One for the Identity of the 22yard

“His life seems to be stillness in a frantic world... [When he goes out to bat], it is beyond chaos - it is a frantic appeal by a nation to one man. The people see him as a God”

-Matthew Hayden
on Sachin Tendulkar

The thousands in attendance at the Centurion waited in anticipation, the millions of souls across the globe had their eyes glued to their television sets as the man they call Sachin, batting on 99 took strike to Dale Steyn. Yes, the question that remained to be answered was will he do it today or there’s more to wait. Their question was answered as he drove Steyn’s next delivery through the covers which brought the crowd to their feet all across the world. Possibly the best batsman in the world had achieved a feat no individual can dream of even coming close. The 50th Test century which is a heavy number indeed. But what remained to be seen was when he neared that milestone he was nervous as he played and missed a couple. It was something good to see as that showed that he is a human although the whole of India doesn’t think so. This innings again probably opened the debating gates as to whether he is the greatest ever to play the game.

At 15, when the squad to West Indies was named for the 1987-88 series, Sachin was not disappointed when he found his name missing in the line-up. All he said was “If the board has not decided to include me, there is a reason behind it” which was quite obvious. A 15 year old kid cannot cope up to the fiery West Indian quicks. 20 years down the line, the Board may think that they could have corrected that mistake. Such was the impact of the Wonder boy from Bandra who had finished his Domestic season with the highest average in the season. And before entering the cauldron of test cricket a year later, he had already become the youngest to score a century in the Irani trophy and that too on debut. Ever since he entered the test circuit in 1989, there has been nom looking back as records kept on tumbling every time the genius walks into bat. He can make time stop in India when he is batting. And from his first hundred at Old Trafford which made India save the test against England to his 50th, the Indian team has witnessed around 200 players but the only thing that has remained constant is him. He has always had his close buddies Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly majority of times during his landmarks (the former in his 20th and 25th century and the later in his 10th, 30th and 40th respectively) which also led to the tri-murti of Indian Cricket for many years sharing uncountable records amongst the three.

The 90’s saw the batting legend at his mighty best with improvements every year. The year 1998 especially saw him at his brutal best scoring nine ODI centuries in which one was the unforgettable Desert storm innings at Sharjah where he literally won the Coca-Cola cup from the kangaroos which led Mark Taylor to say “We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin”. All the years, he has been compared to the all time greats such as the likes of Gavaskar, Richards, Lara and even Sir Don Bradman although this may never end. Lara in particular went in neck to neck comparison with Tendulkar during the 90’s but they both have been masters of different gameplay altogether. Although a similarity being their failures in captaincy, as every silver lining is surrounded by a dark cloud. Perhaps the only dark spot in the 90’s was his father passing away during the 1999 world cup wherein he left the tournament in middle. What was next to follow was a blistering century in the next encounter against Kenya only two days after attending Ramesh Tendulkar’s funeral. His father always wanted him to do what he did best and that was batting. The century followed with a look up at heaven as if saying to his dad that this one and the ones that are going to follow will be for you. Such was the heart of this genius who’s been the backbone of Indian Cricket for two decades now. He has always had his close buddies Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly majority of times during his landmarks (the former in his 20th and 25th century and the later in his 10th, 30th and 40th respectively) which also led to the tri-murti of Indian Cricket for many years sharing uncountable records amongst the three. All these years all these hundreds have only determined him to grow stronger than ever before and this is the reason that whenever people have thrown stones at him he has always converted them into milestones. He believes in no room for complacency, he never has.

Any individual who has been on the scene for such a long time now, its easy for a satisfaction level to reside in, but his quest for achievement and his hunger for runs even at 37 is just unmatchable. For a man who has had all the records- the highest run-getter in both formats, the leading centurion in both tests and ODI’s. His simplicity is has and will always remain a talking point. Perhaps the 50th ton is just the beginning to the only path that has eluded the batting master, the 2011 World Cup.