The aura of Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar in action continues to inspire many a fan

I was watching one of Sachin Tendulkar‘s Sharjah classics this morning and a thought struck me – what would Indian cricket have been like if there wasn’t that little man wielding an inordinately heavy bat, dismantling bowlers all over the world for close to two and a half decades now. I’ve not found an answer yet.

I don’t think I ever will, because for me – only born after Sachin’s debut – watching Indian cricket has been mainly about watching Sachin deal with expectations and carry the burden of millions on those little shoulders of his. I don’t think one essay can ever describe what Sachin has meant to Indian cricket over the past 24 years.

That would be, as Winston Churchill said, “Hopeless, but not impossible”.

To a nation, which in 1989 was bereft of heroes, Sachin is a messiah. To the younger generation of today, he is a role model. He is someone who inspires awe, someone who has reached a level a notch above what mortals could. Maybe Harsha Bhogle was right, when in a chat with the great man during the IPL 2013 final he said, “Replays are for normal people like us, not for Sachin Tendulkar”.

His battles with Shane Warne, Glen McGrath, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis have been ones to savour. Right from his school cricket days, he has pummeled bowlers into submission. With Sachin and Shane, it was genius vs genius, a situation where Ravi Shastri might say, “Cricket is the winner”; but no, Sachin was always a step ahead of Shane.

As Warne himself said, “I often get nightmares of Sachin stepping out and whacking over my head”. That for me, is the aura of a genius. He leaves an impression on the mind of the vanquished. At the 2003 World Cup in Centurion, an upper cut over point for six, a wristy flick for four, and a straight four which was just an extension of his defence, were enough to quell the world’s then fastest bowler Shoaib Akhtar into submission.

Sachin always found ways to get runs even when his body was not quite listening to him. That epic 136 against Pakistan in Chennai in 1999 and the IPL Final in 2010 when even with a bruised finger, he nearly took the Mumbai Indians home are shining examples of this.

Sachin doesn’t like a lot of things, but that seldom gets in the way of ‘Sachin-the batsman’. They probably get in the way of ‘Sachin-the captain’, which probably explain his misfortunes as skipper of the Indian team.

Sachin has never failed to generate debate in India; right from when he was a 14-year-old, plundering century after century in school cricket in Mumbai. Dilip Vengsarkar called him a mixture of Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath. That was a huge compliment to give a 14-year-old kid; calling him an amalgam of India’s most solid defensive batsman and one of the greatest aggressive batsman this country has ever had.

People who knew Sachin as a kid knew that the lad was destined for greatness. But no one could have ever predicted the scale of achievements that he has attained. He is the closest that modern day cricket can offer to Sir Don Bradman.

Maybe Lara would tear an attack apart, maybe Ponting would intimidate. But in my eye, Sachin outdoes them, with his sheer longevity. To do what he has been doing for a period of 24 years would be improbable for anyone else. In late 2009, even when injuries were seemingly taking a toll on him, he said he was looking forward to playing in the 2011 World Cup. And boy, the months that followed were a treat!

The 175 against Australia at Hyderabad, the 163 against New Zealand at Christchurch, the 214 in the Test against Australia at Bangalore and of course the unbeaten 200 against South Africa in Gwalior that made him the first ever player to score a double century in ODIs.

Of course, he was instrumental in the 2011 World Cup success as well.

He has achieved everything there is for a cricketer to achieve. Yet, the passion and fire in the man is that of a little kid who has just taken to the sport. Once he does decide to hang up those legendary boots of his, it’ll be difficult to watch an Indian Test team without the familiar sight, of a man standing 5 and a half feet tall walking in to delirious applause.

Those cover drives, those wristy flicks, the straight drives – they will all be missed when he does retire. But until then, let’s all enjoy the “Great Habit” that is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.