" Cricket is my religion , tendulkar is my god " is a good old quote which I have come across for almost two decades.. So what makes people call him god when there are 1000 s of other talented players occupied in professional cricket ? In our generation for example, there were players like lara, the waugh brothers, ponting, inzamam, dravid who were extremely good batsmen and were lauded by all as great players of their time but none were proclaimed unanimously as " god " . What makes this man tendulkar special ? Of course his numbers are phenomenal but i dont take too much into numbers and beyond the numbers, there is so much this man has given to the game, Indian cricket and to his fans, that anyone who questions tendulkar's credentials as the modern day game's greatest ever batsman can only be termed " cricket illiterate"
My tendulkar memories date back to the 1992 worldcup and the subsequent hero cup when I first got to catch him on tv as an enthusiastic curly haired school boy who batted aggressively,also bowled medium pace ( then ) and also came up with kapil dev in boost ads in doordharshan.My understanding of cricket was very low at that time that i couldnt even decipher the greatness in him.All i knew about him was that he was the "boost boy". Soon my deep love for this great game grew, and the more i saw of tendulkar, the more i loved him.So much that i started drinking boost instead of the usual complan - "the complete planned food" that my mother used to give those days, i was happy to get hurt while playing so that i got the " band aid" endorsed by tendulkar and i would happily act in the same manner in which he had acted in the band aid advertisement.
I began reading The Hindu in class 3 only to follow cricket, and as my understanding and knowledge of the game grew, i began realising how good a player tendulkar was. I can infact vividly recall almost all the memorable knocks of tendulkar in early 90s, be it the hero cup or the singer cup or the australasia cup. His assaults against warne, notably the desert storm innings and subsequent finals, his innumerable brutal attacks on the likes of qadar, akram , younis and aaqib javed at sharjah, him telling people like caddick,gough, brandes,akhtar and olanga to "shut their mouth" in his own style, tearing apart quality bowlers in mcgrath, donald, walsh, ambrose, bishop,lee, pollock, steyn in their own den will always bring back evergreen memories of the game and their childhood memories to every indian cricket fan.
Tendulkar has achieved so much with the bat that even a modern day legend like waqar younis will be better known as " the guy who made his debut in the same match , along with tendulkar", a quality umpire like bucknor will be known as " the guy who gave a shocker when he ruled tendulkar out when the bat was hitting the helmet". Rahul Dravid , for everything he has given to indian cricket, one of modern day cricket's best batsman will always be known as second best, to tendulkar.Sourav Ganguly's odi record of 13000 odd runs wont look massive enough before tendulkar's numbers.
Having accomplished so much and having played a pivotal role in helping india become a cricketing superpower and also accomplishing his childhood dream of a worldcup win in the process, tendulkar did not have anything more to prove to anybody, nor anything more to achieve in the cricketing domain.As a faithful follower of Indian cricket for 2 decades, i always felt that when he retires, he should retire from both the formats at once or keep playing both formats as much as he wanted to (As he is someone who knows what he is doing and need not be told by others to look at his future), without picking and chosing games (which unfortunately he has been doing since the worldcup win, for whatever reason).That approach didnt help him at all, as he lost his rhythm which was quite evident in the last few series and it didnt help the team as well as it didnt allow the team to get a settled combination.
As much as it is heartbreaking to see tendulkar leave the odi arena it should also be remembered that the game will go on with or without tendulkar. The game has always been bigger than the Individuals and it will continue to be so. Now what next for tendulkar ? Having fulfilled the wishes of all the Indian cricket fans for 23 years, one last wish from a greedy indian fan like me would be wishing for tendulkar to stay connected to indian cricket as long as possible. He can make the kohli s and raina s much better players than they are now with his inputs and can still play a role in taking India to no.1 in tests again
In the meantime, i can only thank tendulkar for whatever he has given to the game, to the team and the cricket lovers all over the world. Thanks a lot SRT for inspiring a whole generation. Blessed Iam to have a met you in person twice for autographs, Even more blessed iam to have born in the same era as you were !!!
My tendulkar memories date back to the 1992 worldcup and the subsequent hero cup when I first got to catch him on tv as an enthusiastic curly haired school boy who batted aggressively,also bowled medium pace ( then ) and also came up with kapil dev in boost ads in doordharshan.My understanding of cricket was very low at that time that i couldnt even decipher the greatness in him.All i knew about him was that he was the "boost boy". Soon my deep love for this great game grew, and the more i saw of tendulkar, the more i loved him.So much that i started drinking boost instead of the usual complan - "the complete planned food" that my mother used to give those days, i was happy to get hurt while playing so that i got the " band aid" endorsed by tendulkar and i would happily act in the same manner in which he had acted in the band aid advertisement.
I began reading The Hindu in class 3 only to follow cricket, and as my understanding and knowledge of the game grew, i began realising how good a player tendulkar was. I can infact vividly recall almost all the memorable knocks of tendulkar in early 90s, be it the hero cup or the singer cup or the australasia cup. His assaults against warne, notably the desert storm innings and subsequent finals, his innumerable brutal attacks on the likes of qadar, akram , younis and aaqib javed at sharjah, him telling people like caddick,gough, brandes,akhtar and olanga to "shut their mouth" in his own style, tearing apart quality bowlers in mcgrath, donald, walsh, ambrose, bishop,lee, pollock, steyn in their own den will always bring back evergreen memories of the game and their childhood memories to every indian cricket fan.
Tendulkar has achieved so much with the bat that even a modern day legend like waqar younis will be better known as " the guy who made his debut in the same match , along with tendulkar", a quality umpire like bucknor will be known as " the guy who gave a shocker when he ruled tendulkar out when the bat was hitting the helmet". Rahul Dravid , for everything he has given to indian cricket, one of modern day cricket's best batsman will always be known as second best, to tendulkar.Sourav Ganguly's odi record of 13000 odd runs wont look massive enough before tendulkar's numbers.
Having accomplished so much and having played a pivotal role in helping india become a cricketing superpower and also accomplishing his childhood dream of a worldcup win in the process, tendulkar did not have anything more to prove to anybody, nor anything more to achieve in the cricketing domain.As a faithful follower of Indian cricket for 2 decades, i always felt that when he retires, he should retire from both the formats at once or keep playing both formats as much as he wanted to (As he is someone who knows what he is doing and need not be told by others to look at his future), without picking and chosing games (which unfortunately he has been doing since the worldcup win, for whatever reason).That approach didnt help him at all, as he lost his rhythm which was quite evident in the last few series and it didnt help the team as well as it didnt allow the team to get a settled combination.
As much as it is heartbreaking to see tendulkar leave the odi arena it should also be remembered that the game will go on with or without tendulkar. The game has always been bigger than the Individuals and it will continue to be so. Now what next for tendulkar ? Having fulfilled the wishes of all the Indian cricket fans for 23 years, one last wish from a greedy indian fan like me would be wishing for tendulkar to stay connected to indian cricket as long as possible. He can make the kohli s and raina s much better players than they are now with his inputs and can still play a role in taking India to no.1 in tests again
In the meantime, i can only thank tendulkar for whatever he has given to the game, to the team and the cricket lovers all over the world. Thanks a lot SRT for inspiring a whole generation. Blessed Iam to have a met you in person twice for autographs, Even more blessed iam to have born in the same era as you were !!!
