“I have seen God – he comes in to bat at No. 4 for India.” –
Matthew Hayden.
“He has been in form longer than some of our guys have been
alive!” – Daniel Vettori.
A short man with a bat that looks heavier than him stands in
front of the stumps. He looks up once, and then takes guard, ready to face the
opposition attack. On his helmet, you see a tiny tricolor, and on his shirt is
painted the number 10. In the stands and outside, a billion enthusiasts await
with bated breath.
Welcome to a new religion – one that truly unites all of
India. For the time that this man spends on the pitch, all differences are
forgotten. Every eye is fixed and focused on the Little Master. For he is no
ordinary man. He is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
World cricket has seen a few defining moments in the modern
era – be it cutting a 150 kmph Shoaib Akhtar delivery for six, or driving Glenn
McGrath straight down the ground, or gently paddle-sweeping a Shane Warne
turner, or even stepping out to the likes of Muttiah Muralitharan – and the one
constant in all of those moments has been Sachin Tendulkar.
The longevity of his career bears testimony to his hunger
and will. To play 200 test matches over 24 years, and end up with an average
over 53 and close to 16,000 runs is quite simply an unbelievable achievement.
These numbers are staggering in their own capacity, but add to that the glowing
success of 463 ODI’s where he scored over 18,000 runs, capped off with the
World Cup triumph in 2011, and you have the personification of greatness.
It was but inevitable that the Master would bow out as a
winner. He won his last Test match, his last One Day International, his
last(and only) Twenty Twenty International, his last Ranji Trophy game, his
last IPL game, and his last Champions League T20 game. Sachin has won every laurel known to the
cricketing world, and deservedly so. He is now also the first sportsperson, and
the youngest recipient of the Bharat Ratna – the highest civilian honour
bestowed upon an Indian. He has broken more records than one can count, and has
created even more new records. The curtains may have finally fallen on a
glittering 24-year long career, but the memories still linger on.
It is hard to imagine an Indian batting line-up without the
familiar name of Tendulkar. Because for well over two decades, whenever the
ball hit his bat, it never stopped. Only schools, colleges, offices and nations
did.