Cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar is supporting a non-profit initiative,‘Spreading Happiness’, to provide cheap, efficient and eco-friendly electrification in the rural areas in the country.

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar has brought light into the lives of over a thousand residents of Velunje village, in Nashik.

Last Diwali (2012), the villagers were selected for a pilot project to provide electricity through free solar home lighting kits, courtesy a non-profit initiative, ‘Spreading Happiness’.

Encouraged by the pilot project results, now Schneider Electric India will offer similar benefits to over 25,000 villages across the country which are still living in darkness, to mark Tendulkar’s 40th birthday Wednesday.

The initiative took shape when Tendulkar was introduced to Schneider Electrics’ “In-Diya Lighting System”, an innovative, affordable and flexible solution to bring reliable, efficient and green lighting to people living without proper electricity access.

“In-Diya is a specially designed LED-based lighting system that operates on main power supply and/or solar power. It provides a backup of eight to 15 hours for indoor use with 50,000 hours of lighting across its life-cycle,” said an official.

Aware of the challenges faced by many Indian villages, Tendulkar expressed a desire to Schneider Electric top-brass to take ‘In-Diya’ to the “real India” and light up the lives of people living in darkness for years.

“Sachin Tendulkar and Schneider Electric India have come together for ‘Spreading Happiness’, a non profit organisation, to provide access to rural electrification by installing solar home lighting systems for the benefit of over 25,000 villagers in India,” Schenider Electric said in a release.

The initiative has already rolled out a pilot project in Nashik (Maharashtra) and is currently impacting over 1,000 villagers, it added.

Commenting on the initiative, Tendulkar said: “As a country, we cannot have our citizens still struggle with darkness in their lives with the setting of the sun. We have to use advancements in technology and the capabilities of international majors like Schneider Electric to deploy solutions which can brighten the lives of our countrymen.”

‘Spreading Happiness’ is a small step towards changing lives and bringing smiles to the faces of many people in the country, he added.

Country president, Schneider Electric India Anil Chaudhry, said that its BipBop programme — implying Business Innovation and People at the Base of the Pyramid — is a sustainable one to bring safe, clean electricity to the most needy people.

It has carried out similar projects for people off the electricity grid in other countries like Nigeria, Senegal and Madagascar.

Source – MidDay 

Mumbai: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, on Friday, said that Sachin Tendulkar will stand tall against England and Australia later in the season.

Tendulkar’s dismissals in three successive Test innings — all bowled — against New Zealand have set tongues wagging but Ganguly insisted the maestro wasn’t done.

“Although he did not get runs against New Zealand, he was not seen to have any slowness in the way he got out. This was not the only time he was bowled in successive innings. He was out bowled in the peak of his career too. But Sachin is a big match player, a big team player. He will stand up against England and Australia. People talking about his retirement will hurt him. But a player as big as him knows. Having played with him, you tend to believe that it is still not over with him. Whenever he goes, he will go on a high. It should be the way for any player and more so for the great man,” Ganguly said after delivering the Dilip Sardesai lecture here.

When it comes to Tendulkar, Ganguly knows a lot better than most. The Mumbai maestro has, of late, been picking and choosing tournaments. He skipped the tour of the West Indies last year, and chose to sit out of the ODI series in Sri Lanka recently. Prior to the Test in Hyderabad, Tendulkar last played for India in Adelaide at the start of the year.

Asked if the gap between Tests was too long, Ganguly said, “It depends on him. He knows his game more than all of us. Also, he is not getting any younger. He cannot play all the formats of the game. Maybe at the start of the season, he could play one-dayers, he has the liberty to pick and choose. It is about the right tournament at the right time.”

Adelaide: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly says Sachin Tendulkar should end his last series against Australian by getting his 100th international century in Adelaide, the city of legendary Don Bradman.

Tendulkar was batting on 12 and Gautam Gambhir on 30 as India were 61 for two in their first innings in reply to Australia’s 604 for seven declared after the second day’s play of the fourth and final Test at the Adelaide Oval.

Ganguly said a lot will depend on Tendulkar and Gambhir to save the Test for India.

“It has Tendulkar and Gambhir at the crease — two players who have looked good in the series — and it will be up to them to take India forward. India has a lot of distance to cover. It needs two hundreds to get close to Australia’s total.

