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ulagappugazhA?
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ulagappugazhA?
:lol: :thumbsup:
Quote:
Originally Posted by P_R
past 40 posts, not even one thing written on sachin/cricket...
kid, af :clap:
nobody can stop you once u have committed to spoil a thread :notworthy:
Ok, You want stuff. Here take it/ :smokesmirk:
March 21, 2012
Tendulkar and Chennai
S. RAM MAHESH
His training at the MRF Pace Foundation, his famous centuries at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, his rehabilitation from career-threatening injuries… there are many reasons why a mere mention of Chennai brings a warm smile to the master blaster's face
Bombay, as it was then, birthed and formed Sachin Tendulkar, but Chennai's influence on the great man has been no less significant.
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THE CENTURY MAN: Sachin Tendulkar at a practice session at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium. File photo
A 14-year-old Tendulkar arrived in Chennai in 1987 with dreams of bowling seriously fast. Only, Dennis Lillee didn't see a fast-bowler in the short, slim, curly-locked kid, and dissuaded him from considering it as a career. “That was the first time I saw him,” says T. A. Sekar, who assisted Lillee at the MRF Pace Foundation for three decades. “Dennis saw him, five-foot nothing, and thought to himself, ‘No chance'. We spoke to Vasu Paranjpe, who had sent these boys from Bombay, and it was he who told me that Sachin was already a very good batsman, but only an occasional bowler. When Dennis tells the story these days, he jokes, ‘I rejected Tendulkar'.” Tendulkar was back at the Pace Foundation a year later — this time to bat. “The wickets were fast, we had Vivek Razdan who was sharp and Dennis himself was in peak shape because he was thinking of a comeback,” says Sekar. “Dennis would have been among the fastest bowlers in India at that time. Initially, Sachin found it difficult. He took a break, stood behind the nets and watched the others bat. After half an hour, he told me he was ready to bat again. In just that time, watching from behind, he had judged the pace and bounce, and found a solution. He played Dennis so confidently, middling every ball, and he hit Razdan into the railway tracks (behind the Pace Foundation). Dennis called the bowlers to a huddle and said the only chance was to bounce Tendulkar. But he batted for about 45 minutes and never looked in trouble.” Shortly afterwards, Tendulkar made his Test debut in Pakistan. It's a stretch to say Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis came easy to the prodigy after his stint at the Pace Foundation, but there's no doubt the exposure to quick bowling helped.
Chennai welcomed Tendulkar, the Test cricketer, like an old, affectionate friend: he made 165 against England in 1993; not only was it his first Test century in India, it remained his highest score for nearly two years. His next Chennai century, in 1998, is better remembered, for it featured the battle between world cricket's finest batsman and its foremost bowler. Aware of the problems Shane Warne could pose, Tendulkar trained with L. Sivaramakrishnan in Chennai, getting the former Indian leg-spinner to bowl to him on a doctored pitch. Warne won round one, but Tendulkar's unbeaten 155 in the second innings, during which he repeatedly attacked the Australian, set up a famous win.
His next century at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium was every bit as dazzling, but it ended in teary heartbreak. Tendulkar's 136 took India to the brink of a remarkable victory against Pakistan in 1999. Defeat shattered him, but Chennai wouldn't forsake Tendulkar. He found redemption in 2008, guiding India's astonishing chase against England not long after the terrorist attack in Mumbai. These hundreds and his 126 here in the third Test of the magical 2001 series remain close to Tendulkar's heart. They were singularly cathartic. A Test century is enough to make a batsman fall in love with a city, five is soul-mate territory. Consider that Chennai was also where a vital part of his rehabilitation from career-threatening injuries took place, and it isn't difficult to see why a warm smile lights up the Master's face every time he is asked about the city.
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From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012
COVER STORY
In the realms of divinity
We are too close to Tendulkar to be able to say, as we should, that he is the greatest batsman in the history of the game, greater than Bradman, greater than Hobbs, greater than anybody. This is the tyranny of proximity. By Suresh Menon.
Sometimes a person reveals himself best in someone else's unguarded comment or spontaneous gesture. One of Bangalore's iconic writers, the late P. K. Srinivasan was fond of telling the story of walking up the city's Brigade Road and being struck by the expression of those walking towards him. “The awe in their eyes was unmistakeable,” he would recall, “but the focus was over my shoulder.” He turned around and understood why. For he was looking at the regal presence of C. K. Nayudu, India's first Test captain.
