WisdenIndia Extra Sachin

ISSUE 4, NOVEMBER 2013
SACHIN SUNSET
THE
A TRIBUTE TO a GLoriouS 24 YEARS. THANK YOU, SACHIN TENDULKAR
contents
THEMES

BeYOnd the hUndRedS

A profile of Tendulkars best below-100 scores in Tests and ODIs By Saurabh Somani | 46
ShAPinG LeGendARY StROKeS

The man who carves bats for Tendulkar on the batsmans preferences By Kritika Naidu | 49
06 THE FACe BEHIND THE MASK OF SAnitY

By Dileep Premachandran | You could make out what Tendulkar was proud of, and what he would regret. But you would have to fill in the blanks for yourself
From the Wisden India archives 60

By Dileep Premachandran
FOr LOVE Of tHE gaME
11 MY initiAtiOn intO SUPeRStitiOn
28 tiMeLine | By Nisha Shetty
Sachin Tendulkar: From start to finish
By R Kaushik | Anil Kumble on the tense lead-up to Tendulkars first hundred when the dressing room was more nervous than the 17-year-old
Tendulkars blade may no longer be as sharp as a 16-year-old prodigys but he remains singular in the limits he continues to push 23 years later
64
14 The PROPhet WhO tAUGht IndiA hOW tO Win

By Shashi Tharoor | Tendulkar embodies the best of what India can be a world leader whose achievements elicit universal admiration
By Suresh Menon
A LittLE bUggEr wHO CaN PLay
There was no plan to play the 16-yearold in a One-Day International then; you didnt throw teenagers into the deep end
18 The PROSPeCt OF hiS AbSenCe

By Supriya Nair | He will no longer be there to enchant us back into childhood
66
By Lawrence Booth
WaitiNg fOr SaCHiN
24 A PieCe OF OUR hURt By Saurabh Somani | When their favourite son was not well, the nation truly
wanted to know what was wrong with him
Throughout the summer of 2011, England waited for Tendulkars 100th international century, but there was a sadness that went beyond the landmark when he failed
69
By Mike Selvey
A HUNdrEd rEaSONS tO SMiLE
58 nOStALGiA
30 The MAtCh in WhiCh WAQAR SMAShed hiS nOSe

By Salil Ankola | Even Sachin didnt know then that he would score 100 centuries. But we knew he would play 100 Tests at least
Writers on their favourite SRT moment
Twenty-one fruitless Test match innings and a dozen in ODIs before the 100th hundred. Sometimes even the gods manifest themselves as mortal for a while
33 I PRAYed FOR SAChin

72
74
By Mushtaq Mohammad | He was very likeable and asked me to help him fix his bat that had become too whippy
A tO Z
By Dileep V | A colourful look at Tendulkars 24-year-long career
Tendulkars first interview is a reminder of a time when players actually spoke their mind without fear of the consequences
By Anjali Doshi
SaCHiN, aNd tHE agE Of iNNOCENCE
36 IndiA WeRe MeeK, bUt SAChin JUSt hAd thAt LOOK

By Kritika Nadu | Matthew Hayden, John Wright, Sourav Ganguly, Muttiah Muralitharan and Alan Wilkins on Tendulkars greatness
40 He MeAnt SO MUCh tO the COMMOn MAn

78 The WALL OF MeMORY

PiCtUReS Tendulkar through a kaleidoscope
By Sidhanta Patnaik and Disha Shetty | Tendulkar has influenced countless lives and even shaped the careers of many
By Tarika Khattar | In an age when the image, moving or still, is so essential to projecting memory, how will you remember Tendulkar?
52
44 NO tAntRUMS, SOFt SPOKen, neVeR tOUGh On PeOPLe

