Sachayee ki kasam, aaj jo kahunga
sach kahunga. Sachin , oops I mean sirf Sach hi Sach, in ke siwa kuchh nehin
kahunga......
A misty evening of 1987 winter.
We, a bunch of 12-14 yr olds, were done with our daily bit of cricket and with
our share of casual chit-chats. My maternal uncle, who I still admire as the
greatest follower of the game of cricket was, almost like a Whatmore, giving us
a pep-talk. On any other day, he would throw at us some anecdotes from 1983
world cup and then the audi aura. This day was different. He just pulled out a
local news magazine (prajatantra saptahiki, from those good old days). That’s
the only thing we always used to read from the last page. It was a story about
these two young boys from Bombay smashing their way to a world record
partnership of 664. We were like , awwww- a partnership of 664 runs!!! Little
we knew at that point in time that we were to destined to have sach (such) a
reason to be happy for the next two decades.
No hitherto existing adjective could
probably be sufficient to describe Sachin Tendulkar, the phenomenon. My
intention has never been to undermine the contribution of others to this
beautiful game of cricket. However, when it comes to single out a reason for
myself to describe why I loved this game so much I may not even have to shed a
hundredth of a second. The name silently grew from the tranquillity of that
misty evening to the uneasy calmness of inevitability through every single
cricketing day.
As the Indian team travelled across
the border, it signalled the start of a wonderful journey -the journey, not of
Sachin, but of mine. The journey that could not have been scripted better. The
journey that was filled with fun, loaded with emotions, bumped by expectations
of unmatchable magnitude not exceeded, tagged with an incommunicable sense of
feeling that was sometimes sweeter than sweet and sometimes more painful than pain.
Now when I take a pause and look back with poise, I see a journey that has been
so superbly embarked on and so amazingly performed.
I enjoyed the thrashing of Abdul Qadir
like any other Indian would have. The
thrill of listening to the commentary on AIR is still unmatched even after 24
years of serious following of sports across the globe. The arrival on the biggest
stage was loud and clear. Then on it was a seamless travel for me across the
countries, across the cricketing venues and over weeks, months, years and
decades. Now this inevitable does not make me feel depressing nor does it make
me wish for anything more.
The agony over the missed ton at Napier
in 1990, the joy of the maiden century at Old Trafford in 1991, the graduation
from a boy wonder to a little master at WACA 1992, the redefining of one day
cricket at Auckland in 1994, the baptising at Johannesburg in 1992, the Sydney saga that also began in 1992, the
first ODI hundred in Colombo in 1994, the anguish over the 1996 world cup
semi-final at Eden, the Nottingham masterpiece in 1996, the desert storm at Sharjah in 1998 that became
a folklore in latter days, the chepauk and chinnaswamy mauling in 1998 that
gave warnie nightmares, the incurable pain of Chepauk in 1999, shrugging off
the irreparable loss of his father and turning around for a business like ton
against Kenya in 1999 world cup, the upper cut at Bloemfontein in 2001 that
must have come from 10+years of experience, the even more audacious one that was
specially reserved to derail the
Rawalpindi express , the Durban pull in
2003 (ask Andy Caddick), the
straight-drives that would have gone past the best of the bowlers in business a
thousand times, the Sydney masterclass of 2004, the history-making at Gwalior
in 2008, the healing touch from
Chennai at the backdrop of 26/11 in
2008, the repeat of a Sharjah in the CB series best-of-three finals in
Australia in 2008, the Aussie thrashing again at Hyderabad in 2009, the
resurgence of vintage Sachin in 2010, the capetown revisit in 2011, the arrival
of the long eluded trophy in 2011, the history making in 2012 and finally the walk into the sunset……Thanks
Sachin for giving us what you have given us.
As Sachin travelled, travelled
dreams of a billion. As he straight drove past the bowler, drove crazy a
billion feet. As he stepped out to loft over the bowler’s head, stepped up the
hopes of an entire nation. As he punched one through the covers, punched the
fists of a billion. As he square cut a rising outswinger, squared fairly the
duel over bowlers’ reputations. As he paddle swept, swept away the opposition’s
plans to contain the run machine. As he
released the pressure of the batsman at the other end, put under pressure were
the opposition bowlers. As he raised his bat acknowledging the applause, raised
the wave of his supporters’ pride. As Sachin lived his dreams over 24 years, we lived HIM with huge privilege and distinct
pride.
I have absolutely no clue how
someone can actually remain so humble, so unassuming and so sane. I keep saying
this to my folks, if I were Sachin Tendulkar I would have employed someone to
run for me in the middle. Before 1989 it was just ‘cricket’ for me, then came ‘Sachin’
and from now on it would be just ‘cricket’ again. At this moment as I steal a
glance of the sunset and evolution of this beautiful game with incredibly huge
sense of contentment I can only say THANK YOU SACHIN for having been there and
done that!