“It could be Tendulkar’s last Test in Australia — a country in which he has earned the biggest respect, and very rightly so — and the little champion has a massive opportunity to finish Down Under in a good fashion. I don’t know whether the burden of 100 centuries is weighing him down but a 100th hundred hit in the state of Sir Donald Bradman would be fitting,” said Ganguly.

Ganguly said in a country where Tendulkar is hugely respected, all eyes will be on him, not only for himself but also to see his team through.

“The stage is set — perfect batting conditions on day three of the game and a lot to play for,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by The Age.

Ganguly said Australia in no way can lose the match and gave credit to Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke to take the hosts to a commanding position.

“It was a fantastic display of batting yesterday by Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke and they have put Australia in a commanding position. When a team scores 600 runs in an innings in a Test, it normally shuts out one result – a loss for that team – and leads to only two results – a win or a draw for that side,” he said.

Ganguly was surprised to see the decline in stand-in captain Virender Sehwag’s determination.

“Sehwag once again got out to a loose shot, as we say in sports. There has been a remarkable decline in his determination in the last few years overseas. He has never been a player with lot of footwork but he made up for that with other attributes, such as his enormous hunger to succeed. At the moment, it looks like being on the decline. In the past, he has treated such deliveries with disdain but somehow he has managed to get himself out to ordinary deliveries,” he said.

Ganguly also wondered how Rahul Dravid is getting bowled out in all the Tests.

“For Dravid, the problem of the ball rattling the stumps continues. I can’t remember him getting bowled so many times in his career and it’s becoming a worry for him and a lot of people connected with the game.

“He just seems to get surprised by the deliveries coming into him and the bat face turns, which allows the ball to go through. That fluency of the footwork has gone completely missing and he will have to work very hard to get it back,” he said.

At the end of the day, I'm a fan - perhaps cynical, irreverent and bitter, but a fan nevertheless. And the first characteristic of a fan is to believe - to believe in his team, to believe that the team will beat the odds, to believe that despite all the indicators pointing to a mauling, his team will emerge victorious. So I'm going to put my head aside and use only my heart in writing this piece.

I'm a fan of the individuals in the team. I grew up around the lore of Sachin Tendulkar from my days on Shivaji Park. I was the insider in my college dorm, who knew Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli because I had seen them in the nets and seen them bat at close range. I knew from friends how the coach treated them differently than others and I used this insider information to gain credibility among my cricket-mad dorm mates.

We dreamed huge for Tendulkar. We believed he would break all the records. I wanted him to break the highest individual score – first held by Gary Sobers and then by Brian Lara. I wanted him to score more triple centuries than anyone else. I wanted him to bat like the cricketers I admired in those days - Alan Border and Steve Waugh. Rallying the team in a crisis and inspiring the rest of the team to raise its game. I wanted him to be the best, most ruthless captain that India ever had. In many ways, Tendulkar did more than just this, but I began to sulk because he didn't specifically do what I had dreamt him doing.

When he failed in Barbados chasing 120, I felt terrible. When he fell just short of beating Pakistan at Chepauk, I felt let down. When Shoaib Akhtar got him for a duck at Kolkata, I was sure there was some mistake. When he crawled to 194 with Virender Sehwag at Multan and didn't up the pace to help with a declaration, I was mystified. When Tendulkar was not shepherding the tail at Sydney in 2008 and going after the Aussies, I was downright angry. I didn't realise that Tendulkar was always himself and that he had done nothing wrong. He simply didn't fit into what I had dreamt about him.

But Tendulkar has done much more than be an individual great. He has inspired an entire generation of cricketers in India to bat big. Gautam Gambhir, Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara and to a certain extent – Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman are all products of the Tendulkar inspiration. Not just this team, but every Indian playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is really batting like Tendulkar batted in his early days - with the freedom of a child. Sending the ball into orbit like Tendulkar did against Abdul Qadir in that festival match on his debut series.

This team is a product of Tendulkar's inspiration a team that has delivered the first 50-overs World Cup victory in 28 years. This team that held the No 1 ranking for a year and has won more away Tests without a genuine fast bowler than any other team. And yet, I am sulking because Tendulkar hasn't met my expectations.

