Sachin Tendulkar: The Jewel in India's crown

14th Aug 1990. The second Test of the series between England and India. India, already one down in the series after a heavy defeat at Lord's, are tottering on 107 for four on the last day of the Test. Over 60 overs to go in the day's play, and four top order batsmen back in the pavilion. In comes a 17-year old teenager, whose baby face makes him look even younger. The English bowlers are smelling blood and they are on rampage. Three overs later things get worse for India as their captain Azharuddin is gone. The England team have one hand on the series trophy --- or so it seemed. Every Indian on the planet is thinking that the Test match is as good as lost. Everybody --- except one that is. The 17-year old curly hair from Bombay is standing on the burning bridge, between England and victory. He decides to set up a camp there, digs in, entrenches himself, and after the dismissal of Kapil Dev, keeps the English bowlers at bay all day for almost 55 overs. He finds a diligent partner in Manoj Prabhakar who is willing to stay put for a few hours. The young boy sees India through to the end of the match, playing a vintage innings. The Test match is saved. As if hitting 68 in the first innings was not enough, it's 119 not out in the second innings for the new teenage prodigy after the entire nation had absolutely given up all hope. Not a difficult task for the adjudicators to decide who would be the Boy of the Match. I mean, the Man of the Match. A heroic performance from the curly-haired wonder kid who announced himself to the world on that day. SACHIN TENDULKAR HAD ARRIVED !!!!!

What is the mathematical probability that in a country of one point two billion people there would emerge one player who would play 200 Test matches over the next 25 years, be better than any other batsman in the vast country, be unchallenged for a position in the Indian team in the batting slots, and still be good enough to play more even after spending two and a half decades in the country lineup ? I presume no calculator, calculus theory or advanced mathematics would be able to come up with the precise answer. The very thought of trying to evaluate this in your head would send one to dizziness and cause waves of unbelief and awe in oneself.  For the mathematically obsessed, that is 1 out of 1,200,000,000.  We are trying to unravel and understand this marvel who goes by the name of Sachin Tendulkar.

Born in the Indian megatropolis of Bombay, Tendulkar has been a symbolic and inspirational figure and has dominated the game for an astonishing quarter of a century. There's an aura about Sachin Tendulkar in India and around the cricketing globe that is unmatched by anyone else. That he is the centerpiece of any cricketing discussion tells only part of the story. He has been the game's pre-eminent batsman of the modern era and has taken the art of batting to unimaginable heights. Tendulkar has been everything and has every attribute that you could think of ---- belligerence, ruthlessness, calculated innovation, exemplary courage, sturdiness, discipline, adaptability, consistency, resilience, longevity, domination, and has exhibited extraordinary physical endurance and mental toughness during a long and illustrious career. His insatiable appetite for scoring runs has helped Tendulkar scale the pantheon of the greatest batsmen to have played the game. Tendulkar at his peak had, more than any other batsman I have watched, the ability to confront and play the ball rather than the bowler, to zone himself in and keep away all the myriad distractions. There was always that touch of serenity and Zen-like monk about him: each shot not forced, but the inevitable response to the challenge thrown by the bowler. Tendulkar has irrefutably been the Don of the post-Bradman era and his place is firmly entrenched in history among the greatest batsmen of all time. Nobody, nobody on this planet should grudge his standing and the adulation Tendulkar has received in the Indian panorama. I suppose he was the right man playing the right sport at the right time in the right country. After all, you cannot think of any country other than India where cricketers are treated like superstars by a billion people and more.

Legend has it that Sachin Tendulkar was a big fan of John McEnroe and had keenly watched the 1981 Wimbledon final between McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.  Sachin seemed to have imbibed, from the maverick tennis star, the quality of raw aggression, severity in dealing with opponents and a never-say-die attitude.  Yet there were certain characteristics that McEnroe offered that were undesirable.  His opponent Bjorn Borg, in that 1981 final, offered just the opposite.  Tendulkar left out the negative traits from his hero, and instead picked up certain positive characteristics from the five-time Wimbledon champion Bjorn Borg --- the ability to stay calm in the middle of a storm, and the refusal to show the turbulence within.

