Seems like I am advertising for the Haywards' 5,000 or the Haywards' 10,000 club soda!
But, unfortunate for the drinkers, I'm not. One day in the morning I woke up and read the sports news in the Indian daily: The Times Of India, that a Sri Lankan cricket player named, Kumar Sangakkara became the 10th batsman in the history of the game to score 10,000 runs in the one-day matches. Well, my full credit to his game and to all the players who are in the 'elite' club of 10,000 ODI runs. It is their sheer prowess of the game that they have achieved a milestone, which could be only seen in the dreams of others. Sachin Tendulkar, the first and one of the three Indians in the list, is way ahead of the last entry in the 10k club, started to play at a very younger age (he was in his teens when he padded up for the first time) and now, in his 22nd year in the cricket arena, he has been at the pinnacle of many other milestones.
But, with the number of one-day matches played increasing year-by-year, these milestones will lose their importance. Statistically speaking, a player in international cricket may atleast 30 matches in 1 year. Assuming the fact, that he plays 10-12 years of international cricket at a respectable average of 35-40 runs per match, he is going to score more than 10k runs when he gets retired.
I am not trying to negate the fact that they will be playing exceptionally well for their respective teams, but, what I am trying to say is that the 10k club will not be considered respectable. With the likes of T-20s, the players will be scoring heavily in one-days (being a batsman's paradise), the players will opt out of test matches which extract the true skills of a batsman against fast pitched, short- pitched deliveries. I wonder there will be a similar club of runs formed for T-20s in near future!
Gosh!
But, unfortunate for the drinkers, I'm not. One day in the morning I woke up and read the sports news in the Indian daily: The Times Of India, that a Sri Lankan cricket player named, Kumar Sangakkara became the 10th batsman in the history of the game to score 10,000 runs in the one-day matches. Well, my full credit to his game and to all the players who are in the 'elite' club of 10,000 ODI runs. It is their sheer prowess of the game that they have achieved a milestone, which could be only seen in the dreams of others. Sachin Tendulkar, the first and one of the three Indians in the list, is way ahead of the last entry in the 10k club, started to play at a very younger age (he was in his teens when he padded up for the first time) and now, in his 22nd year in the cricket arena, he has been at the pinnacle of many other milestones.
But, with the number of one-day matches played increasing year-by-year, these milestones will lose their importance. Statistically speaking, a player in international cricket may atleast 30 matches in 1 year. Assuming the fact, that he plays 10-12 years of international cricket at a respectable average of 35-40 runs per match, he is going to score more than 10k runs when he gets retired.
I am not trying to negate the fact that they will be playing exceptionally well for their respective teams, but, what I am trying to say is that the 10k club will not be considered respectable. With the likes of T-20s, the players will be scoring heavily in one-days (being a batsman's paradise), the players will opt out of test matches which extract the true skills of a batsman against fast pitched, short- pitched deliveries. I wonder there will be a similar club of runs formed for T-20s in near future!
Gosh!
