hahahahaha...freak bro, i knew it was coming :P. no one can deny that sachin is a very good batsman, one of the greats of all time indeed. skillwise he is almost complete. he has all the shots in his armory and play them all pretty well. that's why he's able to sustain for 17 yrs. but he does not have that killer instinct that a player of his caliber is supposed to possess. one of the reasons why i don't support india is that they are all big time chokers - tendulkar being one of them. players with the likes of viv richards may not have all the shots that sachin prolly has but they have higher spirit and more confidence than sachin and that makes a hell lot of difference! i have wrote this before somewhere and am writing it again. how many centuries that sachin scored have helped india to win matches? how many of his centuries came out in big matches, tight matches, pressure matches. you can do the analyis. i don't have the stat on top of my head but am sure he has failed to make big scores in tight and crucial matches more often than not. i would want to remember sachin for the sarjah tournament he played in '98 where he destroyed aussie attack single handedly to help india clinch the championchip title. unfortunately, there are not more of such matches that player of his caliber is supposed to have under his belt. secondly, sachin was on the rise when india as a team was struggling during the 90s. too much of responsibilty on his shoulder helped him to some extent but at the same time pressurized him unnecessarily. it came out positive because he was able to deliver on few occasions and that brought him all the accolades and the media (south asian especially) blowed his performance out of proportion to say the least. this put too much pressure on his shoulder and he failed to deliver in important occasions. thanks to his chking and not so positive attitude. i am not trying to grill sachin here, but people like ricky ponting (2003 WC final), steve waugh (2003 semis against SA) have played better innings and responsible ones than sachin in more than 3/4 occasions. just because they were from a more competitive team and from the part of the world where cricket is a huge craze but not necessarily a "religion" have overshadowed their performance. media and people in india and subcontinents are very sensitive. if a player plays a heroic inning, they will blow their trumpet like anything and if they fail to deliver they are grilled to death. this helps players to get more than deserved 'wah-wahs' when they deliver on few occasions. sachin went through the same when he was in his prime form in the nineties. so that helped a lot to make him stand in perhaps an un-deservedly high stature. please feel free to disagree but with arguments :P LooTe