Tendulkar was to come up with a delightful innings of 148 not out in the Sydney Test against Australia in 1992 on his first visit to Australia. The experts were gushing over his outrageous talent, class and caliber. And more was to come as Tendulkar came up with a delightful knock in the Perth Test, an exhilarating innings of 114 on a lightning fast pitch, playing the Australian fast bowlers McDermott and Merv Hughes with nonchalance ease even as everyone around him struggled to put bat to ball. It was at this point of time, as Tendulkar admits that he started believing that he could take on, play with and compete against the best in the world in the cut and thrust and unforgiving environment of Test cricket. It was at some point of time during this innings that Merv Hughes the Australian speedster remarked to his captain Allan Border that Tendulkar was going to score more runs in Test cricket than him i.e. Border. And Allan Border was at the fag end of his grand career netting 11,174 runs in Tests. Didn't Hughes's prediction come true, after all ? The irresistible precocity of the Little Master was taking the cricketing world by storm. Tendulkar's stocks were rocketing into the stratosphere. Chapter 2 of the Sachin Tendulkar novel was taking shape.

Sachin Tendulkar came up with fighting performances every now and then. Who can ever forget Tendulkar's assault on Shane Warne in the Chennai Test of 1998 ? When India began their second innings 71 runs in arrears, everyone expected them to cave in. But Tendulkar would have none of it. He unleashed the mongrel in him and went on an all out marauding on the Australian bowlers, hitting them to all parts of the ground on his way to a swashbuckling unbeaten 155. And Tendulkar had driven Shane Warne to despair and to a point of no return !!!

A month later Shane Warne had still not recovered from the humbling and trembling experience at the hands of Tendulkar, and crumbled to Sachin Tendulkar as the latter caused thunderstorms in the Sharjah deserts by first slamming 134 in a qualifying match and then did an encore, singlehandedly taking on the strong Aussie pace and spin attack to take India home to a comprehensive victory in the final to win the Coca-Cola Cup. If you have not watched the videos of these two innings, you have missed out on something very important in life.

Most people remember the 2001 series between India and Australia (perhaps the "Greatest Test series ever") as one dominated by VVS Laxman and Harbhajan Singh for their 494 runs and 32 wickets respectively. However Sachin Tendulkar did come up with one of his blistering knocks in the third Test in Chennai, a crucial 126 and combined with his trusted team member Rahul Dravid in a partnership of 169, helping India to a crucial first innings lead of 110 which ultimately proved decisive in a tense chase in the fourth innings. And this after having topscored for India in both innings with 76 and 65 in the lost Mumbai Test, and having taken the wickets of Hayden, Gilchrist and Warne in the Kolkata epic as India waltzed to an unbelievable victory. If I had played Test cricket and taken only two wickets, that of Hayden and Gilchrist I would have been bragging about it for a long time !!!!

Tendulkar often came up with some defining innings against attacks that were among the best in the world. The 169 he scored in the company of Azharuddin in the 1997 Cape Town Test against South Africa was one for the purists. Immaculately placed straight drives were a feature of his innings, driving the newspapers to go gaga over his class and his stamp and domination of the South African attack. Weren't the South African crowds lucky to have witnessed such a masterclass from a master even if it was against their own country ?  Much later in his career, in 2010, when he was nearly 37, Tendulkar was to come up with yet another incredible innings against South Africa in a ODI in Gwalior, a brilliant 200 to show the world once more that age had not dimmed his reflexes nor had his appetite for the big moments diminished as he slammed the world's premier fast bowler Dale Steyn, taking on deliveries bowled outside the off and thrashing them to the leg side.  And in the process became the first man to score a double century in a ODI.

Another unforgettable innings that comes to mind was the 193 that Tendulkar scored against England at Headingley in 2002. Towards the end of Day two, Tendulkar and Ganguly refused to take the umpire's offer to walk away for bad light, and instead rained sixes and fours, destroying the England bowlers to the tune of 96 runs off a mere 11 overs towards the end of the second day. On a sidenote, one of the spectators in the crowd tried to do what the England fielders could not i.e. he tried to catch the ball when Ganguly hit a six and ended up with the ball hitting him on his head and blood pouring out. If someone had taken away Tendulkar's bat and asked him to bat with a hockey stick on that day it would not have made any difference to the withering onslaught the English bowlers suffered.

