on the cake. But it was not meant to be that way. So what? India, then the Test No. 1 team, was to tour England (then the 2nd best) in a couple of months time and the next fantasy was Sachin getting his hundred at the mecca of cricket - Lords. Even that dream crashed, along with the Indian Team, in England. Since, then, it has become a routine of sorts to dream wildly of the century of centuries, only to be left high and dry. Surprisingly, since then, Indian Team's performance has been downhill and has touched the nadir on the current Australian Tour. It would seem foolhardy or plain ludicrous to associate Tendulkar not reaching the phenomenal milestone to India's dismal performance wherein they  have lost 7 straight Tests away from home. But if analysed carefully, there indeed seems to be some sort of connection in between these 2 happenings.

Sachin's 100th hundred became a topic of national interest and reached a level of mad frenzy as the England tour inched nearer. 'Sachin, the Lord of Cricket, would get it at Lords in the first test match'. The hype and hoopla surrounding this milestone can divert the most focussed of teams, especially if the team has players who themselves have grown up idolising and are ardent fans of this team member. In addition, India was the top test team, and was expected to win their first test series in England. The pressure showed up in the team's performance. Sachin failed to get his century. The team suffered a collapse. Though initially noone possibly could have  attributed this to sachin not getting his hundred, over time, as the prospect of Sachin getting his milestone loomed ahead of the team in every match, the distraction and the frustration of not getting done with the milestone increased further. Sachin, as has been his wont of getting out in the nervous nineties umpteen number of times, kept on getting out at crucial times as and when he reached near his century. Accept it or not, when the best batsman of your team gets out at such a  crucial time (crucial time of the innings too), and that too again and again, it can have an absolutely demoralising effect on the team. And even if that doesn't , the timing of dismissal of Sachin has been extremely crucial. Most of the times, after Sachin has got out in 70s, 80s or 90s in the past 2 couple of series, the Indian batting has invariably lost the plot. Now remember the few series preceding these, where a Sachin hundred would propel the team to huge totals. This was because there were partnerships that blossomed in Sachin's company which took India to that position. However, slowly and steadily, the entire batting unit has lost the plot to say the least.

It is crucial that Sachin gets his 100th hundred out of the way as early as possible. It will break the shackles that seem to have clasped the master batsman. A change in his attitude can do a sea of change to Team India's fortunes and most probably it will. Meanwhile, the curse of 99 continues to torment the Lord of Cricket & his team....Ohh 100th 100, come fast thee.....