Sachin, Rahul and Laxman deserve more respect!

True legends. Period.

For starters, if any of the sane, practical and level-headed Indian cricket fan took the media brags seriously and thought, India who haven't won a single series in Australia, will pull off a rare series victory Down Under this time around, Congratulations! you have made a fool out of yourself by believing the words of arm-chair, self proclaimed pundits whose greatest achievement on the cricketing field is wearing the Indian jersey- not because they deserved it, but because of some mediocre selection made by the then panel of members. These harebrained, juvenile experts are to be blamed for not being commonsensical and adding to the pile of crap they continue to intonate over television. People still take them seriously and everyone becomes a cricket critic at their own right. Well, so can I.

It is not a rare woebegone times for Indian Cricket. We have never been close to establishing dominance in foreign territory. Seeing articles titled ' A funeral end to Indian Cricket's greatest era' , ' It will never be the same again' where eminent columnists are now acting like those former Indian players' with knee jerk comments that is far away from being articulate. The Fabulous 3 comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S Laxman is by far the most decorated middle order in cricketing history. These three prolific run-getters command respect by one and all. They have been raised to the state of Gods by the same public who are raising slogans asking them to retire. Let me rewind a little bit. Did Sachin become a 'God' overnight? Did Dravid get the appellation of 'The Wall' in one service? V.V.S Laxman has run riot and given nightmares to the likes of McGrath, Warne, Lee etc. over a consistent duration of time. One series he falters against Australia and he is now the favorite pass time of every humorist and news channels host. Serving the country, accepting blames individually though it is a team sport, having stones being thrown which they convert to many a milestone, brandishing brickbats with their bats and yet here again, they are made the cover up for a team that puts No.2 rank to shame. Indian Cricket Team has never been a world beater. Face the actuality. The team has been mediocrity at its best. If at all we were able to create a stamp of authority on the global platform, it is due to these three legends along with Ganguly and Kumble. These legends deserve the blame for one thing- for creating an apparition that we can imitate the achievements of the Australians/ West Indies of the past. That very image, painted with colors of hope and dreams has begun to leave a irremovable stain on these very artists. Artists who carved out an niche for themselves in the heart of millions.
Fact is India have been pathetic in cricket since time immemorial. A crop of great batsmen with a big heart come along and create a decade of bending the game to their will, dictating terms to world class bowlers and creating an era of domination at the top. Then, they have an uneventful year. You have injury setbacks. Out of the blue, every John.Q. Public believes they are a road block to Indian cricket's climb up the superiority ladder through generation next. It is a rhetorical situation where we will be in a deja vu- back to being suppressed once these guys call it a day. The odds of India seeking redemption is as bleak as Liverpool winning the BPL title this season. As a friend of mine mentioned, The only fun left for Indian cricket fans is for these greats to play as long as they can give some pleasure outside the victories/losses. We aren't going to be world beaters ever, nor replicate the brand of cricket portrayed by Steve Waugh et. al.   I hope Rahul Dravid doesn't retire now. That guy is fit. He doesn't seem slow or low with respect to temperament and running between the wickets. In fact, there is a rare technical fault in his way of play. A batsman who has been the torchbearer for the much hyped and proven middle order of the Indian team overseas last year Just had one ordinary series now. You can't call for his retirement. No one should. He knows when to hang his boots. The attitude is depressing. The same people who called him back to the ODI side after 3 years due to lack of players, and now they don't want his services. Next What? Pujara, Rohit etc? 
Dravid did not become what he is after one game. It took years of toiling. Do we have the right exposure to field confident lads overseas? I don't think so. Damn the media, who hyped it saying it's our best chance to win a series down under. We can never win unless we have bowlers who can bounce and make the ball talk consistently; batsman who are confident and who take calculative risks. It's high time people who back Sehwag every time he throws away his wicket saying that's how he plays, grew some sense. We never could have won anything overseas, except Zimbabwe maybe. There is a difference between being incapable and unwilling. The team as a whole needs to be aware of that.
The team before had almost everything. Match winners. Jaffer-Chopra/Sehwag where one flashed, the other stayed for 15 overs on an average. Dravid,Sachin,Laxman and Ganguly- who were solid and saved their best for those champion moments. Kumble in the bowling department with a better Bhajji. The last tour in Australia, the captain's 144 in Brisbane paved the way for the team to have belief in themselves. A captain who lead from the front. A man with full on aggression who hated the taste of defeat. No nonsense attitude is what is needed. Not a person with calm demeanor.
A man who doesn't wish to continue on the test format does not deserve a place in the test squad, simply because his contribution as a batsman is equal or even lesser than Ashwin's. No one is undermining the World Cup victory back in 2011 because Gambhir deserves as much credit as Dhoni's Wankhde heroics. We have M.S.Dhoni, all of 30, contemplating retirement from Tests to prolong his career and people show the stick at Sachin and co. A man who has scored 99 centuries in which we have not won a few due to lack of support from his team mates; Dravid who single handedly has snatched pride from the jaws of humiliation. Why doesn't anyone point a finger at the brilliant opening combo whose highest contribution together is a meager 26 runs. Just numbers and statistics do not do justice to the immense contribution of these legends. It seems that few players are having a never ending hangover of ODI/T20 cricket. Flash hard and reach-out-at-everything-not-playing-to-the-bowler's-merit type of cricket. Sehwag is the antithesis of Gavaskar. We have never enjoyed that player who is right in the middle, balancing out the extremes of opening batting.
It was this rare middle order line up that has overshadowed our average bowling woes in the past. The yester-year bowlers enjoyed the cushion of not being blamed because these batsman didn't mind the added responsibility of walking the thorny path.Their life has been like that of a Goalkeeper's. No matter how many spectacular saves made, people remember only the ones which are missed by them.

Along with many Indian fanatics, I have witnessed the callous attitudes of many treating these players like losers. They deserve it for rising our hope, right? So be it. The opinions of the average nobody doesn't matter. These players should continue because they have given me pure joy and nothing else, every moment they step in to the green cauldron, taking their stance with incomprehensible pressure and expectation  on their wide shoulders. Sachin, Rahul and Laxman are those rarest of rare breeds who have made me proud because I belong to the era where they flourished. An era which can never be reality again. As I write the last paragraph, I get goosebumps and can see the future, where the smile on my face will never be the same when I see a team card without them. I know it.