In 1973, four years after the United States had celebrated their astronaut, Neil Armstrong, becoming the first man to walk on the moon, India— unknowingly— had launched its own chosen son to make one small step for man, one giant leap for cricket.
Whilst Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went on to become celebrated Americans on account of their extra-terrestrial activities— Sachin Tendulkar— born a little under four years after the spaceship “Apollo 11” had landed on the moon, would go in search of an extraordinary mission of his own, one which has elevated India’s batting prince onto a higher playing field... onto another planet if you like.
Early signs of his gifted talents were clearly evident in his school years with a season of unprecedented batting displays, and later that year, at the tender age of 15 years and 232 days, Tendulkar scored 100 not out in his debut first-class match for Bombay against Gujarat, making him the youngest Indian to score a century on first- class debut. He followed that up with centuries on debut in the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and the Irani Trophy, the only player ever to do so. After just one season of first-class cricket, the young Tendulkar was selected for India’s tour to Pakistan.
On the international stage for the first time, it was a Test series where he had to grow up fast. Sixteen years of age and in the stifling cauldron of Test Cricket, his credentials were examined by the lethal tactics of two of the greatest fast bowlers of all time: Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis (who was also making his debut)— arch destroyers of hearts and reputations, they did not spare India’s young prodigy. In cricketing parlance, these two predators “gave it to him” and they bloodied the teenager, but he came through his ordeal with reputation enhanced.
On India’s tour to England in 1990, the 17-year-old made a match-saving century at Old Trafford, becoming the second youngest cricketer to score a Test hundred, after Pakistan’s Mushtaq Mohammad. Between the years 1994 and 1999, Tendulkar was at his physical peak, so it was curious to witness the 79 ODIs he took before he scored his first ODI Century in September 1994, against Australia in Colombo.
A career that spanned 24 years playing cricket at the highest level will inevitably have its troughs and peaks. Whether the centuries dried up for a spell, or whether there may have been a question-mark over the short ball, as sometimes suggested by opposition coaches, Tendulkar came through injuries that would have finished the careers of lesser mortals. Quite what has driven him to go on and on in this perpetual mission is a mystique that, in time, only he will be able to explain. Ben Hogan was never able to let others in on his ‘secret’ of how he hit the golf ball so purely—even now, books are still being written on his mystique.
Sachin Tendulkar was tested physically and mentally more than any other cricketer in history. Through sheer determination and an infinite enthusiasm to keep playing, he overcame captaincy issues, when the expectancy of leading the side and his own desire to perform, weighed heavily upon his young shoulders. Like England’s Ian Botham, the side needed his contribution more than his captaincy.
Tendulkar’s statistical achievements are simply extraordinary, when you consider the audience he had to entertain. No other cricketer had to cope with the burden of expectation so heavily placed upon his diminutive stature, a young man who carried the hopes and dreams of millions, let alone his own, or those of his family.
That he managed to achieve so much in the game can be attributed to a set of timeless virtues that he so masterfully deployed, both on and off the field; a batting technique with no apparent weaknesses, a schoolboy desire to keep playing, and a level of humility that disarms even the most provocative inquirers. A private man whose tastes would never be considered extravagant, a family man whose wife and children would be so embroiled in the lexicon of his iconic world, but underneath it all, there is an ingenuousness to his prowess. He made it all look so easy, achieving greatness with exceptional powers of concentration, and reminding all of us who watched him bat that even statistics can be enhanced by style.
Cricket’s most prolific run-maker of all time, and arguably the biggest cricket icon the game has ever known, Tendulkar gained the seal of approval from Sir Donald Bradman, who thought that India’s batting prince reminded him of himself: the ultimate compliment. But Bradman never had the relentless glare of the modern powerful mass media or the demands of today’s global celebrity culture to contend with.
The sheer weight of numbers attest to the greatness of Tendulkar, but his importance to India and to the integrity of the game of cricket, can never be measured by statistics alone. Everything he achieved was conducted with a sense of probity and dignity, an absence of scandal, a moral integrity and a sheer love for batting that gave him unparalleled longevity. Some of his team-mates today weren’t even born when he made his international debut!
Sachin Tendulkar’s place on planet earth makes him the most worshipped cricketer in the world. His celestial journey over 24 years has taken him to higher levels where modern players can only dream of reaching. He has been on another planet longer than anyone, but his enduring quality is that his feet have never left the ground. A man for his team, a man for the people—no man has come close to combining the collective demands with such equanimity and modesty.