81 The nUMbeRS PROVe hiS GReAtneSS

By Saurabh Somani | When Tendulkar was in the zone, it was all about his batting being in a rarefied air; everything else was merely incidental
By Sidhanta Patnaik | Former teammate and friend Subroto Banerjee on how and why Tendulkar is who he is
Compiled by Manish Adhikary | Designed by Ashish Mohanty | All pictures published as part of The Sachin Sunset are courtesy of Getty Images, AFP and Wisden India Archive
6 THE SaCHiN SUNSEt
DILEEP PREMACHANDRAN
The face behind the
mask of sanity
YOU COULD MAKE OUT WHAT TENDULKAR WAS PROUD OF, AND WHAT HE WOULD REGRET. BUT yOU WOULD HAVE TO FILL IN THE bLANKS FOR yOURSELF. HE WOULDNT DO IT FOR yOU
DILEEP PREMACHANdRAN
omeone once asked if I considered what After all, I was being paid to watch sport. My answer was both yes and no.
I did for a living to be proper work. Most days, you were living a dream,
get inside their heads, especially when you spoke to them, was incredibly difficult, because there was nothing in your own life that you could use as a handle constant attention with such equanimity. guideline. Id never know what it was to be in the Indias politicians drive most of its citizens to
yours and thousands of others. But at other times, it was the hardest job in journalism. Unlike political and mediocrity. It was my job, as an ordinary Joe beat, in those years, didnt include a surfeit of sleaze with no pretensions to greatness, to try and make
zone, to accomplish such staggering feats, or to despair. In most cases, an election is a matter of and Tabu, without even venturing into non-Hindi cinema are usually consigned to supporting
journalists and those that chronicled Bollywood, my
choosing the lesser evil. Our most talented actors
sense of brilliance. For more than a decade, I was in close proximity to those that excelled. Trying to
and actresses think Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri roles or offbeat movies that few watch. Those the
MORE THAN A PLAYER Its unlikely that any other sporting great has shouldered the burden of expectation the way Sachin did, and that too for a quarter of a century.
8 THE SaCHiN SUNSEt
DILEEP PREMACHANDRAN
Sachin is not as flamboyant or as arrogant as Viv Richards even though Sachin has more ability.... He never displayed arrogance, something that Sunil Gavaskar did sometimes.
Kapil Dev
media obsesses over are usually cardboard cutouts, without a smidgen of the talent that a Javier Bardem or a Meryl Streep possesses. In a culture intent on Kumble and Sehwag truly were men apart. celebrating those with such modest achievements, the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman, Among them, Tendulkar was undoubtedly first
series against Australia. This gentleman, who I saw only that one time, asked him how it felt to emerge from a bad patch. lesser person would have come out with a cruel barb about the mans hazy grasp of facts. But Tendulkar, It was Tendulkars third hundred in five Tests. A
among equals. You could fathom that easily from the way the others spoke of him. For Sehwag, he was an Laxman, who batted so beautifully in tandem with him, talked of Tendulkar, it wasnt just as a teammate. idol, the batsman he had always wanted to be. When
who looked at him respectfully while answering, put him down gently, merely stating the numbers and moving on. Often, humility is just a glib word thrown was seen in action. haphazardly into sporting sketches. In this case, it hero. Ive come across very few people who were as learned or wise. But when it came to Tendulkar, on the TV being moved to the room where he was convalescing, just so he wouldnt miss Tendulkars batting on Indias first tour of South Africa. Four years later, despite now being in his 80s, The second man, my grandfather, was my first
Time and again, the fan in him would come out, and his eyes would sparkle as he talked of how quickly what the bowler was going to send down. In another man, such demigod status might have
victory in Barbados. Tendulkar was the fourth wicket to fall. Azharuddin and Ganguly remained, with 88
Tendulkar picked length or how he could predict just caused barriers to be raised. But whether it was with
he too would lose his sense of perspective. When, in his late seventies, he fractured his leg, he insisted
more needed, but my grandfather, who had followed while studying law there, asked me to switch the TV desire to see it. off. He knew what would happen next, and had no for so long? Pele played club football for 21 years, but only 14 of them were spent dealing with the
daily reality. For 24 years.
the game since he watched Jardines side in Madras
of such a person? Maybe his
dearest friends did. Very few
How could you make sense
CRICKET COMRADES When Laxman (right) talked of Tendulkar, it wasnt just as a teammate. Time and again, the fan in him would come out.
journalists got close enough to see behind the mask Without that little distance, that small bubble in two seasons. which to breathe, he may not have lasted more than
the other golden boys, or those that came along years later, Tendulkar never seemed to be anything other than one of the lads. It didnt matter if it was a bowler like Zaheer Khan, or a promising batsman like Virat Kohli or Cheteshwar Pujara. They would all speak dressing room. He was a hero who was also a mentor. It wasnt just the young or those that knew him