What has happened recently to the Indian team is that normal service has resumed. Tendulkar and other seniors have done their job and it's getting close to the end of an era. Will there be another golden period like this? Most likely not in the next 10-15 years. We are likely to see a middling performance from India as it sorts out its future. As players make it to the team, flatter to deceive and are then dumped. Because we will judge them with the Tendulkar test, the Dravid test and the Laxman test. And no one is likely to come close. It will be another 8-10 years before we get over that. We didn't take too long for the next Sunil Gavaskar, because Sachin Tendulkar came along almost immediately. But another Tendulkar is not likely to happen.

So what's wrong if we want to make it last a little longer. What's wrong if we delay the sunset? And what's wrong if we hope for one more encore at Adelaide?

The odds may not be in favor of India winning or even drawing. The odds may not favor Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman turning things around. The odds may favor the Australian speedsters. But I believe that Tendulkar will get his 100th century in a win or draw in Adelaide. That he will deliver a giant rearguard and an inspirational swansong in Australia....with Dravid and Laxman in a great support act.

Here's hoping that Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman will leave Australia with their heads held high with an encore that will erase all the bitter memories of the recent past. The series is gone and I don't care anymore. I am hoping for one more great memory to treasure from the troika of India's greatest batsmen.

ADELAIDE: Completely enamoured with Sachin Tendulkarin the present series, Australian batsman Michael Hussey feels it’s “inevitable” that the Indian icon would get his 100th century in due course.

“He has played brilliantly. Watching him closely, his footwork, the time he has and the straight bat, both off the front and backfoot, he’s playing really well. If he continues it’s inevitable,” said Hussey as he shaped up for the final Test at Adelaide, beginning on Tuesday.

“That’s the way batting goes. Sometimes you are playing well but one ball, one mistake and you are back to the pavilion. I am sure to his own mind he is batting well, his bat is as broad as ever at the moment,” Hussey added.

Tendulkar hasn’t got his desired 100th century from the first three Tests of the summer and his wait has only got extended to 10 Tests and 19 innings so far. But Hussey has only admiration for the iconic cricketer as described him as “cricket god” in India.

“I don’t know what he is going through mentally. I haven’t scored 99 centuries though I would love to be in that position and feel the pressure. I have admired him how he’s gone through his whole career. To score consistently at such a long period of time, deal with external pressures is amazing.

“He is a cricket god and yet how he handles himself in India, in a cricket-mad country, where just to walk on the street means being mobbed by thousands and thousands of people…to handle all this and put it aside and perform for India for over 20 years in international cricket is just amazing,” he said.

“He must be such a strong person mentally. I hope he bats well but his 100th century comes in the next series, not this one.”

The Indian team is drawing criticism for what is being described as lack of intensity in training but it found unlikely support in Hussey, who said the visitors are experienced enough to do well without long net sessions.

Australia lead the ongoing four-Test series 3-0 and the Indians have been roundly criticised by former players such as Sunil Gavaskar for not being intense enough in their training sessions.

Even though Australia’s practice sessions have been noticeably intense, Hussey didn’t think that the Indians were lacking in any measure.

“Indian players are so experienced, they know their games so well, they know what they need to be ready. I don’t feel laying down a few markers necessarily means (preparing better). It comes down to an individual (how they could) give off his best,” Hussey said.

It’s apparent each Australian bowler has bowled with extra zip in the nets. Hussey said it’s not just the bowlers, it’s the way Australians have looked to train under new coach Mickey Arthur.

“I don’t know if that’s the motivation. Since Mickey Arthur has taken over, there is a bit of a goal to raise the bar in training standards. The intensity, throughout this summer, has been very high.

“Whether fighting for last place or not, I expect all guys to maintain intensity.”

Another Indian cricketer for whom Hussey has a lot of praise is fast bowler Ishant Sharma who he feels has bowled without luck in this series.

“Ishant, if anything, has picked up little bit in pace from some spell I’ve faced from him in the past. He regularly touched 150 in a few of the spells in Melbourne. He bowled with real pace, at least early in the series but he bowled without luck.

“In the first two Tests, he beat the bat on numerous occasions. But the rub of the green didn’t go his way. He has bowled well, may be 50-50 things haven’t gone his way. Sometimes such things shape a series,” he said.