Sachin Tendulkar and the Hopes of the Nation

Shortly before he passed away the Australian Donald Bradman announced Sachin Tendulkar as the batter to whom he would most like to be compared. It is therefore fitting that at the age of 35 Tendulkar has become the highest run scorer in Test cricket. 

That Tendulkar has always maintained that if he played enough he would get the record is not a sign of arrogance but his acknowledgment of exceptional natural qualities. At only 35 it seems that he has been around for ever and this is due to an international debut at only 16.

Of his first international team-mates, a number have gone into the commentary box, another into films, one was convicted of murder, and another banned for life as a match-fixer.  On his first tour of England, Tendulkar batted against Eddie Hemmings who had started his first-class career seven years before he was born.

If there was a sense of inevitability about his greatness it has been shared by the billion plus cricket fans that see him as something extraordinary. That Tendulkar appears non-sensed by the expectations of a nation is a further testament to his incredible staying powers.

He plays the sport under the severest of pressures. The commentator Harsha Bhogle noted that every time he has dropped a notch, India has moaned. “We put up with corruption”, he added, “don't mind poor toilets, manfully live through terrorism but cannot allow Tendulkar, in the end just a man, to fail occasionally.”

For Suresh Menon Tendulkar holds a mirror to the nation. “When he fails, therefore, it is as if we fail.”

On top of the Test record Tendulkar has also scored a record 16,361 one-day international runs, making in total over 28,000—some 5,000 more than any other batter. In addition he has scored an unsurpassed 81 international hundreds. He has utilised such feats to become one of the world’s highest-paid sportsmen and nobody who visits India can miss the huge billboards displaying his image.

To question his integrity would be to criticise the very gods to which some compare him. During the match-fixing allegations in 2000 Raj Singh, the then head of Indian cricket said: “You know why I believe nobody can fix a cricket match. Because the only man good enough to influence a match on his own is Sachin and he would never even consider doing it.”

Yet there has been controversy such as when a Test series was abandoned in South Africa seven years ago after he was caught fiddling with the ball.

However, it is his remarkable dedication to cricket that has impressed watchers of the sport. A rough calculation estimated that he averages over 200 days in a year travelling for cricket, playing it at the highest level, or practising it.

That he got the record against Australia was appropriate, for whilst he is considered one of the greatest of his era, there is no debate over the team of the last decade. Whilst VVS Laxman has been the irritant, and Rahul Dravid the most obstinate, Tendulkar’s is the most treasured wicket for the Aussies.

Earlier this year in Australia, he got a standing ovation at every ground he played on and returned the gesture of respect by scoring 494 runs in the series.

There will be other players who will have their claim to being the best over the last 30 years. Brian Lara, Alan Border and Sunil Gavaskar have all held the record for Test runs, Ricky Ponting has the greatest opportunity to surpass it. To my knowledge, none of Tendulkar’s rivals also held the record for one-day runs, with more certainty I can add that none has held the hopes and aspirations of a nation in the same way as Sachin.