GOD (Sachin Tendulkar) Redefines Greatness

24th February is a special date in the history of world cricket. In 1988 on this date a 13 year old school boy entered the record books by sharing a 664 run partnership with his best friend Vinod Kambli for Sharda ashram School. 22 years later on the same day,
that same kid has obtained the feat of greatness by being the first cricketer on the planet to score an ODI double hundred. We are referring to THE GREAT SACHIN TENDULKAR.

His innings of 200 not out was a huge feather in his cap. The innings was full of class, elegance and a statement “people you have a long way to go to even get close to how I bat” I think the existing and future cricketers can only dream of it! There was sense of nervousness when he was in his 190’s, at one point I thought Hashim Amla was my man of the match as he saved that hard smack from Dhoni on the square leg boundary on the 2nd ball of the final over. Else the way Dhoni was going was worried whether the Master would get his chance to achieve glory.

The legend Sunil Gavaskar said “I would like to touch his feet”, Shane Wane tweets “Nervous for my good friend Sachin everything crossed for you mate”. These words have come from the stalwarts of the game for this occasion, so this has to be some feat!! Some achievement!! Some event!! And an event it was, On the 298th ball of the Innings that nudge to the point for a single brought life of all the cricket lovers round the world to a pause!!

However, nothing changed for the man himself, 200 runs in an ODI innings just seem to be like another innings! the routine removal of the helmet, looking up at the heavens and thanking the almighty, such is the simplicity of this little Genius

Ex-cricketers criticized him time and again and all that the legend did was to not react and just let his bat do the talking and all that the critics did was chew their criticism and take a bow to the master blaster

One can go on talking and writing about his feats and records and the time and pages won’t be enough, but what is commendable is his 20 years is the way he has maintained himself, never got carried away by glamour and always was miles away from controversies. The phrase “great things happen to good people" seems to have been designed for this great man.

The level of commitment that is displayed each time he takes the field is breath taking, He may be 36 but when on field he still is a teenager, ever so involved in the game. The 20 year journey has not been an easy one, especially when in most of those years he single handedly carried the burden of expectations of a billion Indians. And how well has he handled that! During this journey he has gone through career threatening injuries (Back and Tennis Elbow) but this champion changed his style of play time and again. The expansive shorts were reduced to cheeky paddle sweeps and deft touches. However, while changing his style he still ensured that bowlers are still scared to bowl at him.The twin centuries against Australia at Sharjah in 1998, Century against Pakistan in 1999 at Chennai, The disciplined 241 against Australia at Sydney and The 175 against Australia in 2009 while chasing a huge target are some of his many great innings which could never be erased from the memory.

At 36, He is only going stronger (touchwood!!) last year has seen him 6 and 4 centuries in Tests and ODI’s respectively. Highest run scorer in test match cricket, Highest run scorer in ODI cricket, Highest number centuries in both versions of the game and now the only player to score a double hundred in ODI. Wonder how many more records are going to be created!! or should I say how many new benchmarks is he going to set for himself?

Sir, Thank you for entertaining us for the past 20 years, I wish and will pray that you continue to do so for years to come. You bring happiness to billions in India and around the world, so much that when you are on the field our emotions and reactions are based on your little gestures and reactions

Someone made a very apt statement

“I know how the God looks like, He is 5.5, a Maharshtrian and he plays cricket, He is none other than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar”!!