CRICKET!!!

Who care about March Madness when you've got Asian Cup Cricket!!! Especially when your bracket looks like mine does after yesterday. But that's a story for another time. In the 11th edition of the Asian Cup, cricket powers India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are squaring off in a round robin tournament with the top two teams meeting once more in the final next week. It's already been an exciting tournament as Pakistan has clinched a spot in the final and Sri Lanka is on the verge of missing the finals for the first time in the tournament's history (dating back to 1984). But the big story so far has been Sachin Tendulkar. If you were one of three people who actually followed our extensive 2011 Cricket World Cup coverage, he's a name you're probably familiar with.

Photo Credit: espncricinfo.com

The 38 year old Indian batsman, who stands all of 5'5" became the first player to score one hundred centuries (100 or more runs in match) in Test and ODI matches organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC) when he went for 114 runs against Bangladesh on Friday. The century snapped a 33 match streak in which he'd failed to move on from number 99, the second longest drought of his extensive career. Still, it should not diminish what he's accomplished. Only one other player has even broken 70 and that's Ricky Ponting of Australia with 71.


Featuring on India's National Team since 1989, Tendulkar is the cricket equivalent of Pete Rose (minus the gambling controversy). He is the all-time leading scorer in both test (15480 runs) and ODI (18374 runs) matches and he was India's leading batter in the World Cup as they defeated Sri Lanka for his first Championship in six tries. There's not much left to accomplish for the Little Master, and some speculate he's probably close to hanging them up. Once he's gone, we'll likely never see another player quite like him and most of his records will probably never be broken.


Tendulkar and India take on Pakistan tomorrow in their final game of the round robin portion of the tournament likely needing a win to advance to the tournament finals. India is the tournament's reigning champion having defeated Sri Lanka in the championship game back in 2010.