Yet Another Record, Yet Another Eulogy

"He is someone sent from up there to play cricket and go back." --Ravi Shastri.

"Woh to heera hai, bhagwan ne usko tarash kar banaya hai."(He is a diamond and God has taken special efforts in creating him) -- ChetanChauhan.

"He is a genius. I'm a mere mortal." -- Brian Lara.

Words describing a gifted sportsman? Not quite. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar hasceased to be a mere sportsman.

At 27, he is more than a phenomenon.

Much too much has been written about him and more than that, the man himselfis busy writing record books anew, sending us poor hacks scurrying around forappropriate adjectives to put in a "yet another eloquent eulogy" thatour editors seem to demand with exasperating regularity. Not that one mindswriting about his exploits - writing on Sachin scoring 10,000 runs is certainlyfar more pleasurable than, say, on Rs. 10,000 paid to one Raju Venkatesh atBangaru's house. All right, all right, granted the analogy isn't very apt, butisn't there something inevitable -- and almost banal -- about both? (Now if one were to write about the first time such an amountwas paid, it'd be a different ballgame all together, I guess.)  

(Very fitting too, by the way, that Sachin became the first player to reach10,000 runs in one-dayers - after all, it was his "guide andphilosopher", the other little master, Sunil Gavaskar, who was the first tonotch up 10,000 runs in Tests.)

But it is not only the hacks who are kept busy by the current little master.The ever-polite, serious and sombre young man has been a problem for the mensending down the red cherry from the very beginning. From the days when he was"shorter than the stumps, when he had his own method of communication withweaker peers and that was bashing them up for no reason". One whom elderswould point to and ask their wards to be exactly the opposite of. A picture ofthe perfect brat, the guy  never thought that as the son of a renownedMarathi scholar his priorities should be different. But who would think of himas a brat now?

To recount a tale told many a time before, it was elder brother Ajit -- whomSachin emulated by taking to the game -- who acted as a catalyst in channelisingthe younger sibling's energies. The result? A meeting with cricketing guruRamakant Achrekar and a shift to Shardashram Vidya Mandir -- a place whereeducation never interfered with cricket. "I used to bat in four nets atone stretch. Whenever, I use to get tired, Achrekar sir used to keep a one rupeecoin on top of the stumps and say, 'anyone who gets him out will take this coin.If no one gets him, Sachin takes it'."  He still attributes thoseone rupee coins for being the secret of his concentration.

It was under Achrekar that Sachin's fascination for power and speed tookshape and he embarked on a journey as a bowler's nightmare. But the masterblaster doesn't " like this word dominate".  "I don't evergo in with thoughts of dominating a bowling attack. I just go out and playpositive. My game is to play my shots. If I don't do that, I won't score anyruns. I'd rather say I try to play positive."

The famous 329 in a school final when he shared an unbroken stand of 664 withclose friend Vinod Kambli, centuries on debut in Ranji, Duleep and IraniTrophies, a gritty 59 as a 16-year-old against a venomous Pakistani attack,becoming the second youngest player at 17 to score a Test century , the youngestto get a century in Tests in Australia and becoming the first overseas player at19 to represent Yorkshire in 130 years, etc, etc have been invaluableexperiences the receptive youngster has allowed to sink in and learn from,transforming himself into the leaner and meaner run-machine he is today.

So how complete is the curve? "Oh, not yet. The problem is that there isso much cricket and I find it hard to concentrate all the time. I am not workingfor hundreds as perhaps I should, but I am trying to keep my best energy forTest matches. I wish we played more Tests." As for setting records, he doesnot lose sleep over them. "I don't like goals in front of me..they affectyour game if you start thinking about these. Better to just play normally andlet things happen. If they have to happen, they will happen. You can't will themto happen. Ultimately it is a matter of destiny. There is still a long way togo. Let's see if my form and fitness remain."

This is the talk of the modern mega-sportsman --  also the talk of athinker and a realist who understands the demands of the long and potentiallytreacherous road ahead. Let's spare a thought for Brian Lara.

Talking of Lara forces one to talk of flip sides. Sachin's back injury in1999 threatened to ruin his career and speculation was immense. Newspapers andmagazines carried detailed medical diagnosis and plainly asked whether hiscareer was over. Far from it. But Sachin' 's two stints as captain (success rateof 32.8% in ODIs and 25.6% in Tests) have left room for a lot of criticism. Hefound the task of marshalling a disparate group difficult and on top of that,his batting took a beating. At the moment, Tendulkar has no problems playingunder Sourav Ganguly. "When I gave up the captaincy, the situation demandedso. However, I have never said that I will not lead India again. I am prettyopen to the idea of leading India if the situation comes to such a stage."

Apart from a sharp cricketing brain (the man remembers all the dismissals ofhis career and the bowlers who got him), he has also been a thoroughprofessional in his approach. Long before cricket became the multi-croreindustry it is today, he got together with Mark Mascarenhas and WorldTel andsigned a landmark deal that guaranteed crores of income from endorsements.Amidst all the mudslinging in the match-fixing controversy he is perhaps the onlycricketer whose integrity has never ever been questioned. Given his intensityand commitment towards the game, no bookie would dare approach him. Whileseveral TV advertisements featuring cricketers have been taken off the air afterthe match-fixing scandal, Sachin remains an eminently saleable commodity.

What can be a better testimonial to your status as a hero than to have anentire chapter in the plus-two English curriculum in Orissa?  Not to talkof  the video, made for Don Bradman's 90th birthday party -- which he wasamong the chosen few to be invited to and attended -- showing the uncannyresemblance of their batting styles. Or the Aussies voting Sachin as the best inthe business after their last visit...

But the man remains unfazed.

There's this story. Apparently during a shoot for Pepsi, the ad-directorwanted to depict Tendulkar dispatching and bludgeoning the bowlers all over with,well, a fly swatter. Sachin refused. "The ad would indicate that I ambigger than the game." And refused to shoot forcing the  director tochanged the script. The modified version finally had Sachin hitting the ballwith a stump along with the jingle that went "Ae Sachin aaya re bhaiyya."

For all his humility ("I can't ask for anything more. I always maintainthat if you score runs, it should be useful and your team ends up winning,") Sachin's hunger to scale greater heights remainsundiminished (and the guy certainly does keep a note of his stats - notice howhe commented about his nearing 100 one day wickets? Now why didn't Sourav justgive him the ball and allow him to take 100 wickets as well? At least would havesaved us the bother of writing one more eulogy when that happens)

"I have ambition, fierce ambition, but I keep it to myself" as theman said once. Wonder what that is. 30,000 runs? 100 Centuries? 

But, hey, is anybody complaining?