The question I wish to answer is why Tendulkar being a mortal, is a large than life figure for a billion Indians and the world over. It’s not about his records it’s about the man & his character.
1. A Role Model needed:
Sachin’s career in itself began at a stage when India was looking for a hero to make a nation believe that we are World beaters. Why I mention this is, as a nation we opened up the economy in 1991 and many believed the MNCs of the first and the second world will eventually eat up our domestic structure as we are too timid to compete.
Though it may seem irrelevant but Yes, India in the early half of the 90s was looking for someone to make us feel that we too can take on the world and in came SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR.
He tamed the Aussies at Perth, became the first overseas cricketer to play for Yorkshire and changed the mentality of opponents who felt Indians can only defend when he played a blistering 82 of 49 balls in Eden Park vs. the Black Caps in 1994.
He made us believe that we can compete, dominate if we believed in what we did. He developed craze for a non-sporting cultured nation to start respecting sports as a career of skills which if learnt & executed well can give you the returns you can’t even imagine. All you have to do is play the game with passion, be an obedient student of the game and rest will follow. This is visible when you see a kid while playing cricket asked “Badha hokay Sachin Bangega?”
2. A carrier of Billion Hopes::
It is a known fact when Tendulkar bats, a nation prays for him. His knock in 1998 Sharjah which famously got tagged as “The Desert Storm” is one of the 2 classics which he played back to back vs. Australia, considered to be one of the best ODI innings. They also made Tony Grieg who prior to the series wasn’t a Sachin fan become his admirer and as the rumors suggest Warney had “Sachin nightmares”
Much before Adidas had started campaigns such as “Beckham+10”. The Indian team played the most of the 90s as “Sachin+10”.
Douglas Jardine once said about the Australian public with reference to Bradman, the way things stood, craze & passion for cricket in Australia would equal to The Don, well had he seen Tendulkar he would have changed Australia to India.
Sachin lost his father during the 1999 WC, left for India but the team needed him and the great man flew back to England scoring a 140* vs Kenya at Bristol.
In 1999, India were chasing a target 0f 271 vs Pakistan and were tottering at 82/5 Sachin almost single handedly helped India win, with one of the heroic but a tragic ending knock of 136 where in the latter stages his back started giving away. Making him shift gears, leading his fall of wicket and when he got out India needed 17 runs with 3 wickets in hand! WE LOST, as RajSingh Dungapur who was present there said that Sachin was limping, he could barely stand at the same time he would not stop crying as he blamed the defeat on himself.
On the very same ground on 15th December 2008, India were chasing a mammoth total set by England and this time Sachin didn’t wanna see the repeat of 1999. He batted through an unbeaten 103, dedicating the win to the nation, which was trying to find a reason to smile post the 26/11 attacks.
Peter Rebouck beautifully describes the hopes Sachin carries “On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!”
3. Let the Performance do the talking:
If one glances at Sachin’s career, you will always notice he picks the toughest bowler in the opposition and attacks them, this to ensure batting becomes easy for the rest to follow. There have been many who had claimed to know how to get him out, he is scared of them and result was they were either hit for an upper cut,hooked out of the park for a SIX or the vintage Straight Drive.
It’s not only now when the term ENDulkar has emerged. In the 03-04 tour of Australia when the Master was consistently getting out playing outside the off-stump, was when ENDulkar began as he last scored a test 100 in 2002. Then came the performance of 241* in Sydney where he batted for hours leaving almost every ball outside the off-stump. Determined to perform determine to continue the Journey of TENDULKAR.
For Sachin this belief does hold true “Words are Words, Excuses are Excuses but only PERFROMANCE is REALITY”.
4. Never publicizes negativity:
We all know one of chief sufferers of the Chappell era was Sachin, demoted in the batting order, all talks of rifts and groups within the team were coming out and every time he spoke he kept repeating one thing that dressing room talks should stay within the dressing room.
5. Captaincy:
Was never the goal: Though his batting never got affected during his captaincy it may be due to not winning games in his twin tenure as India’s captain that the cliché for Sachin is used “One can’t have everything”. For me Harsha Bhogle described this attribute of Sachin’s career remarkably well he said that though Sachin is a senior member of the team, his passion for the game is like a kid who just wants to play and wants someone else to do the man-management job of captaincy.
Sachin has always been the go-to man for advice to every captain India has had whether it is snatching the ball to bowl the last over of the hero cup in 1993, promoting Pathan up the batting order during Dravid’s tenure or recommending MSD’s name when Dravid decided to resign as India’s captain. In team’s decision making Sachin has always played an integral part.
The most memorable, beautiful chapter in Sachin’s career has to be the WC2011. A long awaited desire of being a World Cup Winner was fulfilled. For a man who has almost every individual record the game has to offer, the joy of achieving the ultimate prize for the team was priceless.
For the past one year there has been repeated statements and questions raised on Sachin’s 100th 100. Many keep repeating don’t put pressure of that 100th ton on him! Well by talking about it aren’t you already doing the un-needful?
There has also been this campaign of promoting youth as that is the future which is very apt but you also got to find the right youth who can show a promise of filling in the big shoes of Sachin, Dravid,Laxman.
We are blessed to have witnessed the Golden Era of Indian Cricket, lets enjoy every ball they play coz like Dravid’s retirement one morning you will wake up to the news that you wont get to see Laxman & Sachin after the last xyz innings they played.
If you consider a player who’s been in the team for the last 7 years, played over 140ODIs and still you say you are GROOMING him for ODIs and Test Cricket, you also say his competence lies in T20 Cricket. In so many years he hasn’t learnt how to play a short ball, whereas the other who shows a lot of promise but keeps breaking them by playing careless strokes. Then I doubt the future we are trying to achieve.
A Virat Kohli commands respect for his performances and growth as a cricketer, to be able to stand up when no one has is being a special talent. We need more of that, but to make a new team India we don’t need to run over the men who have been involved in a process for the last decade for us to reach where we have. Let’s not make our Kohinoor the scapegoat for all the wrong that’s happened over the tours of England and Australia.
The reason I say this is coz we have a history of disrespecting our Heroes. There is no point of running Bharat RATNA campaigns for Sachin when the next moment all the news channels ask for his head. (Hypocrites)
I do understand that his career is coming to an end and keeping the future in mind he should retire but let him be the judge for when to call it quits, There have many who have disrespected a man who a billion worships as GOD.
Asking SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR to retire from CRICKET is like asking GOD to vacate the temple he resides in…
SACHIN A mortal, yet a GOD
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