The chances of Sachin Tendulkar walking down Brigade Road unmolested are slim, but I had a similar experience, literary where Srinivasan's was physical, while commissioning essays by some of the finest writers in the game for a book on Sachin.
“Why don't you do a different kind of a piece?” I asked some of them. “Highlighting some of the drawbacks of the player and the man?” The responses were interesting. And you must remember many of the writers are hardened veterans on the circuit, with larger than normal doses of cynicism in their attitude having seen feet of clay more often than the average cricket fan.
Yet, apart from a passing remark about Tendulkar's refusal to get involved in the big debates of his time — match-fixing, throwing, excessive cricket — there was nothing. Someone who had once written a piece cutting Don Bradman to size felt it was going against his grain to write similarly of Tendulkar. Another who had strong views on Tendulkar was startlingly honest: “Hey, listen,” he told me, “I need to live in India, you know.”
Somewhere between lack of evidence and refusal to acknowledge it stands the maker of one hundred international centuries. It was Mike Marqusee who brought about the great synthesis in his essay when he wrote, “For non-Indians, the joy of Tendulkar comes unadulterated.”
What manner of man is this who can do no wrong, and if he does, no one wants to talk about it?
Forget the statistics, the records, the influence, the longevity, the sheer consistency as a performer; Sachin Tendulkar appears as a modern Gandhi, the person the rest of the nation aspires to be.
Bishan Bedi, better known for comparing bowlers to javelin throwers and dacoits, has called Tendulkar a ‘Maryada Purushottam', the ideal man, arguing that the player's true predecessor is not Bradman but Lord Ram. There is something about him, says Bedi, that invites the protective arm around the shoulder. Perhaps that is why there are no dressing room stories that make Tendulkar sound more human — no broken bats, no temper tantrums, no broken television sets, no scraps or foul language.
There are two ways of ensuring such an image. You can have a publicity machinery that is always working in top gear — as in the case of Tiger Woods — or you can be that kind of a person, one who genuinely believes what in other mouths would sound like platitudes. The joy of playing, the importance of doing it for the country, feeling bad when you fail because you have let the team down, giving more than one hundred percent.
Now that he has made a century of centuries, and a whole set of articles in appreciation is set to add to the fan's feeding frenzy, I am tempted to offer a prize to anyone who has something new to say about him. His statistics are probably better known than the significant portions of the Indian Constitution. As the Pakistani writer Osman Samiuddin has said, “In recalling a Sachin Tendulkar moment, it must be acknowledged that there is no small, hidden gem somewhere that others are unlikely to have seen, like the single of a cherished band recorded during lost days available only in B-side bootlegs. His great innings, his great failures, his great shots: put together, everyone remembers everything about him. There is no exclusivity in the Tendulkar experience.”
What a wonderful line that is. There is no exclusivity in the Tendulkar experience. What he doesn't want the world to know, the world will not know. This is the other remarkable aspect of a man so continuously in the public eye. His family gets to live a private life, his children are not thrust into the media spotlight. Then there is the business of letting the odd journalist who crosses the line know that falling out of favour with Tendulkar is not a good career move.
The novelist Manu Joseph has a lovely story of Tendulkar walking bare-chested on a beach in Durban during the 2003 World Cup and being snapped by an Indian photographer. “I heard (Sachin) tell the man, only partly in jest, that if he wanted to continue in the media business, the images should never leave his camera,” writes Joseph.
There is something absurd about being Sachin Tendulkar. No single person ought to be subjected to so much; however, no single person has handled it so well. The adulation, the pressure of expectation might have destroyed a lesser man. It was said of Don Bradman that if he cut himself shaving, it was front page news. For years it was news if Sachin shaved at all. And then he stopped shaving, and that became news too.
When you score over 30,000 runs with the same enthusiasm and commitment every time you go out to bat, it is beyond discipline, beyond spiritualism even, and in the realms of divinity. Perhaps Sachin Tendulkar is a god, after all, as the posters at so many of his matches proclaim.
“When I started playing, I was determined not to let down the 20-25 people who followed my game,” he once told me, “My family, close friends, and so on. I wanted them to be proud of me. Now I feel the same way about the one billion Indians. I want them to be proud of me.” Ah! Well, that's simple then. Twenty five yesterday, one billion today. It's only a difference in degree.
