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You get batsmen who are exceptional when they’re 16. You get batsmen with amazing wrists. You get batsmen who choose their shots well. You get cricketers who are fit and dedicated to their sport. You get cricketers who can cope with the downs and who come back stronger. You get cricketers who can last for 20 years.
You never get all of this. Except if you are Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
The most amazing thing about Sachin is not his batting records. We have harped long enough about that, but it is his sheer longevity that is exceptional. The genius has lasted 20 whole years in an era when India wasn’t exactly struggling for classy batsmen.
We forget that the man scored his first ODI century in his 78th match. We can’t be blamed, for he has racked up another 44 since then, and has 87 overall in Tests and ODIs combined.
Yes, the batting is more methodical than cavalier now, the body stiffer and weaker, the reflexes maybe not as sharp, the speed maybe a little less, but that desire, oh no, it still burns as glowingly as an Olympic torch in full flame. It is an almost childlike enthusiasm that he brings to the game.
Sachin Tendulkar was a prodigy. Ever since he lit up the Harris Shield with mammoth scores about 23 years ago, he was earmarked for great things. The fact that he has lived up to those huge expectations, and for so long, is testament to his sheer genius. Even more than that, he has played the game the right way, keeping his head above the frills and controversy that have courted so many of his contemporaries. He has played the game in the right spirit and maintained his dignity throughout. He might not have gone to college, but his views are articulate and held in as high a regard as any.
With 87 centuries in all forms of cricket to his name, it is hard to pick a single Tendulkar moment, and I shall not even try to do it, for this is more a tribute to the man than a statistical analysis. It is fair to say in any case that he is the single most analyzed cricketer in the history of the game.
That the man has never let his success get to his head is quite a remarkable achievement. We only need to look at what happened to his great mate Vinod Kambli, who incidentally had a much better start to his test career than Sachin, only to fall as fast as he had risen. The fame was too much for him, and perhaps that led to his freefall into obscurity.
No such problems for Sachin. That the whole of India still expect so much from him, a whole twenty years since he graced the world stage as a curly-haired 16-year-old schoolboy facing up to the likes of a blood-searching Waqar and Co., says a lot about the man’s ability. Indeed, he is nothing short of God to many.
His 175 the other day was magic. It seemed as if he had a point to prove, and it was India of the 90s revisited—Sachin carrying the team on his own, and the team falling like a set of 9-pins once he got out. He literally turned back the clock 10 years and more during that knock—and to think that a couple of years ago, people were questioning whether he still had it in him.
How were they even qualified to ask such questions? Well, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, those whose opinions matter least are the ones with the most damning opinions, but as I sit here in my university dorm room here in Vancouver, my 19-year-old heart tells me there are still a couple of good years left in the little genius.
But then, who am I to judge how long he has left in him? He has transcended culture, religion, national borders, and all sorts of barriers in his singular pursuit of perfection, and pardon me if I am wrong, if there was ever anything close to perfection in batsmanship, he is IT—the defining icon in the game for the last 20 years, in which he has thrilled crowds and driven people to the edge of reason, and beyond.
Sachin is getting older, and we might not see much more of him, but we should savor his genius while we can, for Sachin is not just a cricketer—he is an icon, a legend, a life…
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