By God, He's God

EVEN when he's miles away from home, putting the world's most feared bowlers to the sword, Tendulkar is omnipresent at the coaching camps that have mushroomed across India's cricket-crazy cities. Monotheism is the unquestioned creed. Sachin is God, the only God. While wide-eyed youngsters, wielding bats heavier than their bodies, want to model their game on the master blaster's, many parents are willing to wager everything on their children in the frenzied search for more Tendulkars. Says Prinann Dutta (13), of Calcutta Boys School: "Sachin is the Boss. I worship him."

So do numerous young cricket enthusiasts. Sachin inspires the kind of fervour generally reserved for Divinity. Not even Gavaskar or Kapil quite had the same impact. They were huge icons of their times, but their exploits were always in the realm of the tangible. Tendulkar's deeds have assumed mythic proportions even as he's only probably a quarter of the way through his career.

Non-stop live TV has helped no doubt, but it's Tendulkar's own aura that's translated into a windfall for the cricket coaching shops. Virtually everyday, a new private coaching centre is unveiled in some corner of India, one of the latest being the Sunil Gavaskar Foundation training scheme in Calcutta. In Delhi, almost every major former cricketer, not to speak of veteran coaches like Drona-charya award-winning Gurcharan Singh, is actively involved with overbooked seasonal or permanent coaching camps. Demand far outstrips supply. Says Dilip Vengsarkar, who runs Mumbai's Elf Cricket Academy: "Sachin's been responsible for the increase in the number of kids taking up serious cricket training." The Calcutta cricketer-turned-coach Gopal Bose says: "Sachin is the No. 1 idol of the boys I coach. There's no other name. Ganguly maybe, but there isn't a third name."

Not surprising at all. He stands alone in the pantheon of cricket's Mt Olympus. Says Aravind Lal (13), a student of Hyderabad's Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan: "Sachin's God's gift to Indian cricket. I dream of emulating him, but can I?" Can anybody? Wonders K. Sai Baba, who runs the MCH-Sport Coaching Foundation: "Is it possible to consciously produce Sachins? A sportsman like him is born once in a way." Quite so. Isn't that why Sachin mania gets bigger and bigger? Ask Gaurav Majumdar, 15, of Calcutta's Julien Day School. "I've idolised Sachin ever since I took to cricket four years ago," he gushes. Adulation's grown into full-blown obsession. The youngster's bedroom walls are plastered with Sachin posters. He's asked his mother to pick up every book, every article that mentions the Big Little Master. "If you idolise Sachin, you don't need to idolise anyone else. He grabs your attention totally," says Gaurav. That's a bit like Sac-hin's game: no half measures.

But when a young cricketer goes gaga over Sachin, he should keep his feet on the ground, warns former Ranji player Vijay Mohanraj, the first to start a private coaching centre at the Secunderabad Gymkhana grounds. "Not everyone can be a Sachin. Coaching is only a part of the learning process. Everything hinges on natural ability." Cricketing abilities do vary at these camps. But the reigning idol is constant. Such is Sachin's power over minds and hearts.