A letter to the Master - Sachin Tendulkar

Dear Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar,

It has been more than a month since you retired from ODI cricket and we’ve missed your experience right from the first ODI Indian team played against Pakistan post your retirement. There was mayhem as India’s experienced top order batsmen struggled against the novice Pakistani bowlers. We missed a batsman who possesses the ability to handle swing and your longevity.

As a batsmen, you carried the hope of billions of Indians. You were the primary reason why Indians born in 80s and 90s watched cricket, making the sport attain the current high level in the heart of Indians. You were such an icon that when a bowler like Bhuvneshwar Kumar was successful in his International debut, people knew him as the first bowler who got Sachin Tendulkar out for a duck in domestic cricket.

The number of records held by you is tremendous and some look unbeatable. More than 18,000 runs in ODIs with most number of man of the match awards (62) and 15 man of the series awards, you, as a batsman, redefined batting for Indian batsmen. Prior to your career, Indian batsmen had in totality scored 17 ODI centuries and calculations reveal that they made a century after every 10 games. But after you started playing, that number came down drastically to 3.

I read somewhere that you had to plead before Ajit Wadekar and Azharuddin to open the Indian batting and you completely changed the opener’s role when you scored 82 of 49 against New Zealand in the very first innings. You held the record for youngest Test centurion for 11 years before Ashraful crossed it. You are the only batsman to date to have scored 8000 Test runs before turning 30. You may have lost to Alistair Cook in 7000 Test runs segment in age (by seven months) but you are still ahead of him in terms of number of Tests (you took 1 Test match less to achieve the feat).

Not only as an individual performer, you were a star when performing with other Indian legends too. Your opening pair in ODIs with Sourav was one of the most successful opening batting partnerships with an average of almost 50 and strike rate of 89. You and Rahul Dravid have had most century partnerships between them (20).

As far as career duration is concerned, you have played more than 70% of the ODI games India as nation played and finished on the winning side 234 times out of the 326 wins India registered since your debut. This clearly illustrates your importance and impact on the nation’s cricket history. You had 104 different teammates in Tests and 123 in ODIs.

With the passage of time and age beginning to show on your movements, you changed your batting style. In the innings of 241 against Australia, you didn’t played a single cover drive which used to be your strength but you adjusted yourself beautifully.

When you attained the status of being the best among all, comparisons with other legendary batsmen started. You were, are and will be compared with Don Bradman, Brian Lara, Sunil Gavaskar and many others. But the matter of fact is there is no answer to it as to who is greatest among all because conditions were different, expectation were different and the cricketing era was different. Numbers always don’t give the answers because there are many other factors contributing to greatness which cannot be quantified. But you were different from others in terms of expectation and hopes of Indians. People switched off the TV after you got out and believed that India would lose eventually. This was something no player experienced in their career.

These expectations tend to destroy some good sportsmen. As was the case with Norman O’Neill who was hyped to be the new Don Bradman. In spite of being a skilful player, especially on the back foot and with a good average of 45, his Test career was short lived because the tag proved to be a millstone around his neck. We all were lucky that the same never happened to you and you could serve the nation and entertain us to the maximum.

If asked about your best innings, many would say the 200 milestone you achieved in the ODI against South Africa but I personally feel your 175 against Australia in Hyderabad was the best among the lot. We should have won the match, needing 19 off 18 balls. Though we didn’t, the result didn’t belittle your hard work. The reason was that we were chasing a big target against a good opposition and your performance brought us very close to victory.

But the sad part is that next generation will not get to watch a player of such high stature. They will never understand why cricket fans like me want two Indian wickets to fall down in Tests quickly to get to watch your batting elegance to maximum extent.

Your ODI retirement helped Indian domestic cricket’s viewership as people started watching Ranji and Irani trophy matches just to see your batting. Your boundary off Sreesanth after the bouncer he bowled has already been shared by many on Facebook and viewed on YouTube by millions. We hope this period lasts longer.

In the end, all I can say is that we cherish all those happy moments you brought in our life and we were delighted to witness a player of perfection. We thank you for those memories.

All of us are eagerly waiting for the coming Australia series and we hope now that the media lets you play freely because that is when you perform the best. I don’t know under what circumstances you had to take such a hard decision of retirement. Although in the press conference, you said of body movement not being perfect.  But I personally feel that it’s the expectation to perform well continuously and our free media that don’t allow you live peacefully when you fail. But you have been a champion, and will always remain so.

Thank You!

Your fan,

Himanshu Porwal