My heart really goes out for Sachin.. had he been part of team like Australia or even South Africa, his greatness would have been perceived and appreciated in a much global way.
Sachin is not a match winner.. tell me one player who is?? No body can win a match on his own. He needs support from his teammates. This is perhaps the reason that players with half or even a quarter of Sachin's brilliance command a "match winner" tag. The prime reason being their 40's & 50's & 60's count. Sachin's exploits on the other hand added to his individual tally only. Sachin hardly received any support from team India. I still remember I used to say if Pakistan could score 180+ Wasim and Waqar would win the match for Pakistan. I've myself seen many matches were 180+ and so was a winning total. Pakistan was hard to beat. But neither Indian bowlers had performed to defend nor other batsman have had supported Sachin. He was supposed to bat India out of trouble almost every time.
Sachin did his best to deliver the performance desirous of him. But it takes two to tango. Atleast two. Saurav did supported Sachin on the batting front for long and also Rahul but that was it. Who can forget, we were unable to score 20 odd runs after Sachin got out against Pakistan. Such a shame.
I pray Sachin if is re-born as a cricketer, may he be born in any country other than India.