We are too close to Tendulkar to be able to say, as we should, that he is the greatest batsman in the history of the game, greater than Bradman, greater than Hobbs, greater than anybody. This is the tyranny of proximity.
But there is something about that unique century of centuries. If that doesn't automatically place him above everybody else, what will? We must hurry up and let the man know.
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From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012
CRICKET
Another incredible milestone
Ever since Australia's Charles Bannerman scored Test cricket's first century against England in Melbourne in March 1877, the three-figure mark has defined a batsman's aura. It is the yardstick that secures or tears reputations and none can ever get bigger than Tendulkar at 100 international centuries. Over to K.C. Vijaya Kumar.
Indian cricket has gifted many classic vignettes, which are too exhaustive to chronicle. The obvious few are Kapil Dev's toothy grin while holding aloft the 1983 World Cup; Sunil Gavaskar's late cut off Pakistan's Ijaz Fakih to become the first Test cricketer to score 10,000 runs in Ahmedabad in 1987; and M.S. Dhoni's steely eyes and the winning six in the 2011 World Cup final in Mumbai.
On March 16, a feat of staggering proportions was added to that list and it is a record that will stand unique and alone in the sands of time, much like Sir Don Bradman's Test average of 99.94. Whisper ‘a hundred international hundreds', may be say it aloud, and then get surprised by the sudden intake of breath while the words linger.
Yes, the wait was finally over when Sachin Tendulkar nudged Shakib Al Hasan for a single at exactly 17.05 local time, at Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on a bustling Friday. Once the tryst with history was sealed during the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh, Tendulkar raised his bat, looked at the skies, removed his helmet, broke into a half-smile and then Suresh Raina wrapped him in a hug and a few Bangladesh players rushed in to congratulate the legend.
Prior to that incandescent moment, Tendulkar's drought of centuries lasted 33 innings that spread across Tests and ODIs played in India, England and Australia. Incidentally Tendulkar scored his 99th international ton, a glittering 111 against South Africa, in a World Cup game in Nagpur, on March 12, last year.
Over the past few months, an overwhelming sense of anticipation hung in the air but the hundred proved elusive and the larger picture of a struggling Indian team in England and Australia, made it worse. “I tried to insulate myself from the hype but even the room-service (guy) used to ask me,” Tendulkar said.
Once the feat was achieved, destiny again moved in strange ways as Bangladesh mounted a frenzied chase and knocked down India's 289 for five. Ever the team man, Tendulkar refused to take the bait on India's poor bowling. “Australia scored 434 and still lost to South Africa!” he retorted.
The hints of merging feverish hopes and pleasant reality were visible in the confident shots and the easy singles that Tendulkar indulged through his 114 (147b, 12x4, 1x6). A six off Shakib, showed that the fifth gear was not beyond Tendulkar's reach though he did slow down a bit when nearing his century. Fortune too was by his side as on 51 and 89, he avoided being stumped and getting run-out respectively.
A man, who as a lad walked into an Indian dressing room that had the likes of Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar in 1989, strung partnerships with youngsters like Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina on way to his special hundred. The varied generations he has played with just reiterated Tendulkar's sheer cricketing longevity and an overwhelmed Kohli said: “As a kid I used to go to the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium to see Sachin play. Then I used to think, ‘if only I can get close to him just once then I can be on top of the world.' And now I am playing with him and it's truly a privilege.”
Later at a packed press conference hall, while struggling to grasp the enormity of what he had achieved within the constricting confines of India's shocking loss, Tendulkar said: “It was a relief. I am also human and I have my emotions. I don't play for records but they do happen during your long journey of playing cricket. I want to do well for the team and that has been the main goal.”
The next day, a relaxed Tendulkar told the press: “I wish I had someone to guide me. The anticipation (within the media) about this hundred was way beyond anything else.”
Ever since Australia's Charles Bannerman scored Test cricket's first century against England in Melbourne in March 1877, the three-figure mark has defined a batsman's aura. It is the yardstick that secures or tears reputations and none can ever get bigger than Tendulkar at 100 international centuries. It is a record that could last forever considering modern day batsmen are spreading themselves too thin across Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 leagues so much so that the 20-year blue-chip career may ebb away with Tendulkar's eventual retirement.
The final chapter though is yet to flicker across the maestro's brain. “As long as I am enjoying the game and I am contributing to the team, I will play,” he said. With 51 Test hundreds, 49 ODI tons and the added gold standard of being cricket's highest run-getter, most records are his but Tendulkar's hunger to compete remains undiminished. It is his greatest trait and also his finest gift to the Indian team.
