It’s hard to believe that Sachin Tendulkar, the forever boy-next-door, the shaper of destiny, the icon who entertained and enthralled, has turned 50. Then again, when you reflect on the fact that his son himself is a first-class cricketer who recently made his IPL debut as well, 50 doesn’t seem that incredible, either.
Even to a generation of Indian cricket fans weaned on the exploits of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli, the name ‘Tendulkar’ is bound to trigger strong feelings. To followers of an earlier vintage who lived and breathed Tendulkar from the time he made his international debut as a baby-faced 16-year-old, those nine letters constituted more than a name. Tendulkar was an emotion, the boy wonder through whom we lived our lives vicariously, who carried the hopes and aspirations and dreams of millions and did so with panache, humility, staggering consistency and always with his feet firmly planted on the ground.
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The legend of Tendulkar the batsman is too well documented to bear detailed repetition. He made a name for himself in schoolboy cricket in association with his great pal Vinod Kambli, announced his credentials in first-class cricket with hundreds on debut in the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Irani Trophy, as well as the limited-overs Deodhar Trophy, and broke down in tears when he was not selected for the tour of the Caribbean in early 1989, when he was but 15. The selectors felt he was too young and vulnerable to be thrown into the deep end, Tendulkar held the conviction that he had what it took to negate the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Ian Bishop, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.
By November of that year, his credentials could no longer be overlooked, and thus it was that he was on the flight to Pakistan to square up to the likes of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, a young Waqar Younis and Abdul Qadir, among others. Pakistan was aghast; they feared for the little boy up against their mean fast bowlers, they worried for his physical well-being. In a matter of a month and a half, they joined the rest of the world in rising to salute the skill and spirit of the teenager.
In an exhibition one-dayer, Tendulkar took down the wily leg-spin of Qadir with some of the most towering sixes of the time. In the fourth Test in Sialkot, after being hit on his face and left bleeding by Waqar, he furiously waved off the physio and went on to make a mature 57. Tendulkar left Indian shores as a boy; by the time he returned, he had transformed into a man on his way to becoming a superman, though it was impossible not to think of him as anything more than a young lad with a squeaky, breaking voice to go with his cherubic countenance.
While Tendulkar earned the respect and admiration of the cricketing world with his exploits in Pakistan, back in India, he became a demi-God, a status he continued to enjoy for the 24 years of his international career and beyond. Virtuosos came and went; the Azharuddins and the Vengsarkars made way for the Dravids and the Gangulys, the Sehwags and the Laxmans, who were then joined by the Dhonis and the Kohlis, but it was Tendulkar who held the nation’s attention and enjoyed its undiluted admiration until he hung up his boots in November 2013.
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His fascinating cricketing journey overlapped with an exciting phase of the opening up of the Indian economy, with liberalisation exposing Indians to things they had only heard of in the past. Amongst the prime influxes from a sporting perspective was live television, which further embellished the legend of Tendulkar.
Long before Tendulkar, the other little big man from Mumbai, Sunil Gavaskar, had carried the Indian batting on his broad shoulders for more than a decade and a half. Since breaking through with a whopping 774 runs in four Tests in the Caribbean in 1971, Gavaskar became a marked man, the one Indian wicket every opposition craved. Saddled with the expectations of a country that was just beginning to establish itself on the cricketing map, Gavaskar went past Sir Don Bradman’s mark of 29 Test centuries and then became the first man to pass 10,000 Test runs.
Most of his heroics were heard rather than seen; in Tendulkar’s case, whether he was bashing the big Aussies in Perth or dismantling Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock in Cape Town, live pictures flooded our living rooms and allowed us to live our dream. Tendulkar became the beacon of hope, the one rallying point for all Indians everywhere in the world. No cause was lost till he was in the middle, no problem insurmountable till such time that he was wielding his heavy willow like a scimitar. When Tendulkar reached a milestone, India celebrated with gusto; when he failed, a pall of gloom descended over the country. With all due respect to the numerous other champion sportspersons the country has produced, no one icon influenced the mood of the nation as comprehensively and compellingly as Tendulkar did.
Through all of this, Tendulkar remained innately relatable. His genius was unparalleled, of course, but it was the way in which he carried himself that boggled the mind. He had the world at his feet, he had celebrities and Common Joe eating out of his hand, but wore his greatness lightly, propelled by the values imbibed from his scholarly father and a solid, uncomplicated middle-class upbringing which he wore proudly and without compromise. History is replete with instances of the extraordinary struggling to come to grips with fame and money and immense popularity. Tendulkar stood out as a shining example of modesty (none of it false), his respect for the sport and his gratitude for the wishes and cheers and love of his legion of fans both endearing and enduring.
Chants of ‘Saa-chin Sachin’ accompanied him to the crease and drove him to great heights, as he acknowledged during his touching, heartfelt farewell speech on his final day as a Test cricketer at the Wankhede Stadium when there was nary a dry eye. Typically understatedly, after all the festivities were dispensed with, he walked to the centre of the ground and paid obeisance to the 22-yard strip. What an extraordinary champion!
Cricket’s been as integral a part of the Tendulkar persona as Tendulkar is of the sport’s landscape. As he brings up another half-century, he can maybe put his feet up and allow himself to slip into the role of a proud father, watching Arjun go about his business carrying the weight of a glorious surname that more than once translated a billion dreams into reality.
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