Birth Of A Master

 WHAT will happen if I do extremely well in the under-15 tournament?" Sachin asked me. I was helping him pack for the tournament in Ahmedabad. He had done well in the under-15 group the previous year and attended the all-India camp. "The selectors may consider you for the Bombay under-17 team, then the West Zone team and, finally, if you perform well, for the all-India under-17 camp," I replied.

 That wasn't enough for Sachin. "And if I play at all levels in the under-17 category?" he went on. "Then they'll pick you for all levels in the under-19 category," I answered. "Maybe even for the under-19 Test team."   Sachin was fascinated by the fact that an outstanding performance might lead to his selection even in the higher levels for older boys. Our conversation didn't stop there. "If I do well...," he began again, and anticipating his question, I told him: "If the selectors feel you are that good, they may actually give you a place in the Bombay Ranji team."

 The reader might find this conversation a trifle dramatic in the light of Sachin's remarkable success that season, but it did actually take place. I recalled this casual conversation again and again that year when Sachin played in every junior category and, at the age of 14, became the youngest player ever to be selected for Bombay for the West Zone Ranji league matches.

 In the Kanga league that year, Sachin jumped to the more competitive 'B' division, playing for the Sassanian Cricket Club and rubbing shoulders with first class and Test cricketers. He got one half century and two other scores of 34 and 35. He played with tremendous assurance and the slow, grassy outfields couldn't stop his shots from racing to the boundary. His insistence on using a heavy bat and his habit of swinging it up and down, had the effect of giving a sort of weight-training for his shoulders and wrists and strengthened them.

 His exploits in the inter-school tournament and in the under-15 Vijay Merchant Trophy the previous year found him a place in one of the four teams selected for the under-17 Sportstar Trophy. The teams are named after former Indian Test cricketers. Sachin captained the Dattu Phadkar team. He was the Man of the Match in the first two rounds and his scores of 158, 97 and 75 won him the Man of the Series award. His team won the trophy.

 Perhaps it was largely because of this excellent performance as a batsman and captain that Sachin was made Bombay's captain for the under-17 Vijay Hazare tournament. He had an excellent team with him. Apart from Vinod Kambli, there were Jatin Paranjape, Abhijit Kale, Mayur Kadrekar and Kedar Godbole. Both Jatin and Abhijit went on to play in the Ranji Trophy, the former for Bombay and the latter for Maharashtra.

 If I remember well, the Bombay under-17 team had their practice nets at the Islam Gymkhana ground in South Bombay.

One day, on his return from practice, Sachin looked quite thrilled. "I hit every bowler out of the ground today," he told me.

 Considering his slight physical stature, it was very difficult to believe him. But later, when I went to see him bat at Achrekar Sir'snets, I found he had not exaggerated at all. He was hitting not just the spinners but also the pace bowlers a very long way. Most of his lofted shots were hit with an absolutely straight bat. More importantly, they were placed between the long-on and long-off fielders where the chances of getting caught are much less. While it is true that there is some amount of risk involved in playing these strokes, Sachin's ability to pick up the length of the ball, and the skill and understanding he exhibited in executing his ideas really took me by surprise. Quite clearly, he was now able to think about his game from various angles and experiment with his strokes.

 There was one peculiar stroke I saw him play in the nets those days. Normally, a batsman tends to go on the front foot to a faster, good length or just short of length delivery from a spinner, either to defend it or to drive it on the half-volley. But Sachin would very often hit this sort of ball on the up, lifting it between the mid-on and mid-wicket fielders with a more or less straight bat. This shot looked almost like it had come out of a game of tennis and Sachin played it successfully on almost every occasion. In my opinion, it was certainly a stroke that he had invented.

The Vijay Hazare tournament was played in the first week of November. In the first match against Baroda, Sachin scored 89 and 50 not out. Then he was out for 13 runs in both innings in the final against Maharashtra.

On November 14, 1987, Bombay's Ranji selectors—Ajit Wadekar, Sudhir Naik, Bapu Nadkarni and Sandeep Patil—announced the names of 36 probables for the Ranji nets. Sachin was selected in the probables. And though Sunil Gavaskar had announced his retirement from Test cricket, his name also figured in the list.

During the previous season, Sachin had scored nine centuries, including two double 100s. Apart from the sheer number of runs he had made, was it perhaps the manner in which he batted that had convinced the selectors of his ability? Fortunately, Sachin did not get carried away by his inclusion in the list of probables and went on to score a big hundred, 175 runs against the defending champions East Zone, in the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the end of November. This century must have facilitated his selection in the final 14 when the Bombay team was selected in the first week of December.

Earlier, when we saw the list of probables, we were thrilled to seeSunil Gavaskar's name in it. "Would Sachin get a chance to be in the same team and play alongside our cricketing hero Sunil Gavaskar?", was the thought in our minds. Unfortunately, that was not to be as Gavaskar decided that he would play no more first-class cricket.

