Great Attitude

That’s the way he gets out most times. If he corrects this, I don’t see anything that can stop him from bettering his poor record of double centuries. And he has a great attitude. Unlike Lara’s, Sachin’s career has been reasonably non-controversial. He seems to be a calm sort but let me tell you, he doesn’t suffer fools lightly. A little bit of attitude goes well with geniuses. Arrogance is not a bad thing in players like them. It’s natural that they will have some of it. People used to say Viv was arrogant. I don’t think he was at any disadvantage because he was very sure of himself. But Lara somehow has got in trouble a few times because of his attitude. But everybody has his idiosyncrasies and Lara has his. From what I know, he is a fine young man. Very pleasant too.

Both of them have had trouble being captains. Lara had one or two good moments but wasn’t very successful otherwise. Same goes for Sachin. I think they are so high up there that as captains they expect a certain level of performance which is hard for ordinary people to meet. That could be one reason why they didn’t do very well as captains. Anyway, all great cricketers need not necessarily be great captains. Some people make good captains, some don’t. Sachin and Lara do know their cricket. Perhaps in time they will assume the role of captaincy again with more success.