A homage to Sachin Tendulkar

Generally it is a common scene in some daily life conversations with old generation people, when they boast about their memories when they met Gandhi, talked to Nehru, had a photograph with some other famous personality of their generation. May their words be true or not, they tell us about the importance of that period of time and those greats. That is why every one of us would definitely have had a thought like ‘how good it would have been if I had taken birth in the era of Socrates when he led the Athens youth to the talks related to reality of life!’ or ‘how good it would have been if I had taken birth in the era of Mohandas Gandhi when he led Dandi march following the principles of truth and nonviolence!’

But after watching the sequence of emotional scenes of Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement at Wankhede, Mumbai on 16th November ,thousands of people directly and many billion people indirectly through their television sets, there is nothing fault in them comparing their luck and fate to those of the above mentioned people. There is no exaggeration in saying that I am proud and I was alive when Sachin played his farewell match. Who knows! There may come a day in the future when we grow old, we may be showing our pride to the younger generations saying that we were born in Tendulkar’s era of cricket.

Why has Sachin got such a huge name and fame? Why is the entire cricketing fuss concentrated around him? Why was the entire nation silent when he delivered his farewell speech? Why did every cricket fan get tears in his eyes when Sachin went down to the pitch to touch it for the one last time? What is his relation with us? Why are we so much affectionate towards him? What is the situation of world cricket after his retirement? Will cricketing world ever witness another Sachin? Will the craze for cricket in the country remain same after today? These are the questions every true cricket fan is facing with today.

Indeed cricket did not start with Sachin’s debut nor did it end with his retirement. Prior to his era also world cricket had many champions, winners, heroes, warriors, legends. Cricket will be played even after his retirement. There may also come many legends and his records too may get broken in the future. But the place he has in the heart of a cricket fan can never be replaced by anyone, even god. He has cemented his place to such an extent in the cricketing family of India.

More than the centuries scored by him in the ground, the way he transformed himself from a young curly haired debutante to the legend Sachin and his relation with his team mates and his opponents in his twenty four year long career earned him a huge respect on and off the pitch. In India and on foreign soil he symbolized our culture and unparalleled moral values. India has no other player in any sport like him who carried the entire responsibility of the team. He continued his journey marking his own stamp on each and every match he played and making the entire world to put an eye on him and representing the country in world circuit. Eventually he became nation’s hero and many people became his devotees irrespective of their age, region, religion, language, caste etc. and started praying for him every second.

There were many greats like Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara in his era who had talent and skill in some excessive proportion when compared to that of Sachin. But still none of them had such a prolonged career. And maintaining the same standards of the game throughout the career was possible only to Sachin.

The fact to be admitted here is that, two years ago when India won the ODI World Cup, many people were waiting for Sachin to announce his retirement. This is not because that the people are tired of watching him play but because of the fact that they wanted him to retire in a respectable position. Many say that Sachin’s talent is gifted to him by god. May that statement be true or not, but he kept on working hard in the nets for 24 years to polish his skill. His greatness lied in his endurance.

You never hit six sixes in a row like Yuvraj Singh did, never made a quadruple century like Brian Lara did nor did u make a triple century like Virendra Sehwag did, still, you are the one who will always have a portion of our heart praying for. Wish you all the happiness for your future. #thankyousachin