Sachin is playing Sachin is playing
Sachin is smashing SIX!
Sachin is playing Sachin is playing
Sachin is smashing FOUR!
Sachin is playing Sachin is playing
Sachin is smashing SIX!
Sachin is playing Sachin is playing
Sachin is smashing FOUR
Sachin is smashing SIX!
Sachin is playing Sachin is playing
Sachin is smashing FOUR!
Sachin is playing Sachin is playing
Sachin is smashing SIX!
Sachin is playing Sachin is playing
Sachin is smashing FOUR
~ Chandrabindu [Bengali Band]
India-Pakistan Test match is going on at Karachi. After losing the toss, Pakistan batted first and registered a massive total of 409 runs in the first innings. In reply, four of India's top order batsmen returned to the dressing room with just 41 runs on the board.
A 16-year-old boy entered the field with the bat. A deadly bouncer of another debutant, Waqar Younis welcomed the boy to Test cricket. Did the teenager leave the field as a retired heart? Was the tender mind scared?
No. He fought. The small humble kid with unruly curly hair fought the most deadly bowling attack of the generation - Wasim Akram, Imran Khan and Waqar Younis. He made 15 runs off 24 balls.
Even the boy did bleed. In the 4th match of the series, a fierce bouncer by Waqar Younis hit him on the nose. His Test white turned half red with blood, his nose was broken. But the boy did not stop fighting. The very next ball of the over, he hit a straight drive that announced the arrival of India's wonder boy who played Cricket like it was made for him.
As a child, Sachin was attracted to playing tennis following the example of his inspiration John McEnroe. His elder sister involved him in cricket. At that time Sachin was only 11 years old. Then his elder sister gave him a cricket bat. Sachin used to go to the field with that bat. Elder brother Ajit Tendulkar took his younger brother to Shivaji Park when he was only 11 years old. There, Sachin started practicing cricket under famous cricket coach Sri Ramakant Achrekar. Tendulkar started practicing there for hours on end. Every time Sachin went to the net, sir Ramakanta would put a one rupee coin over the stumps and the condition was that Sachin would get the coin if he not get bowled. Sachin was able to keep 13 coins with him!
During this time Sachin helped his school to win the Matunga Gujarati Seva Mandal Shield. He also played for John Bright Cricket Club in the Kanga League competition of Bombay and later for the Cricket Club of India. In 1988, Tendulkar scored a century in each innings. In 1988, he formed a record partnership of 664 runs with his friend Vinod Kambli against St. Xavier's High School in the Harris Shield Cricket Tournament. Tendulkar was unbeaten on 326* in that innings and scored over 1000 runs in the entire tournament.
On 14 November 1987, Tendulkar got a chance to play for the Mumbai cricket team in the Ranji Trophy, but did not get a chance to play in the first XI in any match. During the New Zealand tour of India, Tendulkar got a chance to bat against the Indian captain Kapil Dev, who was training in the nets at the Wankhede Stadium and Tendulkar played him easily. After this, Mumbai captain Dilip Vengsarkar gave him his first chance in the Mumbai team.
At just 15 years and 232 days old, Sachin became the youngest Indian cricketer to score a 100 against Gujarat in a domestic first-class match. In the 1988-89 season, Sachin was Mumbai's highest run scorer. He also scored an unbeaten century against the Delhi cricket team for the Rest of India in the Irani Trophy at the beginning of the 1989-90 season. Tendulkar visited England twice in 1988 and 1989. He made his maiden double century (204*) for Mumbai against the Australian national cricket team that toured India in 1997. He scored an unbeaten 233* against Tamil Nadu in the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy in April 2000.
After just one first-class cricket season, in 1989, Raj Singh Dungarpur selected Sachin in the Indian team for the tour of Pakistan. He made his international Test debut in November 1989 at the age of just 16 years and 205 days in the Karachi Test. He played all 4 Tests in the series and scored 215 runs with two fifties. But he scored a duck in his debut ODI. An interesting incident happened there during the ODI series. Sachin had hit Pakistan wrist spinner Mushtaq Ahmed for two sixes, Abdul Qadir approached him and said "Bachchon ko kyun mar rahe ho? Hamein bhi maarke dikhao" ("Why are you only hitting the kid? Hit me too.") Tendulkar duly responded by smashing 28 runs in an over (6, 0, 4, 6, 6, 6) off the bowling of the veteran leg-spinner.
In 1992, a 19-year-old Tendulkar became the first overseas player to represent Yorkshire. He played 16 first class matches and scored 1070 runs at an average of 46.52.
In the first match of the 1998-99 Asian Test Championship held at Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 1999, Tendulkar was run out after colliding with Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar. The audience was outraged by this incident. The umpires stopped the game as the situation was strange. After a while, the game resumed when the spectators calmed down at Sachin's request. In this tournament, Sachin scored hundreds against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Tendulkar was also made the Captain of the Indian cricket team during two tenures. However, his records as a captain were not up to the mark. He has led India in 25 Tests (4 wins, 9 losses and 12 draws) and 73 ODIs (23 wins, 43 losses).
