My Passion for Tendulkar

People near me often found my passion and aggression strange when it comes to the God of Indian cricket, the man himself, little master Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. In different circumstances I have been in different mindsets but as they say certain things you carry with your bag and baggage which is somewhere hidden inside you. My passion for SRT is hidden somewhere deep inside me.

Let me start from the day when it all started. On a cozy afternoon , in march 1996, when I came back from my school, I switched on TV and that was the time when sachin was set to tear apart the sri lankan bowling ( The eventual winners of the world cup, 96). The match was in kotla and sachin smashed 137. Of course the party was spoiled by jayasuriya in the latter half but that was the first incident which leaves a mark in my mind. 1996 world cup, sachin ended up as getting Most runs ( 523 to be exact in one tournament) and many fans across the world.

2 year's later, In april 98, against a red hot aussi team, India were struggling to get there way and I switched off my TV and went to sleep. Next morning when I woke up, news papers were showing different stories altogether. Another master piece from SRT had set the tone for india and two days later he won it for india in sharjah. Those two knocks of 143 and 134 were came at a time when Indian cricket was “one may army” show and that 143 in a deserted storm still remains as my favorite tendulkar innings.

Greatness never comes from one or two brilliant on field performances, there have been many more great innings from other batsman of sachin’s era but what makes little man apart is the ability to carry the hopes of one billion people who wants sachin to score a hundred every time he walks into the middle. 10 failures of a Gangulys or Sehwags doesnt get even half as much hype as tendulkar’s 3 failures in a row. In India, a billion dollar investment satellite can fail on its first launch from earth but a sachin simply cannot fail.

As a teenager, when ever my heart said sachin you have to play today, we are here to watch you only sir, hardly he disappoints atleast better than any of the other great batters around there. He smashed 140 not out on very next day of his father’s funeral, 136 in pain against pak in Chennai 1999, took on south Africa with an audacious 155 in 2001, 98 brilliant runs against Pakistan at Centurion in 2003, Sydney double handred in January 2004 ( a hundred which he wanted badly or rather we the Indians) , 35th hundred against sri lanka at Delhi 2005, again 97 breathtaking runs against Pakistan in Gwalior in 2007, century at Adelaide oval in January 2008, not out 103 after Mumbai attacks against England or 175 against Australia at Hyderabad 2009.

Every time we want him to score , he did it for India. Numbers speaks for sachin’s brilliance but I take little interest in them. His shot selection, focus and performance against the best bowling attacks makes him my idol. He carries God like stature in India and I am no different from his billions of fans across the globe.

A very interesting incident I wanted to describe here is an interview with shahrukh in which he was asked about the biggest icon in the country, SRK did replied this question saying “there was a party in Mumbai in which film stars and cricketers were present, suddenly there was a buzz among the crowd or rather elite crowd and it was arrival of Mr. bacchan. All the stars get queued in a line to get a glimps of Mr. bacchan. A little later again there was a buzz in the party and this time Mr. bacchan was leading the queue to meet the biggest icon of india, yes it was the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar.”

Many greats have said many great quotes about sachin but I will end it up saying my own and i.e.
“Had Sir Donald Bradman been alive today, he would have said ‘Thank you sachin tendulkar for entertaining us now over 20 years. We salute you’ ”.