ITS ALL ABOUT THE LIVING LEGEND - SR TENDULKAR

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar - A Magical name it has become. Most suited for Adjectives pouring his way. For most of his fans, its a tough question to answer, when somebody asks, "Which is Sachin's best knock ever ?". Most of us can make it easy by mentioning the last knock he played, as it remains in our mind afresh. Ofcourse, 98 against Pakistan in world cup match (ODI) stands right on top of the list for me. As for the test innings, it has got to be 136 against Pakistan at Chennai, simply for the enormous pressure he would have underwent while facing each and every ball. I picked up these two favourites to drive home a point across. In the ODI innings mentioned above, if we all could refresh our memory, Yuvraj and Dravid had 100 run partnership to seal the match for us, whereas in the latter, once Sachin got out, Pakistan took four indian wickets and we could not hit 14 runs. Critics blamed Sachin on that day, whereas he corrected the fate and remained not out and ensured we chase down successfully against England in same venue 9 years later.

Sachin never repeats a blunder. He was not a successful captain apart from his successful series win at Toronto, I am mentioning about the 4-1 series victory over Pakistan. The most critical decision Sachin has taken in his Cricketing career is not to fall for the captaincy trap again. He prefers the role of a Mentor, Senior experienced pro in the team and he has done that with utmost efficiency. If I know him really well as a fan, he kept his eye on two records for sure, one to beat Gavaskar's 34 hundreds and second, to become highest run scorer in tests. This he focussed hard to achieve because he had such a respect for other little master. Once he achieved the second feet, he never looked back. As far as ODIs are concerned, I never got a feeling that he was focussing on records. One has to be kidding if they mention that Sachin was behind some records in ODIs.

A double hundred in ODIs was not discussed even when Sachin was playing demolition cricket in his early years. Who would have thought that he would achieve it when he is 36 yrs old. Sachin always kept Statiscians busy, but hardly he knew that the same Statisticians would turn some figures against Sachin's character on field. I have always observed Sachin being very modest, humble and dedicating his top class knocks to society, examples being Mumbai terror attack victims, double hundred to the people of india, His hundred in 1999 world cup against Kenya dedicated to his father's soul, 2003 world cup knocks to people of india after India showed mediocre performances in first two matches of world cup. His 175 knock against Aussies revived the spirit of ODI cricket after T-20 questioned longer versions of the game. Foreign tour victories, series victories in Australia, Sri Lanka, West indies, No 1 test team ranking. What else this guy has to prove ? Still the critics might hit back at him stating that he has not won the world cup for us and Australia and South africa are unconquered in Test series victories. I sincerely feel that Sachin would be part of those teams also. All we have to do is wait and watch.

I only want the critics to acknowledge the world class performer. Do we ever have replacements for players like Sachin or Dravid ? I dont think so. Recently Dravid has written an article about BCCI scheduling less test matches and likes of Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma mishandling their priorities. These guys measure their talks and if their suggestions are taken well, there will be replacements for Sachin and Dravid.

The recent double hundred was another master class indeed and already it made the world speak up about it. The entire cricketing fraternity, Sachin's childhood coach, fans! everybody has commented about it. For me, Its just not about his double hundred. Its the way he could differentiate himself from rest of others in the indian team, who are, on an average 10 years younger to him. What a dressing room it would be, for the likes of Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit sharma, Yusuf pathan, Ravindra jadeja, Dinesh karthik, M Vijay & S. Badrinath to share with Universe's best batsmen Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Its a proud moment for all the indians when he stepped onto the cricket field 21 years before. Till date, the entertainment never died down and I bet Sachin's personal agenda is to win the world cup for us next year. I am so confident that he is going to achieve it too under Dhoni's able leadership.

Thanks,

Prashy.