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From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012
CRICKET
The greatest of them all?
From his tip-toed square cut to his imperious hooks and pulls as well as his deft legside pushes and his cover drive, Sachin has been the complete batsman. By Ted Corbett.
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Sachin Tendulkar in full flow in Sydney. His unbeaten 148 was a classic knock during the 1991-92 Test series in Australia.
Unique. It's the only word; it fits Sachin Tendulkar exactly. According to my dictionary it means “having no like or equal.” True, because from that day in Mirpur when he made his 100th international hundred off the Bangladesh attack he has stood alone, proved he had no equal, with his record in his pocket forever.
Not only is a total of 100 international centuries unlikely to be equalled, much less beaten, in the foreseeable future, but it requires a considerable effort of imagination to see how anyone can come near to this feat.
Unless the laws change which is not impossible as cricket grows more like baseball day by day. Unless another genius arrives on the scene. Unless the standard of bowling changes dramatically and that seems unlikely now that DRS has become an accepted part of the game.
Fewer and fewer batsmen benefit from hesitant umpires making bad decisions, lbw is on its way to being the most popular dismissal and even on the truest pitch a great batsman may be caught out.
No. What is known already as Sachin's Record will stand forever. At the moment only Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis are within binocular distance of his feat and they are close to the end of their careers.
That is the way it ought to be. One great record; one great batsman.
I have been watching Sachin now for almost a quarter of a century, since he scored that hundred at Old Trafford which set him on his way to his place among the gods.
Then he was a shy lad, barely out of short trousers or a schoolboy's blazer but he batted with such maturity that you did not have to be a student of human behaviour to know that wonderful things lay ahead.
A couple of years later we met as he joined Yorkshire. He was still diffident — certainly by the brash standards of the Yorkshire side that greeted him with demands that he spend his captain's expenses to buy them all a beer (even though he was not captain!) — but mature beyond belief. “I am sorry Mr. Corbett but I cannot answer your question because I did not understand it fully,” he said to me at one stage. How different from the words I might have expected from an English player who might have given it — “come on, Ted, what do you mean by that?”
He was ultra-polite to the dismay of the Yorkshire captain Martyn Moxon who told me: “He doesn't say much. I expected him to dominate our dressing room.”
That was just evidence that Yorkshire had never had an overseas professional before — particularly a young Indian — and that Tendulkar had never been in an English dressing room before.
“When I were a kid, our dressing room was like a parrot house,” one ex-Yorkshire star told me at about that time and that, I guess, is not quite what Tendulkar expected.
In the last 22 years of 188 Tests and uncounted one-day matches Tendulkar has, of course, grown wiser but he has never chosen to try a summer in county cricket again.
There was another occasion I will never forget and which, once again, I suspect Sachin will remember all his life.
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He played one of his great innings in Australia, finishing among the tail-enders with a blaze of strokes, a sophisticated, cricket-sage climax to a sublime knock.
When the Indian innings ended two Australians — Merv Hughes, whose bowling had been the target of Sachin's late flourish and Dean Jones who had been fielding 60 or 70 yards from the wicket — ran hard to catch up with him as he marched back to the pavilion, and shake his hand.
I know both of these men well and know them to be — for all their outward hard man image — fine sportsmen but in that gesture they added a cubit to their stature because they recognised the talent that had been exposed in, of all people, an opponent.
As the poet has it “E'en the ranks of Tuscany could scarce forbear to cheer” and you could sense in that moment that it was not just the fans and the media that were admirers of this new Little Master but the men who were his rivals.
From his tip-toed square cut to his imperious hooks and pulls as well as his deft legside pushes and his cover drive, Sachin has been the complete batsman. Like all the greats he has learnt new techniques over the years, changed his way of batting to suit the circumstances and the pitches and picked up points from the other grand masters.
His size was as much an advantage to him as Curtly Ambrose and Joel Garner used their height. Batsmen of the Tendulkar size where common when the laws were first written and so he could deal more easily with length bowling, knowing that shorter stuff would usually fly over his stumps if not soar above his head.
So era, the circumstances, his innate ability, the way the game was played in his day have all contributed to his success. He has batted and learnt and offered us the product of genius and good advice and hard work and become one of a kind.
He is unique, an immortal, and with 100 centuries for India, perhaps the greatest of them all.