Has any sportsman carried a greater burden
that was essential for him to maintain his sanity.
he would insist on being woken up in the middle of the night when India toured the Caribbean. By then, Parkinsonism had taken over. But no matter how tired he was, he would perk up when Sachin came to the crease. There were times when I joked that times, I was almost convinced it was true.
great expectations that went with wearing a Brazil
of how he made sure they felt they belonged in the that came under his spell. When I think of Tendulkar,
shirt. Muhammad Ali shouldered the weight of race responsible for no one but himself. Michael Jordan spent his golden years representing a city with a population of two million. Each time he went out to bat, as if he wasnt
and civil rights politics, but within the ring, he was
a little beneath the surface, unearth a little more
information. But it was seldom enough to draw a I left thinking of what Greta Garbo, who spent many
Each time you spoke to him, you could scratch
composite picture. The first time I interviewed him, years as a recluse after her days as a matinee idol, you can never tell to another person. They are you, your private joys and sorrows, and you can never tell when you tell them. had once said: There are many things in your heart them. You cheapen yourself, the inside of yourself,
I often recall two old men. The first was at a press
he loved him more than he did his grandson. Other The only time I ever saw him old and defeated was the day India unravelled while chasing 120 for Even as his health failed, his spirit never flagged.
conference in Chennai 12 years ago, after Tendulkar had made 126 in the third and final Test of that epic
already aware, Tendulkar was constantly reminded that he carried with him a nations hopes. India
Expects wasnt the title of some TV show. It was his
10 THE SaCHiN SUNSEt
11
magnified his triumphs, or dwelt too long on the failures. You could make out what he was proud of, in the blanks for yourself. He wouldnt do it for you. and what he would regret. But you would have to fill The only time I saw the guard down was the one
Tendulkar was much the same. He never
will eventually have its way. As Wright Thompson means losing things, and not just eyesight and flexibility. It means watching the accomplishments through cultural amnesia.
wrote in a superb profile of Michael Jordan: Aging of your youth be diminished, maybe in your own eyes
Even with Tendulkar though, you know that time
1990, Old Trafford: My initiation
time we spoke on a fire escape at St. Georges Park in Port Elizabeth, after Chennai Super Kings had knocked his Mumbai Indians out of IPL 2. I wont account of all the lapses that had combined to make forget the controlled anger, or the near-forensic
through perspective, maybe in the eyes of others raises his bat to the crowd for the final time, I will What will we remember most? By the time he
into superstition in international cricket.
the campaign a disaster. Those close to him had was a casual game of pool at 3am. That evening, with more about the man than four full-length interviews that took in thousands of words. a chill wind blowing in from the bay, I found out for
often told me how much he hated to lose, even if it myself. Those 15 minutes off the record told me far As the years passed, the way the country
have watched him play 79 Test matches. He already 13 of his Test centuries live, and at least another 25 in real time on television. I was on live radio for Gavaskars record of 34 centuries. the BBC, and probably way more nervous than he But at end of it, all these years later, its not the
had 80 caps by the time I covered my first. I watched
ANIL KUMbLE RELIVES THE TENSE LEAD-UP TO TENDULKARS FIRST HUNDRED WHEN THE DRESSING ROOM WAS MORE NERVOUS THAN THE 17-yEAR-OLD bENT ON SAVING A TEST MATCH FOR INDIA
was, that Delhi afternoon when he surpassed Sunil back-foot drives or the hundreds that epitomise Tendulkar for me. It was a ball he bowled in Multan back in 2004. The final one of the fourth days play, it was a googly that bamboozled Moin Khan. Even now, I can see the joy writ large on his face the look houseguest to sit on a whoopee cushion. Eight years later, when I mentioned it to him, I glimpsed the same expression. That joy, that childlike delight he got from playing the game, was Tendulkars greatness. Once, when that Barbados defeat was mentioned, R KAUSHIK
perceived him also changed. Once, he was the boy he has become fair game for many. Some were irritated by his silence on cricket subjects great welcome. Another group, ignorant of both his career being reliant on him for success. details and sporting history, constantly belittled his
wonder who could do no wrong. By journeys end, and small. Others thought he had overstayed his achievements, especially once the team stopped to the other extreme, behaving like the irrational journalists or commentators that dared suggest that Irked by this, his most passionate followers went
of a mischievous child whod finally got the prim
lunatics who comprise various cults. Any criticism he was less than perfect would quickly be buried under an avalanche of contempt. He became yet another holy subject that couldnt be debated without emotion taking over and logic leaving the room.
