Sir Sachin Tendulkar - The Greatest Cricketer Ever

[littlemaster1982]

The legend of Sachin Tendulkar

Amidst all the gloom of people being laid off from work and the continued fall in the stock market, Sachin Tendulkar's latest conquest shall work wonders in cheering up the general mood of the nation on the eve of Diwali. The Little Master's achievement of overtaking Brian Lara as the leading run-scorer in Test cricket couldn't have been better timed. Such has been Tendulkar's hold on the pulse of the nation over the last two decades, that Indians have experienced a rainbow of emotions through his divine presence at the batting crease. There are many ways of judging Tendulkar – the Test player after this. His overall batting average vis-à-vis the other legends of the game, his second innings average, his centuries in Tests won by India, etc., etc. shall all be analysed threadbare on prime-time Friday night and in Saturday morning's newspapers. Even if he were to be spared the statistical inquisition, there will be those who will take sinister pride in highlighting the feline grace of Lara's shot-making or the aristocratic swagger of Viv Richard's batting disposition over 'The Bombay Bomber's'. But to indulge in all this one-upmanship either through the myopic nature of the numerical lens or via the highly subjective notion of beauty is to miss out on the completeness of Tendulkar.

Tendulkar, as he went past Brian Lara Friday, had crossed other legends of the game like Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Alan Border and Steve Waugh. His nearest rivals from amongst current players, as he sits at the very summit of runs scored in the Test arena, are Rahul Dravid (10,341) and Ricky Ponting (10,239) – the Aussie being more likely of the two to break Tendulkar's record should the Little Master hang up his boots today. Thus, the scale of Tendulkar's accomplishment shall never quite acquire the mythical proportions that Bradman's batting average has, given its relative sense of achievability and when viewed within the narrow confines of Test cricket.

However, Sachin has scored 16,361 runs in one-day cricket and is the leading scorer in that version of the game as well. It is only when this figure is combined with Sachin's Test tally (12,027 runs after a sublime 88 runs in the first innings of the current Mohali test) that the legend of Tendulkar begins to take shape. His total tally in international cricket then swells to 28,388 runs. He has also hit 81 centuries and has gone past the 50-run mark on 139 occasions (including Friday) in both forms of the game. That Sachin's nearest rivals in all these three areas are different individuals – Brian Lara (22,358 runs), Ricky Ponting (62 centuries) and Rahul Dravid (134 half-centuries) – is confirmation of the notion that he is indeed a batting god. What it takes three cricketers to do individually over a lifetime is all done by one man. If Bradman's 99.94 was the closest someone came to achieving batting perfection, then Tendulkar's numbers post-retirement - I think 30,000 international runs, 100 centuries and 175 half-centuries – shall confirm his standing as a run machine.

Sachin's longevity

Then there is the other small matter of Tendulkar's longevity as a cricketer and his day-to-day handling of the iconic position he enjoys in India. Modern cricketers world over are known to throw in the towel at some stage of their respective careers citing the challenges of non-stop playing, continuous travel and a suitcase existence. Others have fallen victim to flamboyant lifestyles.

In close to twenty years, Tendulkar has remained seemingly oblivious to all these pitfalls. He has managed to find the necessary motivation to keep himself going. Injuries have played a fair part in ruining his fairytale career at times, but each time, he has handled them like a man who has taken a knock on the chin but has come back harder, stronger and better than before.

He has amassed enormous wealth by virtue of prize money, endorsements and other business ventures, but unlike some of his colleagues, Sachin has retained a middle-class value system in his demeanour, which only adds to his aura of being the complete man. There has been the odd controversy such as the one involving the customs exemption on the Ferrari that was being gifted to him. But while the media had a field day in finally getting the opportunity to crucify Tendulkar, he handled himself with the utmost dignity by never making public his version of the entire episode.

It is in this light that we should remind ourselves of the immortality of Tendulkar's legacy. His feats in both forms of the game and his exemplary conduct off the field have put him in a realm which humans only visit in the afterlife. Fittingly, as Deepavali approaches, Tendulkar has chosen the perfect stage to illuminate our ordinary lives yet again.