Can anyone who saw it ever forget Tendulkar's massacre of Shoaib Akhtar in the 2003 World Cup match at Centurion when he ambushed Pakistan with a coruscating 98 off 75 balls ? Watch the ferocious square cut six that Tendulkar hit off Akhtar in the second over of the Indian innings, you will never ever see such a unique and innovative stroke in your lifetime. Given the moment, given the occasion, given the situation, that was as good as anything that Tendulkar could give Shoaib Akhtar. Tendulkar had this ability, to use the pace of the ball generated by the bowler, to his own advantage. On a somewhat related note I can never forget Tendulkar's uppercut stroke against Brett Lee in the 2007-08 Perth Test, as also the uppercuts he played off the bowling of Mitchell Johnson on his way to 117 not out and 91 in the two finals in the Commonwealth Bank ODI series soon after to help India win the tournament. It was strange and amazing that a product of Bombay was playing such strokes because traditionally Bombay always produced players who were from the orthodox school of batsmanship. A key note that Sachin Tendulkar mentioned about one of the secrets of his success in tackling bowlers in all conditions was this: "Always see the ball early, play it late". Tendulkar offered a new vocabulary to India's batting template. His batting went against the grain that we had been used to over the several decades that India had been playing Test cricket. Maintaining perfect balance, a still head, immaculate timing and placement, Tendulkar's batting was a marriage between art and science.

A standout feature of Tendulkar's career was his tendency to save his best for the greatest team of his generation. Very few batsmen have consistently got the better of Australia over the last three decades, but Tendulkar was clearly one of them. His two stunning hundreds on his first tour of Australia in 1992 announced him as a special talent, while his Boxing Day century in Melbourne in 1999 showed the gulf between him and the rest of the Indian batsmen, as if he was batting on an entirely different pitch as against his other ten colleagues. Tendulkar came up with some breathtaking innings in India against Australia in 2008 and 2010, slamming a century in Nagpur and a double century in Bangalore, ruining Ricky Ponting's ambition of winning a Test match in India, and leading the charge for India's victories. Tendulkar reached his century in Bangalore in style, moving from 93 to 99 and 99 to 105 off consecutive sixes, launching the ball into the orbit and into the crowd off the bowling of Nathan Hauritz. I am not sure what made Tendulkar hit sixes in the nineties but perhaps he wanted to send a message to his son that he i.e. Tendulkar was following his son Arjun's advice to hit a six and thereby avoid denying himself a century when he was in the 90s. There was also the small matter of running up scores of 88 in the 2008 Mohali Test and a more-than-useful contribution of 98 in a low scoring match in the corresponding 2010 Mohali Test, both matches resulting in victories for India. I am sure most people would remember the 2010 Mohali Test victory for the come-back-from-death recovery staged by Laxman and Ishant Sharma to help India eke out a one-wicket victory.

Sachin Tendulkar with Don Bradman in 1999

Nineteen years after his debut Tendulkar was still not yet completely done with Australia, blazing away to 150 plus scores in Sydney and Adelaide in 2007-08. Tendulkar had a special liking for Sydney or so it always seemed. Three centuries on that ground, all big ones including a double century. However I reckon his Adelaide century in that series usurped the Sydney ton for sheer elegance and quality of strokeplay. I recall watching the 153 Tendulkar hit in the Adelaide Test and cannot remember one false stroke played in the entire innings. One particular six that Tendulkar hit, that resides in my permanent memory, was the one off Clarke that landed on one of the trees encompassing the picturesque Adelaide ground. In the course of this series, and particularly in this innings, Tendulkar laid to rest all the floating theories and press whispers that he could not read Brad Hogg's left arm spin.  On the contrary, Tendulkar destroyed whatever Brad Hogg threw up by hitting him out of the ground, and out of the attack as well.  It was a delightful century, and at the end of the day's play during the interview one could see the sparkle in Tendulkar's eyes when he mentioned that Adelaide was one place in Australia where he wanted to do well and that he had done it on that day. There was something indiscernible, something magical and intangible about this particular innings that I cannot put my finger on. I presume it must have been very special for Tendulkar because he was scoring a century in Don Bradman's residential city, and whom he had met during the tour in 1999. For me personally this was one amongst Tendulkar's top five finest knocks in Test cricket and I honestly don't think even Tendulkar would disagree with me on that. Running the Australian fast bowlers Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark ragged, and in destroying the spinners Brad Hogg and Michael Clarke on his way to 153 off a mere 205 balls and that too in a Test match, Tendulkar left his indelible mark on Australian soil. How many players can score 153 out of 205 balls even in a one-day international, let alone in a Test match ? During the second half of Tendulkar's career Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman also showed their immense liking for the Australian attack and filled their boots against McGrath, Warne, Lee and and Gillespie but Tendulkar was the one player who sustained his performances and flourished against Australia through more than 20 years.  On a statistical note, Tendulkar toured Australia five times --- 1992, 1999, 2003-04, 2007-08 and 2011, and scored at least one Test century in every series except in 2011.

