Years of Sachin—A fan’s tribute

As Sachin Tendulkar enters his third decade in International cricket, praises and tributes are pouring in from all corners of the globe. As someone who has worshipped Sachin, I feel privileged to be able to voice my thoughts about someone who I feel has changed the face of Indian sports. This tribute is from a fan’s perspective who has watched his idol only through the 21 inches of a TV screen….

It was the season of 2004. India was playing against Pakistan in Pakistan after a long time. Virender Sehwag, with a triple century behind him, was at his brutal best. Yuvraj Singh, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were all going great guns and were the toast of the nation. I was sitting in a crowded hostel common room in anticipation of another India- Pakistan thriller. The excitement in the whole room was palpable as India decided to bat first. As usual, Sehwag started belligerently. At the other end was
Sachin Tendulkar, who was supposedly passing through a phase which was labelled as a slow run-getting period. Whenever Sachin defended, the whole of the room got annoyed. Some experts even suggested “Iska time ho gaya….Ise nikal dena chahiye”. After playing a relatively sedate innings, Sachin got
out. Immediately, the entire population of the TV room became less than half. The people who were rebuking him, and in fact wishing he were out, had also started leaving. What an anticlimax! More so because India had a strong batting line up to follow. That is precisely when I smiled. Because I knew,
whatever they have said before was just because they loved him so much that they couldn’t watch him perform even on an average note. This, in short, is the story of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

Each day of his life he has gone out to bat on behalf of millions of Indians. He can’t always satisfy them. Sometimes he fails because, after all, he is human. His fans beg to differ. For them he is God and God can’t fail. No other Indian has brought more smiles on the faces his countrymen than
Sachin Tendulkar. No other Indian is followed more closely than Sachin Tendulkar. No other Indian icon has managed to fulfil the expectations of billions over such a long period of time. This is because no other Indian is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. He is every mother’s ideal son, every coach’s ideal
student, every wife’s ideal husband, every aspiring cricketer’s ideal role model and every nation’s ideal Brand Ambassador. No other man represents India as a whole more than Sachin Tendulkar.

As this living legend steps into his 21st year of International Cricket on November 16th, let us travel down memory lane to relive the exploits of a man who has made a billion countrymen follow his every movement on and off the cricket field. As I write, I realize that Sachin Tendulkar is not
a person, he is a tale. He is a real life “Folk hero”. It does not matter whether you are in Itanagar or in Gandhinagar …nor does it matter whether you are protecting the country’s frontiers in Kargil or enjoying a peaceful time in Kanyakumari…when Sachin bats, every Indian presses the pause button on the remote control of his life, no matter wherever he is, and sits glued to the TV screen to watch an artist execute his craft. This is what Sachin has done all these years, and even 20 years after he first played for his country, still amazingly continues to evoke the same response from his countrymen.

In order to understand what sort of an impact Sachin has had on the game of cricket, let me trisect his career: Pre-20’s, Post 20’s and Pre-30’s and finally Post 30’s. He started off as a teenage prodigy and is the only cricketer to have scored five test centuries before turning 20. This stage is where I equate him with Boris Becker. His post 20’s and pre 30’s was a period when, for most of the time till the arrival of Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, the fortunes of the Indian team practically hinged on Sachin
Tendulkar. This is where I equate him with another one-man team –Diego Maradona. For most sportsmen who have started their careers as teenagers, post 30’s means time to retire. But not if your name’s Sachin Tendulkar. His batting has in fact evolved with age, with a sense of romance sprinkled over every shot that he plays. This is where I equate him with the legendary Michael Schumacher who won an astonishing 5 World Championships after turning 30. Thus, if the overall equation is to be understood, the effect becomes mindboggling. Any sportsman will be fortunate enough to pass through any one of these three phases. Sachin has glorified all three of them.

Many teen prodigies have come and vanished with the burden of fame. But to transform a career from a teen prodigy to a living legend over the course of two decades requires more than just talent. It requires whole hearted dedication and a passion for the game. Sachin Tendulkar has done that for 20
years now and still continues to do so. After dividing his career into three glorious phases, it is difficult to pick which one has been his prime. Superlatives will take a backseat when the person they have to be attached to is Sachin. Sometimes when I watch the people around him, I feel amazed at the extent of time for which Sachin has been around. The present coach of the Indian team, Gary Kirsten, started playing in 1993, 4 years after Sachin and retired in 2004. Its 2009 and Sachin is still going great guns. He still manages to pull off masterpieces at this age, the latest in this chapter coming in one of the greatest one day innings of all time in the recently concluded one day series against the World Champions. India agonisingly lost the match by 3 runs, with Sachin scoring a staggering 175 of the team’s total of 347. The very fact that the rest of the team put together couldn’t score what he scored alone made the 90’s resurface once again. It actually sounded like a bad omen for India. But internally, as a Sachin fan, I was happy…because I could once again take pride in the fact that India was truly dependent on her most trusted son.

It requires a herculean task to end an article about Sachin Tendulkar because there are always so many things to be written. But if I start writing all of those, even a book won’t suffice. As India celebrates Sachin’s glorious career, I wish that this little champion of our modern times continues to enthral us with his wizardry. Whoever the cricket world declares to be the greatest cricketer ever, we as Indians will always feel that Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest player to have ever played the game. Rahul Dravid had said “On the off side, first there is God, and then there is Saurav Ganguly.” I am just rephrasing that: “With a cricket bat, first there is Sachin Tendulkar, and then there is God”.