On the tour of West Indies in 2002, Tendulkar touched Donald Bradman's record by scoring his 29th century in the Port of Spain Test. But in the subsequent innings, his score was 0, 0, 8 and 0 runs respectively as a result India lost the series. He broke Donald Bradman's record by scoring his 30th Test hundred against England in August 2002. He helped India reach the final by scoring 673 runs in 11 matches in the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Though India lost to Australia in the final, Sachin was selected as Man of the series. Although he did not perform well in Test cricket in 2003, he bounced back with a great innings of 241* against Australia in Sydney in 2004.
Since then, Sachin has been unable to play cricket for most of 2004 due to elbow injury. On 10 December 2005, Tendulkar set a world record. He scored his 35th Test hundred to surpass Sunil Gavaskar and became the leading centurion in the longest format of the game at Feroze shah Kotla against Sri Lanka.
About a year and a half later, in May 2007, he scored his next Test century against Bangladesh. When South Africa toured India in March 2008, he suffered a groin injury which he picked up in Australia after just playing one innings. As a result, he could not play in the remaining two Tests of the series and the tri-series with South Africa and Bangladesh. He also missed the 2008 Asia Cup and few matches of the IPL which was started that year. India lost the Sri Lanka series in 2008 when he scored 95 runs in three Tests at an average of just 15.83. Tendulkar has been ruled out of the ODI series of that tour due to injury.
But in the next Test against Australia at Mohali in 2008, he touched the 12,000-run milestone and created history, breaking Brian Lara's record (11,953 runs) to become the highest run-getter in Test cricket. In the first four matches of Australia's tour of India in October 2009, Tendulkar scored 14,4,32,40 respectively. In the fifth match, in reply to Australia's massive total of 350/4 in 50 overs, Sachin scored 175 off 141 balls, but in the end, India lost by only 3 runs due to the failure of the middle order batsmen. In this game, Sachin became the first batsman to touch the milestone of 17,000 runs in ODIs.
On 24th February in 2010, Sachin became world's first batsman to score a double hundred in ODI cricket. He made 200 not out from just 147 deliveries against South Africa at Gwalior. In October 2010, Tendulkar reached the milestone of 14,000 runs in Tests during Australia's tour of India.
So many records, so much fame - but no World Cup! He achieved so many feats but the World Cup seemed to be a golden deer for him. He played the last World Cup of his career in 2011 infront of his own countrymen. The noise in the Indian team was 'World Cup for Sachin'. Sachin Tendulkar did his best to win the last World Cup of his career. He scored 482 runs in 9 matches which included two centuries and was the highest run-getter from India and the second highest in the tournament. India defeated Sri Lanka in the final and won the cup. In addition to numerous records, the World Cup title was also written next to his name.
On November 8, 2011, Tendulkar again set a world record as he became the first cricketer to score 15,000 runs in Test cricket in the first Test against West Indies at Feroz Shah Kotla.
On March 16 2012, Tendulkar created history again by scoring his most iconic 100th international century at Mirpur against Bangladesh in the 2012 Asia Cup. Even after this record, India lost that match against Bangladesh.
On 23 December 2012, Tendulkar announced his retirement from One Day cricket due to his poor performance in the series against England. On 26 May, 2013, he announced his retirement from the IPL after his team Mumbai Indians became Champion that year. He also announced his retirement from T-20 cricket and limited overs cricket.
On October 10, 2013, Tendulkar announced that he would retire from all cricket after playing the 200th Test of his life. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) arranged two Test matches against West Indies in November that year in Kolkata and Mumbai. He scored 74 runs in his 200th match in Mumbai. As a result, he ended his international career in Test cricket, just 79 runs short of his 16,000 runs.
India is all about Cricket. In a country like India where Cricket is considered as a religion, Sachin Tendulkar is the God of this religion. When he descended into the crease with a piece of willow, the whole India would come to stagnant situation, keeping their eyes on the TV screen as if the time has stopped; As if nothing could be more important than a shot of Sachin.
Can anyone break Sachin's record of 15921 runs? His record of 100 centuries may also remain elusive. However, the record is set to be broken - maybe Virat Kohli will break these records if his incredible form continues for a few more years. "Sachin ... Sachin ..." The shout may have been shifted to "Kohli ... Kohli ...". But will we ever get back that straight drive of Sachin?
That's probably why Matthew Hayden said, "I Have Seen God. He Bats At No.4 For India In Tests." Sachin Tendulkar is not just a cricketer. He is 'Cricket' himself!
On the 47th Birthday of 'Master Blaster' we wish him a very Happy Birthday. Stay well! Stay healthy!
~ Subham Dey
Contact us: sportsgalaxy.om@gmail.com
[Picture courtesy: Google, Getty images, ICC, Twitter]
"There are two batsmen all around the world: One, Sachin Tendulkar. Two, all others." – Andy Flower, former Zimbabwe captain.
"I don’t know cricket; I don’t know how Sachin plays. But I still try to watch him playing because I want to know why my country’s economy goes down 0.5% when he’s batting." – Barack Obama (former US President)
"The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility – all make for a one-in-a-billion individual." – Glenn McGrath, former Australian bowler.
"When I watched Sachin play, I was very struck by his technique. I never saw myself play, but I feel this fellow is playing much the way I used to play." – Sir Donald Bradman, Australian cricketing legend.
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