AHMEDABAD, May 20: Sachin come back, the country needs you' is the appeal resounding through the city as sportspersons, cricket buffs and couch potatoes with a weakness for the game cling to the hope that India can still lift the World Cup.While the odds are now against India, Amdavadis are still pinning their dreams on the diminutive Tendulkar. He will be back, says passionate public opinion. And who knows, maybe even get his country and countrymen a place in the sun.``Sachin's presence is required in the two crucial matches against Sri Lanka and England. It is practically impossible to lift the World Cup if he is not in the team,'' says Shirish Buch, former Ranji Trophy player. Buch feels Sachin should be back. ``His father was very fond of cricket and I am sure he will be proud of his son if Sachin joins the match when the country needs him,'' he opines, emotionally.Says noted billiards player Rupesh Shah, who also happens to be a cricket enthusiast, ``Though we lost yesterday's match because the team did not play a professional game - with four runs to be made and four balls left, there was no need for shots - Sachin is necessary to face Sri Lanka and England. Kenya can be managed without him,'' he says, hoping the cricketer will do his duty as a sportsman.The shock of Ramesh Tendulkar's death and its ramifications have touched the common man also. Rickshaw driver Mayur is a depressed man. ``Unless Sachin comes back, we cannot get the World Cup,'' he says, adding that there is no one else in the team that the country can depend upon. ``Sachin has to come back,'' he says.A more optimistic Prafullaben Shah, 36, housewife, says cricket is a game of luck so she won't say it is impossible for the Indian team to win without the ace batsman. But chances of winning the World Cup are definitely less in the absence of Tendulkar. ``Though one would like to see him back on the field, I can understand that this will be difficult for him,'' she adds.Noted former cricketer Dheeraj Prasanna feels the rest of the boys should learn a lesson from Pakistan and South Africa, grit their teeth and give it their best shot. ``They can still win,'' he says. Bright-eyed and bare-foot Abdul Gaffar, 13, who works in a spare parts shop, believes the Indian team can still do it. ``I play cricket with the boys every Sunday at the Shahibagh Ground, I know the game,'' he says, dead serious. ``Azhar, Ganguly and Jadeja are good players too. We lost the match to Zimbabwe because they did not play well. If the team plays their best, it is still possible for us to lift the World Cup,'' he says.Unlike Abdul, a dejected Mohammad Yusuf, 35, barber at Empire Hair Cutting Saloon, says he has switched off his television set. ``The World Cup is out of our hands now, unless Sachin rejoins the game,'' he says. Opines an upset Jamil Sheikh, ``Sachin has to come back. He can sign Rs 35 crore marketing contacts; he had better spend some of that money in commuting now and doing something for his country''.If the instincts of Narhari Amin, president of the Gujarat Cricket Association, are to be trusted, then Sachin, the saviour, shall be back.``He may not play Kenya on Sunday but I am 100 per cent sure he will be there for the matches on May 26 and 29. The team can still lift the World Cup,'' he states, giving the city some reason to hope again.
