Criticism

Criticism

• Kapil Dev became the biggest Indian Cricket Legend to question Sachin's ability to perform under pressure.His criticism came after Sachin got out cheaply in both innings in what could be his last test match at Lords (July 19-23,2007) . Tendulkar made a gritty 91, before he was wrongly given LBW, to help India earn a famous win in the very next Test.

• Despite his record of scoring the most Test centuries, none of Tendulkar's innings found a place in the Wisden 100, a statistics-based list released by Wisden in 2001 of the 100 "greatest Test batting performances". Wisden stated that most of his best performances had come in draws and defeats, and so received a much lower weighting as they did not contribute to a victory.

• His two tenures as captain of the Indian cricket team were not very successful. When Sachin took over as Captain in 1996, it was with huge hopes and expectations. However, by 1997 the team was performing poorly. Azharuddin was credited with saying "Nahin jeetega! Chote ki naseeb main jeet nahin hai!", which translates into: "He won't win! It's not in the Shorty's destiny". During his second run, after constantly complaining that the national selectors weren't giving him the team he wanted, he resigned after a disastrous tour of Australia where India lost 0-3 in the Tests and managed to win only one of 8 ODIs. Incidentally, he was named Man of the Series for the Test matches.

• Sachin was also allegedly criticized by erstwhile Indian coach Greg Chappell on his attitude. As per the report, Chappell felt that Tendulkar would be more useful down the order, while the latter felt that he would be better off opening the innings which he has been doing for major portion of his career. Chappell also believed that Tendulkar's repeated failures were hurting the team's chances. In a rare show of emotion, Tendulkar hit out at the comments attributed to Chappell by pointing out that no coach has ever mentioned about his attitude being incorrect. On April 7, 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India issued a notice to Tendulkar asking for an explanation for his comments made to the media.

• Along with team mates VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly his form against the stronger Test nations has been, by his standards, poor since the Pakistan tour in early 2004. Excluding runs against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh his average over this period has been 31.19. Laxman and Ganguly have similarly averaged 32.19 and 29.40 respectively.