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From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012
CRICKET
Resilience is his middle name
Sachin Tendulkar has fought back from injuries, many of them serious in nature. The back problem that surfaced during his epic hundred in a losing cause against Pakistan in Chennai in 1999 tested his resolve, but he came back stronger. By S. Dinakar.
V.V. KRISHNAN
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Fighting spirit… India's batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar pulls Pakistan off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq on way to his century at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai in January 1999. Sachin's back problem that surfaced during the epic knock tested his resolve.
It's astonishing that Sachin Tendulkar has shouldered the enormous weight of expectations of a countless people for what now appears an eternity. His strength of mind and the precious ability to insulate himself from the surrounding pressures have been formidable allies in his conquests. The maestro's commitment gleams like headlights on an unlit highway.
Tendulkar has fought back from injuries, many of them serious in nature. The back problem that surfaced during his epic hundred in a losing cause against Pakistan in Chennai in 1999 tested his resolve. Tendulkar came back stronger.
Years and years of relentless cricket do leave scars on the body. Tendulkar survived serious fitness concerns between 2004 and 2006 when a tennis elbow and a shoulder injury threatened his career. Along the way, he evolved and adjusted his game to overcome the physical roadblocks. For instance, when he was grappling with the back injury, Tendulkar began using a comparatively lighter bat. When he was bothered by the tennis elbow, he became even more bottom-handed and almost completely cut out the cover-drive. This was a phase when he relied on his on-side shots for a majority of his runs. And when the shoulder injury surfaced, Tendulkar eased up on the pull shot that could have aggravated the problem.
Indeed, he has a mind that can find solutions and a flexible game that can execute plans. When in full flow, though, years fall away as Tendulkar conjures timeless classics with brush strokes of genius; the arena is often his canvas. Despite an illustrious career of milestones, cricket's most successful batsman has retained a great sense of humility.
He said to this writer during an interview, “It basically boils down to your passion for the game. Without passion you cannot play. I have retained my passion for the game. I have asked myself the tough questions. I love the game. I enjoy my cricket.
“There are a lot more distractions and how the young cricketers handle it depends on the players themselves. I think the young cricketers must respect the game. By this I mean, your team-mates, the opposition, the fans, the officials, the umpires and the ground staff. If you develop that respect for the game, everything else will fall in place.”
Importantly, he said, “I also feel you have to be a good human being to evolve as a cricketer. Cricket is just a part of your life.”
Not surprisingly, he asks himself the tough questions. He must have answered many as he shut his eyes for those precious seconds he found for himself in the middle of a mayhem following his 100th international century in Dhaka.
During his astonishing journey, Tendulkar has blended power with finesse. He can also run like a hare during the later stages of an ODI innings. He is an explosive athlete.
Tendulkar has, over the years, displayed a heart larger than his frame during crisis situations. His batsmanship defines technical perfection but he has steel in his bones. Former India opener Navjot Singh Sidhu recalled how Tendulkar, during his maiden international campaign, had left him astounded by his courage. It was the tour of Pakistan and Tendulkar, just 16 years old then, faced a barrage of short-pitched deliveries from fast bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis without wilting. He took blows on his body, shed blood on the pitch, but refused to leave the crease. Watching the compelling action from the other end, Sidhu was convinced that a star was born.
It didn't take much long for Tendulkar to don the cloak of a match-winner in the cauldron. When he missed matches due to injuries, the Indians desperately missed Tendulkar and he missed being in the thick of action.
Despite the passage of time and the years of playing the game taking a toll on his body and mind, the man remains a genius on the field. His caresses under the afternoon sun still seem like a magic; a maestro's legerdemain.
There could be a cover, a mid-off and a sweeper cover, yet Tendulkar would bisect the field with exquisite timing and placement to find the fence. On view would be a heady amalgam of footwork, balance and last-minute adjustment of hand and wrists as the ball is driven through the slender gap, past desperately diving fielders.
Staggering numbers are often associated with Tendulkar. But then, his batting is not about numbers alone. It's a thing of beauty.
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From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012
CRICKET
Exceptional and human
Sachin Tendulkar's contribution to the game is monumental. His longevity is a tribute to his fitness and his commitment a glowing testimony to his passion for the game. By Vijay Lokapally.
