SACH is Life!!!

The living legend of Indian Cricket turned 33 today! But, the cry to axe him after every tournament just gets louder. ‘He isn’t the same anymore’; ‘the body is rusting’ etc etc are just few of the comments about the Little Master that the self-proclaimed ‘experts’ of the game utters after every Sachin failure

No one seems to realize that Tendulkar is not in fact, as he is made out to be, a God! He too, like all other cricketers of his era is just that—a cricketer. As far his fitness is concerned, no other cricketer in the current era has been playing cricket for almost 17 long years. The body, after all these years of carrying the burden of a million prayers, is bound for some repair work. The only concern is the fact that these repairs are now needed quite frequently. Back, toe, ankle, elbow and now shoulder—almost every part of the maestro’s body has been put under the scanner, almost literally.

Every Tendulkar failure means that he has actually failed to hit a century or a 50! That is what a nation hopes he will do every time he walks out to the cricket field. Only a handful acknowledges the difference he makes by just being a part of the Indian side. Statistics and records, they say, can be misleading, but in Tendulkar’s case, they are not! I tried to put in a few stats and records of this Bombay Bomber, but I realized that it’s going to occupy a lot of my space in this blog. And besides, almost every Indian cricket fan, whether they like him or not, know his records in and out!

Until very recently, in order to chase down huge totals set in by the opposition, the nation looked up to Sachin to dig out the runs. I remember in July 2002 during the Natwest Finals, India chasing 326 were 140 odd for four, when Sachin played a rank bad shot to be bowled. Most of my friends switched to other channels, but being an eternal optimist as far as Indian cricket was concerned, I kept watching the game rarely missing a ball. No one really expected the two youngsters in Kaif and Yuvraj to come good and do the impossible!

Quite often, Sachin’s ability to disappoint during the finals of any tournament is highlighted. This however, must hold true for every Indian cricketer who under-performs in a final. I am not trying to defend Sachin’s under-performance in a final by any means for I know that his last notable performance in a final came in 1998 (an year when he batted like a dream) against Australia at the Coco Cola Cup in Sharjah. His performance at Sharjah was so destructive that Shane Warne began to have ‘night-mares of Sachin charging down and hammering’ him over long-on. The late Sir Don Bradman paid the ultimate tribute to the Master Blaster when the former recognized Sachin as his modern-day incarnation.

What also makes Sachin what he is today is his off-field demeanor. Controversies have come his way once in a while, but Sachin has always managed to steer clear, without much of a fuss. People respect him not just for his cricketing abilities but also for his attitude off the field. No surprise therefore, that he is still one of most-liked sporting icons of the country, despite his ‘bad form’.

I agree with Wasim Akram in his article today to the ToI: “Write off the Master Blaster at your own peril.” Sachin Tendulkar is still just 33 and according to me, he has AT LEAST four years of cricket left in him! Agreed, one must not live in the glories of the past. But when, it comes to SRT, it is very hard to forget the man who is truly the Living Legend of World Cricket. Hold on to your seats folks! For, I dare say this; the best of the man is yet to come.

So, here’s dedicating one of my longest post till date to Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, to whom the millions in the country owe big time for the sheer joy and hope he has provided for more than a decade and half. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR!!!