Is Sachin shying away from T20 Cricket???

T20 cricket is here to stay and has already proved that this format of cricket is the most entertaining format, the millions of dollars being pumped in as advertisements bearing testimony to the earlier statement. T20 has found fan followers from children to elders and women too, who were very much content with soap serials which would make your eyes go moist. IPL 2008 topped all TRP ratings in the summer season and the entire Indian film industry postponed all of their summer releases, fearing poor turn outs at the cinema halls. But there is one man, who has constantly distanced himself from this format. He is none other than the Demi – God of Indian Cricket, Mr. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

Sachin Tendulkar gave a new dimension to play the first 15 overs of One Day cricket. It was his sharp cricketing acumen, which created a new rule to maximize those overs. But ever since the T20 format has been conceived, Sachin has played only one T20 International match against South Africa way back in 2006. India has since then played a World Cup, 2 matches against Australia one each in India and in Australia and India. The T20 match against Sri Lanka is the 3^rd match after the World Cup. But Tendulkar has not featured in any of these matches. Sachin is believed to have left Sri Lanka before the start of the match itself. 

Tendulkar volunteered to excluded from the T20 team and hasn’t been keen to be part of any of the other matches. While  other leading international players like Sanath Jayasurya, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden had all featured in the T20 world cup, Sachin didn’t. 

So why is Tendulkar, the run machine shying away from T20 matches? Is he afraid of the fact that the media would go all tongs together, if he failed.  Sachin does take a little while , say 10 balls to settle down and start making his shots. Does he feel that 10 balls are too much to settle down? Does he feel that he would be compared with his lesser experienced team mates, who might outscore him? Or does he feel that T20 is masala cricket, which purists don’t hold in high esteem and that’s why he doesn’t want to play this? Then he shouldn’t be even featuring in IPL. Or does Mahendra Singh Dhoni feel Tendulkar to be a burden in T20 games?

Whatever be the reason, it seems that Sachin Tendulkar is distancing himself from T20 cricket. I am an ardent fan of Tendulkar, and love to see him smash the balls outside the stadium and show that he is still a player having the fire in him.