Commitment over Cover Drive- Farewell Little Master!!

I remember the moment vividly. 13^th March 1996, Eden Gardens, around 1:00 PM. My eleven year old self waited with bated breath near the dressing room as I watched the India team going through their fitness drills on the ground before the ill-fated world cup semifinal. A blue capped Reynolds pen & piece of paper clutched tightly in my hand, as a hunter would his rifle when his prey is in the periphery.

As the players wrapped their chores, and started trudging back, I knew this was my chance to get an autograph before they enter the confines of the dressing room, I also knew I wouldn’t be able to get everybody’s signature, nor did I want to. My prey was clear, the shortest & the youngest of the lot, but who shouldered more expectations that the entire team put together, my favorite, an absolute champion!!

As I rushed towards the 5’5” individual, and thrust the paper & pen towards him, he smiled broadly, took the pen in his left hand & started scribbling on the paper. Unfortunately, to my utter embarrassment, the pen betrayed me & refused to shed a drop of ink. I stood there red faced & flabbergasted, refusing to believe my bad luck, eyes trying to find an invisible earthworm on the ground, and expecting a celebrity like him to brush me aside nonchalantly & move away. However, to my amazement, his grin grew wider seeing my pitiable state. He beckoned to a Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) official standing nearby, snatched his pen from his shirt pocket & gave me his treasured autograph.

The above described incident remains one of the most cherished ones of my life, when I shared with Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar few seconds of our respective lives. It was also the time I experienced the humility & good-naturedness of the man & understood why his contribution to Indian cricket cannot be limited to numbers & statistics alone.

Since Sachin announced his retirement & even few months preceding that, over zealous Sachin fans to counter the mounting criticism on his decline in form have been circulating his achievements on social media. Highest number of international runs (34,000+), highest number of centuries (100), most MOM & MOS awards, Highest run scorer in World Cups…blah blah blah. These so-called fans (trolls would be an accurate description) also shamelessly criticize other cricketers & undermine their achievements with a misplaced notion of protecting Sachin’s greatness in the process. From legends like Lara & Dravid to modern icons like Gayle & Kohli, all have borne the brunt of their vile & ill-informed attacks on social media. If statistics are the only criterion to measure Sachin, then it’s also a fact that in 22 Tests since the English tour of 2011, he averages a pathetic 32 with no centuries. So going by these numbers, he should have retired long ago or should have been unceremoniously dropped. But this didn’t happen, and quite rightly so. Unlike others, it’s grossly unfair to gauge the phenomenon of Sachin Tendulkar with the lens of mere numbers.

The impact of several of his feats on the cricket field has transcended the boundaries of that particular match, series or cricket itself. They have become a shrine of collective pride for Indians, & left an indelible psychological scar on the opponents. When he cut to size a boastful Shoaib Akhtar by hammering him for 18 runs in the 2^nd over of the Centurian (World Cup 2003) game, we felt as if this was our reply to the numerous terrorist attacks orchestrated by Akhtar’s nation. When he singlehandedly powered India to a miraculous win against invincible Australia braving a desert storm at Sharjah in 1998, we all had to order new shirts the next day as our chest had swelled by 4-5 inches. When he soldiered to a gritty 241 at Sydney against Australia in the 2003-04 Test series without playing one of his favorite shots, the cover drive, it taught us that to achieve our lives’ goals we must be ready to sacrifice even our most desired indulgences. We laughed & celebrated with him, almost with childish exuberance, when he pulled off that incredible heist with the ball at Eden Gardens in the Hero Cup’ 1993 semifinal. South Africa requiring 6 runs to win off the last over, bowed to the guile of our little master. We wept inconsolably with him when he failed to take India over the finish line against Pakistan in the Chennai Test of 1999 despite scoring a majestic 136 amidst excruciating back pain.

I have also come across smug, self anointed pundits who proclaim that Tendulkar has never performed in ‘Big’ matches? Hello!! Are you on weed? For almost a decade in his career, i.e. in the early and mid 1990s, the Indian batting order resembled a cycle stand with Sachin as the front cycle, knock it down and the whole bunch would capitulate without a semblance of a fight. Big match or small, he was the ONLY guy on whose shoulders India could ride & secure a win. If he performs; the country that has produced 1.2 billion people could ‘produce’ a win on the cricket field; if he fails, so does his nation. One shudders to think the pressure one would feel if you are attached to the raw emotions of over a billion people like a baby to an umbilical cord; that too for almost a quarter of a century. But he has been enduring & even excelling in this pressure cooker scenario. Surely, a divine force is at play here. Not surprisingly, people call him God; I prefer to call him God’s very own child.

In terms of pure cricketing ability & talent I rate Brian Charles Lara to be the greatest of his generation, a notch above Sachin. But what perches Tendulkar on a loftier pedestal than the Trinidadian, as well as his other great contemporaries is this- A fascinating innings from a Lara, Kallis or Ponting impacted cricket matches, Sachin’s feats impacted human LIVES!!

Ricky Ponting’s ferocious Hook instilled fear into the opposition; the little master’s Humility earned him the opposition’s respect. Sourav Ganguly’s elegant Cover drives made Geofrey Boycott label him the ‘Prince’; Sachin’s Commitment made a generation call him the ‘King’. Laxman’s wristy Flick made him win worldwide admiration; Sachin’s Focus made him an inspiration. Lara’s Delicate late cut made him a great; Discipline made Sachin the greatest!!

Farewell 'Little Master'

Throughout his career, Sachin has regularly illustrated amazing large heartedness by gifting debutants (Panesar, Peter George, Peter Siddle) & part timers (Cronje, Cameron White) his prized wicket. The rubbish offspin of Narsingh Deonarine was the beneficiary this last time. As the master trudged off the field dismissed for a classy 74, and raised his bat & helmet to acknowledge the cheers from the doting spectators; I found my eyes getting moist inadvertently. Contrary to any gibberish that Dawood Ibrahim’s in-law Javed Miandad may utter, Tendulkar’s legend is sure to endure the test of time and linger for atleast the next ‘Ten’ decades.

Thank You Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar for all the memories!!(No, wouldn’t prefix SIR to his name, he doesn’t require an oblique reference to British knighthood to glorify his status).

P.S. He also does not require ill-informed social media trolls posing as fans, who bad mouth the young successors to his legacy. The little master shall be the happiest person on Earth if in an unlikely scenario a Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma shatters some of his records.