ICC World Test Championship Qualifying Period Announced

The ICC has announced the qualifying period for the much awaited World Test Championship which is to be held in 2017. The qualifying period will be from 1^st May, 2013 to 31^st December, 2016 and the top 4 teams during this period will be eligible to play in the Championship which is to be held in England. The announcement was made during the launch of logo of Championship.

In the launch event held in Abu Dhabi, ICC chief executive David Richardson announced, “The qualification pathway for the ICC World Test Championship will be through the Reliance ICC Test Team Rankings, with the qualifying period being from 1^st May, 2013 through to 31^st December, 2016.”

The concept behind the brand icon i.e. the logo of Championship was also explained by the Richardson. He said, “The ICC World Championship logo represents a journey that all the Test playing nations will embark upon over the next four years. It represents the global nature and the epic nature of the event.”

The release further stated, “The ICC World Test Championship logo has been created by Bulletproof, a global agency based out of London and New York. The icon is designed to be moving, physical, three dimensional forms that can adapt and reflects its environment. Its beauty lies in its simplicity, a global icon for the future of Test cricket.”

The South African captain, currently the No.1 Test team, Graeme Smith was also present at the event. He said, “It’s fantastic to have a pathway clearly identified for the ICC World Test Championship and to know that the top four teams will have a chance to battle it out to be crowned the ultimate champions. It adds new meaning for all the Test teams when it comes to rankings and importance of the game.” 

Sachin Tendulkar Should Retire After 200th Test

Whenever there is a discussion going on about Team India or the history of Indian Cricket then it is impossible to think about a discussion which doesn’t include Sachin Tendulkar. It is hard to imagine the Indian Cricket without Sachin Tendulkar. He is known as Master Blaster, God of Cricket by his millions of fans. He is the person who taught India to play cricket and converted a simple game of bat and bowl into a religion of India which is equal to the Bollywood. The Bollywood stars are treated as God from the very beginning but it was Sachin Tendulkar who brought the same feeling to Cricketers also in India. Now, the cricketers are treated as God in India but now the performance of God himself is in doubt and various questions are looming over him and one such question is whether Sachin should retire after the 200^th Test or not??

 If we take a look at the performance of Master Blaster in last few years, then it can be easily observed that the God of Cricket has certainly lost his touch and he is not the same batsman who he used to be 20years ago or we can say 10years ago. There has been a drastic change in his performance over last few years. In last two years, Sachin has scored just 549 runs at an average of 26.14 in 22 innings of 13 Tests and the most amazing and shocking part is that he is yet hit a Test century in these 2 years.

The last century that Sachin hit was against South Africa in Cape Town on 4^th January, 2011 and if we talk about his last Test century in front of home crowd i.e. in India then the gap is even more. He struck his last century in India against Australia at Bangalore on 11^th October, 2010 i.e. nearly 3 years. All these stats clearly shows that there is something wrong with his batting technique or it is just his age which is taking toll on him.

So, now coming back to the question that whether he should retire or not, I will say that yes, he must.

He should go for the retirement as soon as the 200^th Test is finished because it will be an ideal and perfect moment for him to do so. He has to make way for the future of India i.e. for the youngsters like Ajinkya Rahane. I am not saying that these youngsters will come to Indian side and will start making runs and hit centuries from the first day but even if they will hit runs just like the way Sachin has hit in last 2 years or lets say they will play even worse but at least they will get the valuable experience which will help them hone their skills and get the required exposure and environment which is needed for any player to become a world class player and it will surely help in laying the foundation of new Team India.

I know all of the Sachin fans and lovers reading this are thinking of killing me or kidnapping me but I would like to say one thing to them that this is the reality they have to accept. They have to accept that “Every story has to come to an end one day no matter how good or bad it is” and hence He has to do this if not now then some other day but it will be good if he does so just after 200^th Test.