Sachin Tendulkar – A Blazing Start And A Carnival Finish

Sachin Tendulkar – A Blazing Start And A Carnival Finish

At the start of his career, the `man` in him conquered the `boy` who was bleeding from his nose, and almost two-and-a-half decades later, Sachin left the field with millions of fans bleeding in their hearts and holding on to their tears.

Few sportspersons, if any, in the world would have been handed a script that Sachin Tendulakr received. It all started twenty four years ago in Pakistan, where he suffered an almost career damaging blow on his nose as a tender sixteen-year-old. However, the `man` in him conquered the `boy` who was bleeding from his nose, and almost two-and-a-half decades later, Sachin left the field with millions of fans bleeding in their hearts and holding on to their tears.

Every brick of the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on November 16, 2013, would have recorded for posterity the emotional words that Sachin uttered during his farewell speech. The speech too was delivered with the same passion, precision and spontaneity as the runs that flowed from his bat. Communication skills and Public Speaking trainers from around the world would have noted and stored the speech as part of their training architecture.

In my lifetime I have seen extraordinary cricketers from around the world come and go – Gavaskar, Richards, Imran, Botham, Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee – to just name a few. But cannot remember any one of them being given such a sendoff by a nation. It was as if Sachin was to be the last of the legends to serenade the cricket field. It almost seemed like the country wanted to celebrate his achievements by creating a carnival atmosphere which would last in their memories for at least another twenty five years, whereby they can continue to retain the Sachin magic deep within them and cherish his `guiding` presence in their lives.

Of course, Sachin benefited from the media exposure which retiring legends before him did not have an advantage of. Yet, to see an entire country being consumed by as routine an event as sporting retirement was incredible to say the least. It is unfathomable that such a gala finish to a career can be achieved simply through human orchestrations. You can surely influence but a few hearts through marketing gimmicks, but such a spontaneous outpouring of emotions for a man whose role modeling abilities are incomparable can be manifested only through divine will. That Sachin is Destiny's Child was always known, and substantially proven in the last few weeks of his colossal career.

To top it all, the government, under fire on many issues, for a change got a Thumbs Up from the entire nation by its timing of the Bharat Ratna announcement. If at all there was any missing link in his career – the statistics are mind boggling: 200 tests, 450+ ODIs, 100 international hundreds, over 30,000 international runs – the Bharat Ratna fulfilled it. If at any moment in the last few weeks Sachin felt really sad at moving out of the game that he so dearly loves, the Bharat Ratna announcement would have put those feelings to rest, as nothing at all in our country gets bigger than this in terms of recognition.

The fact that Sachin redefined the benchmarks set for individual excellence in the game of cricket, and in the process created and sustained mass frenzy for such a long period of time -- even though there was a period when a fickle minded nation questioned his abilities post the 2007 World Cup disaster – is itself a wonder and testimony to the vast reservoir of Genius as well as Resilience that lies within him.

As this blog is intended as a celebration of his career, I have refrained from deriving the various lessons that Sachin's batsmanship and cricketing genius offer to far lesser mortals like us. I surely intend to share my perspectives from that angle another day. But suffice it to say that every bit of what Sachin achieved and the manner in which he achieved them has long standing lessons not just for our country but humanity.

It is said – and rightly so – that no individual is ever greater than the game. Sachin was the only one who came close to upsetting that theory. But thankfully – and I say thankfully because the Universal Principles of life cannot be tampered with or tweaked around – Sachin left the game, to my mind, as a Supreme Mortal, and not as God, by elevating the human cricketing excellence consciousness to a level none before him had ever done.

The game for a while will feel a deep void as another aspirant inherits the hallowed Number 4 position in test matches, but the game has a way of eeking out geniuses from the masses, and surely another Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar will present himself to the world. Hopefully, this time too, it will happen in India.

For the moment, for one more time, Thank You Sachin. We Will Miss Your Presence On The Cricket Field!

Gavaskar And Tendulkar

Gavaskar And Tendulkar

What Gavaskar left behind in terms of cricketing excellence, Sachin simply expanded and reinvented. While Gavaskar was a product of the pre-economic liberalisation era, Tendulkar arrived at the cusp of a new dawn in the socio-economic-political context of India.

As Sachin Tendulkar's epic career draws to a close, it is worthwhile reflecting on what the legacies of the sporting superstar before him Sunil Gavaskar and his mean to Indian cricket. An immediate point of course is that both for long carried the vast expectations of the nation – of course Sachin had to shoulder a MUCH LARGER share – and for a substantial part of their careers were seen as lone warhorses of their teams.