of Tendulkar was considered sacrilege. Players,
I saw him wince. I did too, for other reasons. Over than just a player. In this case, it isnt hyperbole. He anyway, but it didnt matter. For a quarter century,
the coming weeks, months and years, youll read and
hear many variations of Ah, but he was so much more octogenarians alike. We didnt know him, not really
nil Kumble will not forget Sachin necessarily for the obvious reason but also because it came on his own debut, at Old Trafford in Manchester
Tendulkars maiden Test century, not
the captain, was dismissed by Eddie Hemmings, the offspinner who also accounted for Kapil Dev not long thereafter. Nearly three hours of play was still left the middle by Manoj Prabhakar. and India were looking down the barrel on the final As Prabhakar was to say later, it was Tendulkar
in the summer of 1990. The first of 100 international hundreds to date was a match-saving effort, an unbeaten 119 in a little under four hours that prevented India from going 0-2 down in the three-
evening at 183 for 6 when Tendulkar was joined in who did much of the talking and advising during their unbroken 160-run stand that steered India to safe playing just his ninth Test. waters. Tendulkar was then all of 17 years old, and we were desperate to somehow save the match, and The first thing that readily springs to mind is that
cow in a country that already had too many, one more
really was for teenagers, jaded 30-somethings and he was there, at the forefront of our collective consciousness. I doubt hell ever go away.
Test series against England. India had been set an for 4 when Tendulkar walked out to bat. That was soon to become 127 for 5 when Mohammad Azharuddin,
unlikely 408 for victory and had been reduced to 109
R KAUSHIK 13
No player is perfect, in that they can execute every shot in the book perfectly, but Tendulkar has no obvious weaknesses.... He is brave, fit and possesses a great desire to score runs. What more do you need?
Angus Fraser
THE FIRST OF A 100 Tendulkar pounces on an Angus Fraser delivery on his way to scoring a match-saving 119* at Old Trafford in August 1990.
there still was a lot of time left when Manoj went in to bat after lunch, Kumble told Wisden India. Sachin and Manoj started to bat well, and then something Kiran More made sure early in their partnership that happened that has stayed with me for all these years. no one should change their positions on the balcony us occupied the same seats; it was my initiation into superstition in international cricket! till such time that Sachin got to his 100 and we managed to salvage a draw. So for four hours, all of
knew the situation and he knew that he had to bat till
the end. For a 17-year-old to understand all that, go about his innings in the manner in which he did and to end up saving the Test, it was quite an experience. I myself was only 19 then, but watching him bat that day, I quickly realised that I still had a lot of chinks in a permanent part of an international team but this
my armour and I needed to make huge strides to be boy, he was already there. His fielding was very good, team. To have those qualities at 17, just astonishing. couldnt make out if the young lad was nervous as he approached his hundred, though the team sure was he could catch well, he had a great arm, he could roll his arm over and he batted possibly the best in the Kumble said, watching from the sidelines, he
Tendulkars maturity, his poise, his unflappability Everybody knew about his talent, everyone knew old, to play the way he did was fantastic. At that time, Devon Malcolm was frightfully quick, and Chris away. Sachin played them with the utmost ease.
and his composure under tremendous pressure. what he was capable of. But even so, as a 17-yearLewis could crank it up too. And then there was
What stood out for Kumble even then was
feeling the tension. I guess we were probably feeling that. You could make out that he was fully in command of the situation, though I am sure he too must have came back unbeaten with the draw secured, he had a the game, satisfied that he had got his first hundred. had some butterflies. But he just looked like he wasnt nervous at all. Now, thats total control. And when he
Angus Fraser with his nagging length, giving nothing delight. To see a 17-year-old bat with such remarkable
authority was something else. The confidence with voice. In effect, when he spoke, he was a boy but when he batted, he was a man fully accomplished. he would not get out, that was the confidence he generated within his teammates even at that early stage of his career. He was extremely compact, he Sitting up in the balcony, you got the feeling that
His driving on the up, off the back foot, was a
which he went out, that made a deep impression on me. And then, when he spoke, he had that squeaky
satisfied look on his face satisfied that he had saved group. The general mood was that he was a 17-yearold who had saved a Test match, we must also stand in the first Test, we made England follow on in the last, What it did was also enhance our confidence as a
up and do something for the team. From being beaten and were only thwarted because David Gower made a brilliant 157 not out at The Oval. That was the kind of impact Sachin had on the Indian team even then.
SHASHI THAROOR 15
taught India how to win