Although we had got quite used to seeing Sachin's name in the newspapers, it is still difficult to describe our joy and the pride we felt when we woke up one morning and read that Sachin had been included in the Bombay Ranji Trophy team for the West Zone league matches.

Sachin was only 14 and Father had to accompany him to the railway station when he left with the Bombay team for his first first-class match against Baroda on December 19, 1987. Sachin was in the reserves. He fielded as a substitute in one of the league matches and thus got a feel of the atmosphere of a first-class game. However, he wasn't included in the team for the knock-out stage of the competition.

It was during one of the net practice sessions that Sachin received a memorable gift. Dilip Veng-sarkar, the then Bombay and India captain, presented Sachin with a brand new Gunn & Moore bat.

In the Vijay Merchant tournament, Sachin ended his last stint at the under-15 level on a high note. Captaining the Bombay team, he made three centuries in the four matches he played. He scored 130 and 48 vs Gujarat, 107 and 4 vs Baroda and 61 vs Maharashtra in the finals. Bombay won the league championship.

Sachin was selected as the captain of the West Zone under-15 team. Against East Zone, the defending champions, he got 117 runs, his third 100 of the tournament.

The first under-19 World Cup was going to be held in Australia that year. A good performance of the under-19 matches would certainly have put Sachin in the running for a place in the India under-19 squad. But he struck a bad patch for the first time in two years and his scores of only 4, 25 and 5 kept him from being considered for the junior World Cup. Sachin didn't find a place in the Indian team and even in the West Zone under-19 team. His innings of 175 against East Zone in the under-17 competition was not enough to convince the national junior selection committee, as the selection for the under-19 cricket team was strictly on the basis of performances in the under-19 matches only.

 HE calls himself orthodox and his hairdo buttresses that view. An Air India flight steward, Ajit Tendulkar denies the perception that he was a better cricket player than Sachin in his youth. Says he: "I would have, at least, played Ranji if that was the case.'' It took him five-and-a-half months to write the book and it meant skipping Sachin's exploits on the field during the period. "I have a heartbeat problem watching himplay,'' he says. There is also an upcoming Marathi version of the book, the translation by papa Ramesh Tendulkar. Incidentally, Sachin had a sneak preview of the book to ensure there was nothing personal in it. For Ajit, the biographical venture that ends just where Sachin's Test career begins to take off, is, his first and last.

 Because of the frequent touring for the junior-level tournaments and the Ranji League, Sachin was not available for most of the club tournaments in Bombay. The only club match he played, for the Purushottam Shield, turned out to be an important game for him. Only a few select teams from the 'A' and 'B' divisions of the Kanga League are given an entry in this tournament. Sachin played his first 'A' division match for the Shivaji Park Youngsters Cricket Club, popularly known as SPY in local Bombay cricket. Their opponents were the Cricket Club of India (CCI), one of the strongest teams in club cricket with quite a few Ranji and Test cricketers in their ranks. Hemant Kenkre, one of the CCI players who was also a member of their cricket committee, came to me before the match began and asked me if Sachin would like to playfor CCI from the next season.

 "Milind Rege (the former Bombay captain who was the CCI cricket team secretary) and I have proposed Sachin's name for our club team. The decision will be taken in the Club's annual meeting. Meanwhile, just think it over and let me know," he told me.

 Considering the CCI's tremendous reputation and the experienced cricketers in their team, it was a fine opportunity for Sachin. It would give him greater exposure to the game. As it happened, Madhav Apte, the veteran Test cricketer who was then CCI president, was playing. If Sachin did well that would certainly facilitate his inclusion in the CCI team.

Sachin scored 76, the highest runs for both sides, on a bad wicket and in his first match against an 'A' division team. SPY won the match but Sachin was not available for the later games.

We were very happy to see that Sachin's brilliant performances continued in the Giles and Harris Shields. Despite the fact that he had a great season in junior cricket and had been selected for the Ranji Trophy, he didn't allow himself to relax. He scored more runs than the previous year, getting big 100s, double 100s and even triple 100s.

His sequence of scores in the Giles and Harris Shields was 21 n.o., 125, 207 n.o., 326 n.o., 172 n.o., 0, 346 n.o. and 14. In the Giles Shield, his scores were 162, 0 and 14. Looking back, it really surprises us that he was out early in two matches of this junior school tournament, considering he was in excellent form.

But against more senior players in the Harris Shield, he was out only once in five innings. His scores were 21 n. o vs Balmohan Vidyamandir, 125 vs Little Angels, 207 n.o. in the quarter-finals vs Raja Shivaji Vidyamandir, 326 n.o. in the semi-finals vs St. Xavier's (Fort), and 346 n.o. in the finals vs Anjuman-e-Islam. He had scored 1025 runs at an even average of... 102.5.