Cricket is a team game, but Sachin Tendulkar is a phenomenon who carries the team on his shoulders. He plays cricket on his terms and the game too offers him a rare pedestal. Forget the comparisons. Does it matter who is the greatest — Don Bradman or Tendulkar? Bradman loved Tendulkar's batting and the modern Don revered the original master. The admiration was mutual and spoke volumes of their stature.
Tendulkar's reaction on reaching his 100th international century was poignant. “After scoring 99 tons you are made to realise the value of a hundred. It's not easy, it was a testing period, but there were many people who helped me. I've never played cricket for milestones. While playing, I have ended up breaking a few records, but that was never my goal. I play cricket just because I enjoy the game. The 100th hundred was the most difficult,” he said.
Tendulkar's contribution to the game is monumental and cannot be documented in the space of a few hundred words. His longevity is a tribute to his fitness. His commitment is a glowing testimony to his passion for the game. He may have faltered a few times but then he is a human. “I am not God. I am Sachin Tendulkar,” he said in Mirpur. It was a message to his fans.
Indian cricket owes a lot to this magnificent sportsman. “I have seen from close the pressure he faces,” Sourav Ganguly had remarked. The pressure begins many hours before a contest. The demands of the game are such that they make it tougher for him. He can't afford a failure. Often he has delivered, but there have also been occasions when he has failed. Those are moments when he needed support but sadly he has often found himself lonely.
He is private in person but very expressive on the field. He will talk to the bowlers, run to the fielders, set the field with over-excitement, bite his nail in despair, exclaim with joy, give high fives and all. He can be the most demonstrative person on the field and a complete recluse off it.
Tendulkar's devotion to cricket is unparalleled. “Impossible to keep him away from the game,” reckoned Virender Sehwag. Sitting in the front seat of the team coach and glued to music, he keeps his thoughts to himself. But during a training session or a match he is completely focussed. He always replays the preceding day's play in his mind and makes notes mentally ahead of the day's contest. His mind is always pre-occupied with cricket.
If Rahul Dravid was a perfectionist, Tendulkar was an architect who believed in flawless construction of an innings. True, he would build on the ‘lives' he has earned, but his strength always comes from his reading of the situation. The ease with which he can adapt to a situation is quite remarkable.
Acknowledged for his awesome talent, Tendulkar honed his skills through hard work and hours spent in the nets. This discipline is what sets him apart and leaves a lasting impression on the young generation. “I have learnt a lot from following his work ethics,” observed Virat Kohli.
There has not been a better advertisement for the game than Tendulkar. He will not shy away from helping a youngster and he will never disappoint a fan. I have seen Sachin slam a policeman at the Kotla for pushing a kid. It has been a pleasure to watch Sachin exhibit amazing patience when obliging fans at the ground, hotel and public functions.
Sudhir Kumar is a simple soul from Muzaffarpur in Bihar. He can always be spotted at cricket grounds, his body painted in Indian tricolour and with ‘Tendulkar' written on his back, and waving the National flag. He symbolises the Indian cricket fan and the affection for the master batsman. A match ticket from Sachin's personal quota is Sudhir's right. It goes to show how Sachin values his supporters.
“I have seen him enjoy his time with fans. He is at his best with kids,” reminisced V. V. S. Laxman. He is at his best with the common cricket supporter. He has a huge following among the elite, with the corporate and commercial world chasing him day and night. Tendulkar, however, has his priorities in place.
Tendulkar's influence on the cricket world is huge. The respect he commands from his opponents is enviable. The admiration from his well-wishers is equally overwhelming. Watch him when mobbed. You will find no trace of irritation, panic or concern on his face, for Sachin Tendulkar knows he is in safe hands when surrounded by his fans.
A doting father and a caring husband, Sachin is quite a family man. In the dressing room and on the cricket field, he is an exemplary statesman who brings dignity and eminence to his profession.
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From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012
CRICKET
Never a dull moment when he is around
Like a most masterful actor, Sachin has slipped in and out of multiple roles with delightful ease. From vanquisher to protector, crafty constructor to lone ranger, messiah of the masses to tragic romantic, he has played it all. By Arun Venugopal.
S. SUBRAMANIUM
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Sachin Tendulkar is congratulated by Johan Botha of South Africa after his double century in the second ODI at the Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior on February 24, 2010. Sachin was the first batsman to score a double hundred in ODI.