TENDULKAR EMbODIES THE bEST OF WHAT INDIA CAN bE A WORLD LEADER WHOSE ACHIEVEMENTS ELICIT UNIVERSAL ADMIRATION WHILE bEING UNCONTAMINATED by bRAGGADOCIO OR TRIUMPHALISM
The Prophet who
SHASHI THAROOR
still remember the first time I heard about Sachin Tendulkar. It was New Years Eve, December 31, 1987, and on a crowded Calcutta terrace, the freshly retired Sunil Gavaskar told me about a 14-year-old in Bombay who would
imminent retirement marks the end of an epoch. The greatest Indian to ever wield a cricket bat and possibly one of the greatest in the history of the entire sport worldwide leaves when he completes a mindInternationals. His departure has thrown the country into a paroxysm. Television channels, newspaper and magazine columns and editorials, social media, have all waxed eloquent on the occasion; cricket fans can talk of little else. As a nation of 1.2 billion people the national sporting stage of a 40-year-old, is there
The announcement, 24 years later, of his
anything left to say?
seen God, said Australian rival Matthew Hayden. He
bats at No. 4 for India. Another cricketing immortal, Shane Warne, when asked who was the greatest Tendulkar. Second, daylight. Third, Brian Lara. In a land where 605 million people are below
The hyperbole has already been vented. I have
carrying the expectations of a billion people every time he strides out to bat. The passion for cricket in
be the countrys next great batting star. I promptly wrote Cricketer, and started looking out for mentions of the
about the conversation in a UK magazine, The Club prodigys name in the sports pages. I didnt have long to wait for Gavaskars prescience to be confirmed: the century on debut in the Ranji Trophy when Tendulkar fearsome pacemen of Pakistan, at all of 16 years of age.
boggling 200 Test matches, to go with 463 One-Day
batsman hed played against, replied: First, Sachin the age of 25, Tendulkars unusually lengthy 24-year debut for India in 1989 has dominated their entire He owns almost all the important batting records in the international game, including most Test centuries and most ODI hundreds, and he has done so while
India is difficult to exaggerate, but Tendulkar elevated it into
PERFECTION PUNDIT Tendulkar showed India how to celebrate individual merit and revel in the unusual distinction of boasting the worlds best at something the whole nation followed.
something more. His success became emblematic of
career he was such a gifted prodigy that he made his
Indias own rise to assertion on the world stage. When Tendulkar made his debut for India in 1989 at the age of the world as poor, backward and protectionist. In 1991, India liberalised and embarked on a quartercentury of galloping growth that averaged 8%. The of 16, it was still a developing country, seen by much
was just 15, and then selection for India, against the
has been riveted by the impending departure from
consciousness of a sport that is a national obsession.
world beat a path to Indias door. Our democracy,
proliferating television channels, software experts
SHASHI THAROOR 17
Sachin should be used as an international ambassador for cricket. His own personal ethics towards his industry and its people should be maximised for the continued healthy growth of the game.
Peter Kirsten
own new assertion of self-belief. Tendulkar and revel in the unusual distinction of boasting the worlds best at something the whole nation and rally round a common cause. He taught
showed India how to celebrate individual merit followed. He helped Indians forget the bad news Indians, used to being second-best, to win.
around us sectarian strife, riots, terrorism and the emergence of a fresh and inspiring sense of a coming renaissance. In a country previously used in niche sports like billiards and chess, Tendulkars for many years to come. But they go well beyond triumphs will serve as a benchmark and a lodestar to sporting mediocrity, with world champions only Democracy has long been the major force that Indian, irrespective of background, a stake in force for Indian unity: Tendulkar. the countrys success. For two decades, and for exactly the same reason, theres been another donned the national colours, was a land that had thus far belied its promise of a tryst with destiny. playing career, is a nation that, despite recent future. The India of 1989, when Tendulkar first
