Sachin Tendulkar's Yorkshire roots helped make him a master of modesty
Sachin Tendulkar was back at Wimbledon at the weekend, acknowledging the crowd's applause in the Royal Box for the fourth year in succession. A boyhood tennis nut, who idolised John McEnroe, India's great batsman spoke afterwards about his hour-long post-match summit with Roger Federer. "What a humble guy!" the Little Master said, immediately pinpointing the supreme quality that impresses him most.
It is the same one that has defined his own 23-year career, a humility in excelsis that has allowed him to weather an unparalleled level of scrutiny and adulation and still seem the unpretentiously modest child prodigy who scored his maiden first-class century at the age of 15.
It was never more apparent than in 1992 when, to much fanfare, he became Yorkshire's first overseas signing after Geoffrey Boycott and the club's cricket committee finally dismantled the Broad Acres-born policy that had, with a few breaches that were brushed under the carpet, prevailed for more than 70 years.
In the late 1970s and 80s, Yorkshire's civil war waged by pro and anti-Boycott factions had left the club thoroughly demoralised, impoverished and moribund both on and off the field. The odd cherished twitch on the thread – winning the John Player League under the captaincy of a 51-year-old Ray Illingworth in 1983 and victory in the Benson and Hedges Cup final at Lord's four years later – papered over the cracks. But the once-dominant county had been usurped in the championship by the new powerhouses of Essex and Middlesex.