The colossal shadows of truly great men transcend the realm of time, victory and defeat. Such men not just alter the course of an isolated event but carve out their own epoch. Sachin Tendulkar has done that on several occasions in his enormous career. When pieced together, each of his legendary innings has assumed greater significance in the larger context. While, often, it has been a revelation of his character, it has also suggested shifts in the cricketing paradigm. Simply put, some of his best works have stretched the contours of the game.
Like a most masterful actor, Sachin has slipped in and out of multiple roles with delightful ease. From vanquisher to protector, crafty constructor to lone ranger, messiah of the masses to tragic romantic, he has played it all. What's more intriguing is Sachin has done all this without sacrificing his inherent boyish appeal at the altar of greatness. For that reason alone, he remains a national darling.
Despite the promise of everlasting youth, Sachin, almost ironically, came up with some of his most mature portrayals in his 20s. In January 1999, Pakistan engaged him in a many-on-one combat in Chennai in what was to later become a historic Test match. Already crippled by a searing back pain, Sachin soldiered on endeavouring to quell a daunting challenge. On the day, he resembled the mythical warrior Abhimanyu, who found the odds stacked against him. Like Abhimanyu, Sachin had cracked the code to enter the maze but coming out of it unscathed was never going to be easy.
The Indian team of the 90s, not a healthy sight for the weak-hearted, was too dependent on the little master for its own good. The predictable collapse occurred and that oft-quoted catchphrase ‘Sachin falls, India falls' came true. Defeats such as these have left Sachin devastated once too often. That they have a sense of poetic poignancy to them would be no balm to his permanently-scarred self.
In May during the World Cup that year, Sachin had to fight a personal battle. He had to fly back home after learning of his father's death. Immediately on returning from the funeral, he slammed an unbeaten 140 against Kenya in Bristol. Kenya may not be the toughest of opponents but the sheer inner trauma that Sachin had to overcome made the knock a truly special one.
Rewind to Sachin's earliest hundreds — the maiden ton, an unbeaten 119 at Old Trafford (1990) and 114 in Perth in 1992 — and his precocity is palpable. Much to the marvel of observers, a baby-faced batsman confronted some of the world's fiercest bowlers. And, there was no question of merely surviving the attack; Sachin dominated the best in the business. Labels like ‘boy wonder' and ‘prodigy' were easily bestowed. The tough part was living up to the expectations as many of these ‘prodigies' had fallen by the wayside.
But Sachin would have none of it; whether such acclamations even registered themselves with him is another matter. One of his many great qualities over the years has been the ability to adapt and re-model himself. There are critics who may argue that Sachin isn't the same rat-a-tat machine gun that he once was. Then again, that's been a part of his evolution, especially after the growing influence of the Dravids and Laxmans. Sachin, however, has never been averse to defying stereotypes and proving people wrong.
His double-hundred in an ODI against South Africa in Gwalior in February 2010 was myth-shattering from that context. India had warmed up famously to that irreverent swashbuckler Virender Sehwag. This, along with the rise of other young batsmen, meant that the spotlight was no longer merely on Sachin. This probably helped the great man as he went on to achieve what everyone thought would be Sehwag's record as a matter of right. Though Sachin isn't inclined to chest-thumping exercises, it was probably his way of saying ‘I am still the boss'.
That Sehwag was second only to Sachin in accomplishing a double ton in ODIs puts things in perspective.
Another monumental innings of his in recent times gave him the once-familiar heartache of personal accomplishment and collective disaster. In 2009, an explosive 175 against Australia in Hyderabad didn't translate into victory for India. In a career spanning 100 centuries (and counting), Sachin has witnessed emotions that have swirled around madness, ecstasy, deep-rooted pain, and liberation.
The famous ‘desert storm' in 1998 in Sharjah was the picture of Sachin in his pomp. While Shane Warne and Australia learnt things the hard way, Sachin's proclivity to decimate attacks remained one of its kind — probably the most nerve-crushing since the days of Vivian Richards.
For all his feats, Sachin has often been accused of not winning enough games for India and failing at critical junctures. This is, even as, his fans would argue that he seldom received support from the rest of his colleagues. The truth, as is the case in many things in life, lies somewhere in the middle.
This monkey was well and truly tossed off the back when Sachin struck an in-the-trenches century against England in Chennai in 2008. The horrific memories of 1999 were erased and life had come full circle. The hundredth ton, by comparison, was a tepid affair relatively speaking. His crawl in the middle stages came in for much criticism but that is for another day. For now, let's celebrate the creation and re-creation of an entire generational shift.
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