The stage is all lit up for the short man who
stands tall
Satish
Viswanathan 4th
September, 2002
Sachin
Tendulkar, the little big man of Indian cricket, is on the threshold
of yet another major milestone of an illustrious career. Come the fourth
and final Test against England at the Oval on Thursday, September 5,
2002, he will join the 100 Tests Club as one of its youngest members.
His entry will be treated with utmost respect, awe even, by the select
gathering already present there. Such is the Indian batting genius’
standing in world cricket.
It has been a long journey
for the 29-year-old from Mumbai. Making his first appearance in Pakistan
as a precocious 16-year-old, Tendulkar was given the dreaded option
of swimming against the tide or sinking with it. He, thankfully, chose
the former and while this is not the forum to talk about his actual
swimming prowess, his cricketing career simply took off and 13 eventful
years hence, he is the first among equals of the highest order.
The honour is fully deserved.
For not only did Tendulkar have to grow up real fast, he had to do so
in front of millions of adoring fans around the world. Every move of
his was watched, every action debated with the flip side being that
every run was cheered. The sheer pressure that he has handled all along
- and will do so for more time to come - would have got to many men
and turned them into boys again, but in Tendulkar’s case, the boy
turned man first and then master.
Talent, he always had in
plenty. To harness it and use it to good effect is always the bigger
challenge and here’s where Tendulkar scored even as some like good
friend Vinod Kambli failed. The weight of expectations was met with
a shrug of the shoulders while a heavy blade was used to deal with the
top of the line bowlers. The little man had a big answer for everything
that was thrown at him and being the gentleman he is, he rarely ever
used words, allowing his bat to do all the talking.
It naturally followed that
every run he added to his burgeoning tally reflected in his bank balance.
The debate about whether he is the world’s greatest cricketer or
not will go on for time immemorial but there’s no doubt that he
is the world’s richest. He sells cars, bikes, tyres, credit cards,
shoes, biscuits even but leaves none in doubt that his bread as well
as butter is cricket and more cricket.
“I really don’t
know what else I would have done had I not played cricket,” he
once said, adding: “I don’t want to do anything other than
play cricket.” Millions and millions of Indians feel the same way,
they don’t want their ‘Tendulya’ to do anything but play
cricket.
And boy! Can he play. Ask
the Australians. Be it their famed fast bowlers or the revered leggie
Shane Warne, Tendulkar has gone after them, Test after Test, and set
up platforms for an eventual Indian win. Ask the Pakistanis, who had
literally drawn first blood during his maiden appearance in the big
arena, and then stood and watched years later as he all but brought
off an incredible win at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai. Actually ask
anybody and everybody as they have all suffered at the hands of the
unassuming Indian, and they will tell you the same thing - this guy
is a genius, 30 Test centuries and 8351 runs being fair testimony to
the fact.
Even genius has its limits
and that perhaps explains why Tendulkar the captain suffers in comparison
to Tendulkar the player. Captaincy didn’t sit too well on the broad
shoulders and this despite the fact that Tendulkar’s cricketing
acumen is unquestionable as can be noted by how he places himself in
the field or when he tucks the ball away for a quick single. Leadership
didn’t quite come as naturally to the quiet Maharashtrian as it
did to fellow Maharashtrian and mentor, Sunil Gavaskar, but to his eternal
credit, Tendulkar was quick to realize his limitations and game enough
to make way for others.
Actually Tendulkar does
go out of his way to accommodate others. He is a fantastic team man
and takes it upon himself to make the youngsters in the team comfortable.
During training camps and on tours, it is not unusual to see Tendulkar
spend most of his time (after he has had a long batting stint that is)
sharing his wisdom with the new lads. His vast experience is for everyone
to absorb and he makes it a point to tell one and all what to expect
in the tough as nails international arena.
What it tells you about
the man is that he is in no way insecure. He doesn’t wait for anyone
to come to him for advice, he offers it irrespective. Not for him the
‘let them ask me, I’ll tell them’ theory. It is how he
treats the opposition bowlers, none of whom have been known to ask for
harsh treatment but get it nevertheless.
He himself has been in
for a fair bit of harsh treatment, not all of it fair but then that’s
how expectations can work against one. Tendulkar has scored 932 runs
from his last 16 innings and is yet considered to be going through a
lean run. Can there be a better compliment?
Of course, on the other
matter of the great batsman having failed to bring off enough victories
for his side, the criticism is slightly more justified. He too admits
that it is one area where he should have done better. He has not won
a Test singlehandedly like Brian Lara or Steve Waugh have done. Neither
has he saved a Test like Michael Atherton did against South Africa when
he batted for over 10 hours. But all said and done, it cannot be denied
that Tendulkar, with an incredible average nearing 60, has contributed
more than his fair share to India’s limited victories. Again it
is only because more and more is expected of him that he comes up short
at times.
The short-statured Tendulkar,
who likes to stand tall, is not one to complain about high expectations.
Instead he has owed to meet every one of them head on. He cannot ask
for a better stage than at the one at the Kennington Oval to pull off
something extraordinary. A victory for India in the final Test against
England through the efforts of Tendulkar would make the 100th Test a
most memorable one. For Tendulkar, the fourth Indian in the 100 Tests
Club, would not have just won a Test for his country, it would also
mean a most rare series win outside the Indian sub-continent.
What a moment that will
be.