Sachin Tendulkar's exploits against Australia were not confined to Test cricket.  He came up with some stunning performances in ODIs even towards the last three or four years of his career.  The one innings that people still talk about with awe is the brilliant 175 off 141 balls in Hyderabad in 2009 when he went on an all out assault chasing a mountain of 351 to win, and brought the team closer and closer to victory with every stroke but India fell agonisingly short by three runs despite Tendulkar's epic.

Even at forty years Tendulkar would run like a hare to stop the ball running into the boundary, and continued to be blessed with a boyish image and infectious enthusiasm that has uplifted one and all and given immense pleasure to all of us who love the glorious game of cricket. One specific instance that is always etched in my memory is Tendulkar celebrating wildly after catching Simon Katich off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh in the 2008 Mohali Test. I would be very surprised if I were to speak to Tendulkar some day and he is not able to recall that particular catch and the thrill he experienced in doing so.

Sachin Tendulkar's statistics are truly staggering in a glittering career that spanned like 24 years and was spread across about ten countries in the two hemispheres. He maintained consistency over a very long time, except for minor blips, once in 2006 and towards the fag end of his career in 2012 and 2013. Most batsmen, over a career of 15 years generally encounter serious drops in form on at least four or five occasions but Tendulkar was always the exception to the norm. Tendulkar's amazing returns in figures go a long way in doing justice to the appetite he showed for the contest which was better demonstrated than advertised. It is a fair reflection for someone who embraced and exhibited an essential, undiluted reverence for the sport.

For 25 long years Sachin Tendulkar enthralled his fans with his gorgeous straight drives past the bowler, paddle sweeps, delectable cover drives, the flick off his pads and the immaculately placed on-drives through midwicket. It gave the cricket fans immense pleasure to see the full flowering of the lavish batting talent that was announced in a spectacular way at Old Trafford, and began gaining momentum in Sydney and Perth, as I mentioned earlier. When it came to Sachin Tendulkar's batting it was all about elegance, sublime grace and poise. Sachin Tendulkar was born to bat. The way Tendulkar used to build an innings, getting into his rhythm quickly and then unleashing his range of shots all over the ground, was a treat for spectators all over the world. The dexterity of his stroke play, the ability to adapt, the willingness to make subtle fundamental changes in his technique to keep abreast with the ever changing demands of the game have been the solid ground on which a mighty successful career has been built. Carrying the enormous hopes of a nation of a billion people, for such a long time must have been a herculean task but Tendulkar was equal to the task. When Tendulkar batted the whole nation came to a standstill. Whenever Tendulkar went out to bat the whole crowd would raise from their seats and applaud him. For a cricket crazy India, anything less than a century from Sachin would be regarded as a failure. Tendulkar carried the burden of the aspirations of a billion people in a land whose embrace of the game of cricket is like no other sport in any other country in the world.

Despite all the stardom and adulation he received Tendulkar carried himself with dignity right through his career and has been a model sportsman. Tendulkar enjoyed tremendous success but he always had his feet firmly planted on the ground. He is an iconic figure not only because of whatever he achieved but because of how he conducted himself in the eyes of the common man. Tendulkar showed what could be achieved in cricket and in life. Nothing would demonstrate these attributes better than his farewell speech after Tendulkar had played his 200th and last Test. He remembered to thank everyone who had helped him during his career, including his brother Ajit and team members, but Tendulkar did not forget to thank the photographers who have clicked pictures all through his career and have provided him images of his batting. And the most poignant moment of the day was when Tendulkar walked down to the Mumbai pitch, touched the ground and took the blessings, treating the 22 yards as a temple, and acknowledging the stage that has made him what he is.  And I have not yet come to another, perhaps the most emotional moment in his life that transpired in 1999.

I wish to mention another personal side of Tendulkar that everyone in the world got to see during the 1999 World Cup in England.  A couple of days after India had lost to South Africa, Tendulkar received the shocking news of his father's death.  He had to fly back to India, and a few days later, upon his mother's advice decided to come back to play for India.  And he duly slammed 140 off 101 balls against Kenya, despite the mental anguish of having lost a parent a few days before, once again proving his commitment to the team and to the game which had given him so much.  A century dedicated to his father Ramesh Tendulkar who had guided him through his protege years.

