Hit a century and score it too

Recently in wake of the test defeat at Bangalore, I got to hear again the standard gripes about Sachin not performing in crunch situations. There were so many of them and I wanted to tell all of the people the same thing. So I am going to do this on the blog. My answer to these people is that they can go @#$%& themselves.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. If Sachin is supposed to be the one who should rescue India from crunch situations then what's the rest of the team doing? There are supposed to be 11 players on a team, not 1 player cloned 10 times. Some say that Sachin does not contribute to the team in proportion to his hype. Well, the answer is that Sachin is not the one creating the hype around himself. He is the same committed, hard-working cricketer that he was 15 years ago. He has matured with experience but his core talent and commitment are the same. The hype exists because of his achievements.

If any one has any doubts about why Sachin has a place on the team should take the following pop quiz:
Imagine that you are in the stands watching a match. India needs 80 runs to win in 8 overs.
1. Rahul Dravid is at the crease. Do the stands start emptying or do the spectators stay on?
2. Sachin is at the crease. Do the stands start emptying or do the spectators stay on?