When Gavaskar retired, many asked, `who next?` A couple of years into his retirement, and a young Sachin Tendulkar, whom you could easily have mistaken as a spectator trespassing on to the cricket field if you were a cricket novice, strode on to the ground with appropriate cricket gear but at an `inappropriate` age to take on the might of bowlers like Waqar Younis and Imran Khan. Over close to a quarter century, Sachin fulfilled both promise and expectations, which is incredible to say the least.

What Gavaskar left behind in terms of cricketing excellence, Sachin simply expanded and reinvented. While Gavaskar was a product of the pre-economic liberalisation era, Tendulkar arrived at the cusp of a new dawn in the socio-economic-political context of India. While Gavaskar had already shown many cricketers the way forward in terms of leading a post-retirement life, Sachin simply grabbed at the opportunities a liberalised India threw at him through the sheer weight of his performances. If Gavaskar associated with brands, Tendulkar bacame a brand himself.

Gavaskar fundamentally brought pride to the Indian psyche, which Tendulkar elevated and internalised at a level which few could match. Gavaskar's legacy lay in the way he positioned India to the world not only through his cricketing exploits, but also by the way he projected his pride of being an Indian. Gavaskar carried the self belief torch as an ambassador of `self doubting` Indians by simply putting up the runs at a pace which was appropriate for the times and on his own terms. But just around the time he hung his boots to become the `Voice of India`, in which role too for over two decades now he has kept the Indian pride at a high, the country needed a role model who could represent the very new and virbrant India that was being shaped.

Sachin in a way simply snatched the baton from Gavaskar, as there was hardly any time to pass it on as such, and created a colossus which the world will forever cherish and also look back and wonder. If Gavaskar in a way pioneered the Indian craze for records by creating one milestone after the other – Sachin redefined `records` and continuously kept setting new benchmarks. He ultimately reached a peak of a hundred international 100s, which is astounding for the human mind to comprehend, even after it has been achieved.

In this respect too, Gavaskar showed the way, as he was the first ever to score 10,000 runs in test match cricket. While many great players later joined the 10,000 club, he set the world's second best cricketing benchmark after the Don's batting average. To term the achievements of these two gentlemen as simply `Excellent` would be a huge understatement, and a reflection of the limitations of a language to fully comprehend the saga of such accomplishments.

While Tendulkar cannot exactly be termed as a protege of Gavaskar, but he imbibed the technique and balance of the original Little Master. Tendulkar in a way answered the imaginations of cricket connoisseurs who fantasised about a player who could have the balance of Gavaskar, the audacity of Richards and the all round ability of a Sobers. Incredibly, as if to say, nature bestows you with what you ask for, all three legends of their craft, found expression in one man – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Though Sachin cannot be termed as an all rounder like Sobers, he carried all-round ability, and could turn the ball square apart from hitting perfectly good balls square.

The inter-connection between Gavaskar and Tendulkar also has infinite worth in terms of their comparison with Don Bradman. While in terms of batting exploits, both could never come even remotely close to the average the Don had at the end of his career, there were other benchmarks set by the Don to be breached. While Gavaskar was the first to go past the Don in terms of number of test centuries, Sachin became the all time highest test century maker, and incredibly even attained the magical figure of 50 centuries. The Don felt Sachin played like him, a tribute lesser mortals can only dream of getting.

In terms of poignant test match batting too, they both played their epic innings in a losing cause against arch rivals Pakistan. While Gavaskar played his last test match innings on a very difficult pitch against Pakistan at Bangalore, in which he scored 96, Tendulkar scored a memorable 100 in Chennai. While the Bangalore test handed Pakistan a historic series win in India, the Chennai loss created a pain which was as close to the one inflicted by Javed Miandad when he hit Chetan Sharma for a last ball six in the 1986 one day tournament final at Sharjah.

Both Gavaskar and Tendulkar in their careers were also part of World Cup winning teams. Interestingly, India won a World Cup title long, long after Gavaskar had retired. It took a Tendulkar to break the jinx after India won the 1983 World Cup. It is significant to note the change in context that while the 1983 team `shocked` the nation by winning the world cup, the 2011 team would have `shocked` if it had not won the title. So, while Gavaskar and his teammates in 1983 engineered the beginning of a cricketing revolution in the country, Sachin and his teammates elevated the craze and cash associated with cricket to dizzying levels.

As the Sun sets on Sachin's career, it can be said that he perhaps fulfilled the unfulfilled potential of Sunil Manohar Gavaskar, who, people of my generation will recollect, had started emerging as a powerful one day batsman too towards the end of his career. Tendulkar went on to become the world's best one day batsman, and probably simply built on an idea that Gavaskar had embraced towards the fag end of his career.

There is also a geographical synergy of course. Both lived and played in Mumbai and for Mumbai, and rose to become cricketing icons of the nation.

Who is going to take their legacies forward now? The script is still being written. So, we will wait and watch.