Batsman Returns
For 21 years, this little big man has rocked our world, given us a glimpse of true greatness and the power of positive thought and action. When he fails, a nation sinks into depression. When he shines, as he has one more often than anyone else in the game, it is almost celestial in its brilliance, the gift of genius so rare and so sublime. Forget the baby face and the falsetto, remember the art and the science, for these are attributes given to very few.
Twenty years is a long time in a sport that is so brutal on the body and the mind, and yet he has persevered with a single-minded determination that separates the champions from the players. Forget the statistics and the records, they are too numerous to matter any more. Remember the sight of that small, sturdy frame, arms and face lifted skywards as he crosses yet another milestone in a career that cricketing historians and writers are still struggling to comprehend. Bradman may have the higher average, Lara the highest individual score, but Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar brings to the game something unique and uplifting, the gift of grace under pressure, of humility in a hero, pride in being part of the game he loves and the opportunity to see the pursuit of perfection.
Why then is his hero a flamboyant, attention-seeking, bad-tempered and tempestuous tennis player called John ('You cannot be serious!') McEnroe? Tendulkar is the exact opposite in style, demeanour and temperament. If there is some mystical connection, we know not what it is, nor do we ask.
The Master Blaster is 36 and yet speaking to him now, still child-like in much of what he is or does or says. I don't play for records, I play for pride. Passion for the game keeps me going, respect the game and it will respect you: simple mantras for a man who has reached such iconic heights by keeping it simple. Not for him, the shirt-waving, bare-chested aggression of a Ganguly, or the studious, even dour, approach of a Dravid or the silken stroke play of a Laxman . His game is his own, his philosophy his own, neither overly aggressive nor overly defensive, just the perfect blend of the two. Like the separation of his public obligations and private life, one carefully structured and proper, the other jealously guarded, far away from the destructive power of the media spotlight and the demands of celebrityhood.
One man who suffered the most by marrying the two, Shane Warne, calls Tendulkar the greatest batsmen he has ever bowled to and there can be no greater tribute from a cricketer who was also the best at what he did. Greatest, genius, God, these are all superlatives that are once again being heaped on Tendulkar after his double in Gwalior, and once again, he has shrugged them aside in his characteristic diffidence.
There are many who have seen him from the start and yet see little change in his character, confident yet shy, the schoolboy excitement of playing for the country still extant, unfazed by the mass adulation, unchanged by the wealth his endorsements have brought, unspoiled by the awesome reputation his heroics have earned. There are few role models who truly deserve that title and he currently tops that list. Maybe Federer will match him one day in terms of records or as sporting icon but for now, for us ordinary humans, it is enough to say that we were privileged to have lived in the same era as this awesome batsman.
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