Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar: Surely the game’s secular saint.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar: Surely the game’s secular saint.

“I asked my wife to come and look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this fellow is playing much the same I used to play. I cannot explain it in detail but there is similarity. It is compactness, his stroke production. It all seems to gel. That was how I felt.”  These are the words of Sir Donald Bradman about the greatest batsman in the world Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.  He said this in the rare interview at the time of world cup of 1996. This has been agreed by two former cricketers played at the time of Bradman, one is Neil Harvey, a left-handed batsman of Australia and former English Batsman Trevor Bailey. Even Mike Brearley, a former Captain of England, agreed on it. And Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar travelled to Australia as a Chief Guest at the lavish function to celebrate Bradman’s 90^th birthday. It was a great honoured to Sachin Tendulkar.

From Yogesh Gogwekar

On 15^th November 1989, Sachin Tendulkar played his first test match in Karachi, Pakistan at the age of 16 with mop of fuzzy hair, a squeaky voice and a world records already under his belt. He played his game with a perfect defensive technique along with wonderful ability to convert defence into attack in vigorous way in front of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Abdul Quadir. In one of the one day match played at Peshawar, Tendulkar scored 53 runs in 18 balls by hitting leg spinner Abdul Qadir for 27 runs in one over.From the day of his debut, Sachin never relaxed in the middle or he never took his success for granted. He continued to play his game with same attitude for 24 years. In his long career, he has achieved a great discipline and mental toughness to play this game in more professional way.  No one has played like him more breath-taking inning by scoring more runs and giving more pleasure.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on 24^th April 1973 in Mumbai. He studied in Sharadashram Vidyamandir School at Dadar, Mumbai and played his first cricket in the competition for under- seventeen. At the age of 12, he scored his first century for his school and has shown his special talent. Later on, he scored 209, 329 and 346 in space of five innings one of them contributing to an unbroken partnership of 664 with Vinod Kambali which is the record of any form of cricket. Looking at his talent at the age of 15, former Indian Captain Dilip Vengsarkar said, ‘Sachin is the combination of Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath.  Sachin proved this that the words of Vengsarkar was not exaggeration by making his first match saving century at Old Trafford in Gavaskar way and after one and half year he made two centuries at Sydney and Perth, Australia which would have made us remember Vishwanath. 

Sachin never allowed his mind to wander from the game, from the job at hand, from the activity that he was so passionate about. There has always been drama around him but not in his mind.  Muttiah Muralitharan, Right arm off break bowler of Sri Lanka, has rightly said, “Sachin is the man of great dignity, and those of us who played together in the same Era must consider ourselves lucky. It is remarkable that man can play for so long as he has at the international level, and not only created records that seems unapproachable, but play through without a single black mark against his name. This is what makes him truly great “.

It is always being seen that Australian people will take an overseas player to their hearts and claim him as their own. And there is a depth of relationship between Australian People and Tendulkar which has become more apparent with his every visit to Australia. It is in Australia; he has been called as God of Cricket by his fans. It is not only in Australia but in Pakistan also. Rivalry between India and Pakistan is very strong. Pakistani Spectators always come to see their country to win against India, but they also want to see Sachin Tendulkar to score hundred.

Batting is of course about making runs, but even more about knowing how to make runs. Sachin Knows this. One can make out the way he has scored in International cricket. He scored 15921 runs in 200 Test Matches with batting average 53.78 and 18426 runs in 463 One day international with batting average 44.83. He scored 51 centuries and 68 half centuries in Test matches and 49 Centuries and 96 half centuries in One day international. On 24^th February 2010, he was first person to scored double century in One day international against South Africa at Gwalior.

Mihir Bose, a writer on Cricket, rightly said that Sachin Tendulkar made the history in such a remarkable way that almost everything in Indian cricket appeared to reflect what he had done. He further said that Tendulkar was at the crease India were capable of doing something. He with his bat who could swing the match India’s way but also Tendulkar with ball, particular in one da matches. This has made Tendulkar exceptional was not having no peer he could be compared. There would be many Tendulkar clones, but no one came close to matching his mastery of art of batsmanship.

Like Mihir Bose, there are many writers on Cricket admired Sachin Tendulkar. According to R C Robertson-Glasgow, he was easy to watch, difficult to bowl and impossible to write about. Similarly, Peter Roebuck once said,” Whenever I feel how low I need to remind myself how privileged I am to be writing on the game in the Tendulkar.

Sachin Tendulkar has been honoured by Arjun Award in 1994, Padma Shri in 1999, Maharashtra Bhushan in 2001, Padma Vibhushan in 2008 and highest Civilian award Bharat Ratna in 2014.

John Arlott, a cricket commentator and writer, has once written on W G Grace, “I am interested in greatness, not in damn dots.” This is also applicable to Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. 

Mumbai

24/04/2020