It generally comes with a stroll of a single to a safe area, say long-on or deep fine-leg. By the time Sachin Tendulkar reaches the non-striker's end, the crowd goes delirious. The helmet comes off, the head tilts up skywards, the back arches a little, the head comes down and looks at the crowd and team-mates in acknowledgment, the fists are pumped, bat in one hand and helmet in the other, and then the head tilts up again. And lo, Tendulkar has reached another hundred. When you bowl to him, there aren't enough tricks. Similarly, when you write about him, there aren't enough words. Everything that needs to be written about the man has already been written. Or has it?
In all my years of fascination with the Cricket no one player has so enthralled me and no personality has so impressed me. Even before he faced his first ball in international cricket, even as the curly haired teenager stood up bravely to a bombardment in Test Cricket, not batting an eyelid, unflustered and hardly overawed, our script for the little hero was ready. What does it take to deal with these unimaginable pressures day after day after day and still stay on course in the lonely journey towards the ultimate destination? It takes a Sachin Tendulkar. It takes every single thing that the little big man of Indian sport has been armed with in his long journey to a known destination. This is precisely why Tendulkar is as great as he is.
In a country where a Tendulkar century is a sporting epiphany beyond compare; neither the statistics, nor anything that the great man might accomplish in his career, can tell us much about why the maestro is the most popular Indian sports icon of our times. For, the real value of the batting hero's contribution to fuelling the collective aesthetic passions of tens of millions of cricket fans in this vast, complex nation, as well as among the Indian Diaspora elsewhere on the planet, is something that is at once incomputable and timeless. Calm, cool and composed even in the most critical situation, Tendulkar remains the picture of modesty and cultured behaviour, the prime role model for youth.
Runs and centuries galore are not an end in itself; cricket after all is a team game. And Tendulkar is the quintessential team man. Tendulkar has had to bear the cross of being an over-performer in an underperforming team. We must not expect too much of him. Already he has given us so much. But he isn't a machine, he's mere flesh and blood, and we enjoy him all the more because he dares to explore the edges of his game and of batting itself. Irrespective of the score, whenever Sachin Tendulkar comes to bat he is under pressure. There will be no respite as the broad blade of that extra heavy bat comes down hard on the ball, sending it searing across the turf. Teams across the world know what Tendulkar can do with the bat. Tendulkar has carried crowd support to another plane altogether. Whether it is the crowd at the stadium or the millions following the game on television all over the world, they make one thing crystal clear - they are there because of Tendulkar. The crowd comes to watch Tendulkar and Tendulkar alone, and they make no secret of this. Tendulkar is all that matters for them. And when he is out, the crowd leaves in droves, and millions switch off their television sets. For them, even the end result is unimportant. Tendulkar is out, and for the entertainment is over. Who won? Who lost? Who cares!
Over the years, Tendulkar has carved out a niche for himself in world cricket with his inimitable brand of batsmanship that has seen many speak of the little Indian as next to none. Will Tendulkar be Tendulkar ever again? Even the Tendulkars cannot recreate youth. But then, Sir Edmund Hillary was a touch exhausted when he was a few steps away from the planet's tallest summit! But that is irrelevant detail when you consider the significance of the next few steps. Keep climbing Sachin. The sky is the limit for you and there is every scope for you to run up a record that will stand the test of time even if there is greater proliferation of matches. Tendulkar is our sporting colossus, a sportsman beyond compare. Hail the Master!