Coming back to his farewell speech, Tendulkar once again demonstrated his signature qualities: humility, grace, composure and simplicity. In his memorable farewell speech, Tendulkar did not regale us with stories of his batting achievements, or describe to us his endless batting sessions. He did not try to tell us who the greatest fast bowler or spinner was that he faced, or the batsman he admired most. All he did was to thank a number of folks -- family, friends, teammates, cricket administrators, coaches, physiotherapists -- who taught him cricketing skills, propped him up, motivated him, healed him, gave him time to play, and in more ways can be enumerated, made Tendulkar's career possible. We can only hope that his stirringly earnest attitude, words and deeds, and mutual respect for team members and to the public will rub off on the new generation of cricketers who will be the torchbearers for India in the coming years.

It's been a wonderful privilege watching Tendulkar bat all these years. It would have been like mission fulfilled and accomplished if our dear man were to play yet another magical innings as he approached the last two Test matches of his playing career. It would have been poetic justice and symmetrically appropriate if Tendulkar had signed off in his hometown Mumbai with a fairytale century finale to provide the icing on a wonderful career. That it did not happen was a little disappointing but Tendulkar still showed his redoubtable class in compiling 74 in the first innings of the Mumbai Test, in what turned out to be his last innings in Test cricket. He came close to the century everyone was egging him on but a minor lapse in concentration gave it away. It was a vintage Tendulkar innings with exquisite straight drives and cover drives and Tendulkar demonstrated one last time what India would miss when he was gone. When Tendulkar started his trudge back with a heavy heart and waved his farewell to the crowd it seemed like darkness had crept in.

Here is an extract from what was going through my mind, on the first day of the Mumbai Test which was Tendulkar's 200th and last Test:

"Here it is. The dreaded day has arrived !!!!! The day that I hoped I would never come to see the rise of the sun and to never see its setting in the evening either. The day that Sachin Tendulkar would start playing the last Test match of his incredibly long, illustrious, formidable and fabulous career. We are no longer going to see the Indian crowd of 90,000 waiting for the second Indian wicket to fall. After this Mumbai Test we will no longer experience and soak in the deafening applause of the huge crowd when the talismanic No. 4 for India walks out to bat. No matter what the score is or was at the fall of the second wicket, the appearance of a cool, calm and composed Sachin Tendulkar at the crease was a reassuring sight and thought to all of us that the Indian innings would be set on course. Sachin Tendulkar has bestrode the game as a colossus for 25 years and it is only appropriate that his 200th and final Test is going to be played in front of his home crowd in Mumbai.

Tendulkar has been the most recognizable figure in the game for more than two decades, been the brightest star and for a number of years the best batsman in the world. With a technique machine-chiselled to perfection and in providing cricket's purest, unadulterated source of technically perfect batting exhibition Tendulkar has dazzled crowds all over the world. "I want to become like and bat like Sachin Tendulkar" --- that would be every little boy and child's dream. Not just because of his voluminous sporting achievements but also because of his personality. Tendulkar has been the poster boy for every kid and has inspired millions and showed what could be achieved with single-minded determination and focus. Statistics are of secondary importance but with 33,000 runs and 100 international hundreds in his bag it is safe to assume that Tendulkar's records will never, ever be surpassed. One needs to start at the age of 15 and play until 40, and need to maintain lofty standards for 25 years to be able to get past Tendulkar ---- that's virtually impossible.

Billions of cricket fans all around the planet earth will be hoping and praying for Tendulkar to finish his career in style by scoring a double century in his last hurrah in this Mumbai Test, guiding India to victory and hitting the winning runs with the final stroke of his monumental career. If that were to happen it would be a dream come true and a fitting farewell for a world champion. Unfortunately however if it were not to be then the entire cricketing world will weep."

200 Tests and 15,921 runs with 51 centuries. Plus 463 ODIs and 18,426 runs with 49 hundreds. Carve out those numbers in gold.

When I saw Sachin Tendulkar leave the ground and grand stage after being dismissed for 74 in his last innings, after having played the game for 25 years, I felt like a part of me was gone. I wonder if there was any cricket fan in this world who did not get this sentimental feeling. It was like the clanging bell of a departing train. It was like the deep hoot of a ship leaving the shore. We were forced to reconcile to the idea of not watching Sachin Tendulkar play Test cricket again. And we were left gazing at the setting sun, and flashback our memories to that magnificent day in August 1990 at Old Trafford when the curly-haired "boy on the burning deck" began his fascinating journey and carried us with him !!!

In his farewell speech, Sachin Tendulkar's parting words to the crowd were: ""Sachin, Sachin" those words from you will reverberate in my ears till I stop breathing". We are with you on that, Sachin !!

Here's wishing Sachin Tendulkar the very best no matter what he decides to do in the future. Long live Tendulkar !!! Here's wishing you a very happy birthday, and many happy returns of this day.