and burgeoning English-speaking middle class all changed the countrys image and led pundits to hail and so did Sachin. it as the next major world power. This period of selfThe diminutive batting star became Indias reinvention coincided with Sachins rise. India rose, cricket colossus. A nation that had long been used to boasted the worlds best batsman and went on to
has served to unite India, by assuring every
lagging behind, whether in economics or sport, now become world champions again, 28 years after our ODIs is no longer an impossible dream: we have held the growing and increasingly prosperous Indian first triumph. The No. 1 ranking in both Tests and
the runs he made or even the way he made them.
Tendulkar matters to India because visibly, on our of being Indian.
television screens and our living-room conversations Tendulkar has shown a nation often divided by
afterward he embodied the essence of a new way religion, language, caste and ethnicity how to dream
The India of 2013, when he bids farewell to his economic setbacks, is brimming with optimism and sometimes impatient expectations of a better Tendulkar, therefore, is much more than a
both, at different times. Television revenues from
audience have transformed Indias place in world resources are generated by India. As a result, in the the International Cricket Council what the USA is to the UN Security Council, the one country that all
cricket too: today some 80% of the global games cheerful words of a senior BCCI official, India is to other members find indispensable and impossible to ignore. Tendulkars 24 years in top-flight cricket eerily mirror the transformation of India at the cusp of the 21st Century. There is an Indian Dream, and in his own lifetime, Tendulkar is its Prophet. incomplete and inappropriate Just as impressive statistics alone are an assessment
that common dream. Not only did he transcend the heritage of a stratified and under-achieving society; his is truly also the story of the coming of age of and the idea of the rational, autonomous individual, substantially capable of shaping his own destiny. For failure in sport, making it was not meant to be into the Idea of India, and its assimilation of the most
enduring export of the West to the world modernity too long, we had accustomed ourselves to accepting the most Indian of excuses. Tendulkar showed that of talent, application, hard work and practice. By allowed India to celebrate merit and its rewards. breaking free of the shackles of pre-ordained Fate, In a land too long in the thrall of fatalism, we could change outcomes through the combination he ended the habitual expectation of failure, and Tendulkars prowess on the field promoted Indias
sports star. The Indian government has named Sabha, in a seat reserved for cultural icons. Given
him to the upper house of Parliament, the Rajya
the admiration in which he is held and the hold he has on the allegiance of the Indian people, he could speak on any public issue with a moral authority that position as a member of the Rajya Sabha as a bully significant impact on public life. Tendulkar characteristic. In very few could rival. If Tendulkar wants to use his
or controversy in a sport that has been laden with examples has not turned his head: he and self-effacing. He embodies remains modest, soft-spoken of both. Fame
THE GREAT ADHESIVE Tendulkar has shown a nation often divided by religion, language, caste and ethnicity how to dream that common dream.
pulpit to advance his vision of India, he could have a these two-and-a-
the best of what India can be a world leader whose uncontaminated by braggadocio or triumphalism. In
Tendulkar, the story of India in the last 24 years
is not merely a table of numbers and graphs. It is a story of the transformation of a national psyche,
of
half decades of national adulation, commercial managed to remain uncontaminated by scandal
He may not do so: outspokenness is not a
achievements elicit universal admiration while being hailing Tendulkar, India hails a symbol of what we, as a nation, collectively aspire to be. Shashi Tharoor is a Member of Parliament and
endorsements and worldly success, Tendulkar has
former United Nations Under-Secretary General
SUPRIYA NAIR 19
of his absence
HE WILL NO LONGER bE THERE TO ENCHANT US bACK INTO CHILDHOOD
The prospect
DREAM COME TRUE Tendulkar was, in the most immediate ways, marginal to the World Cup win. But then the question of what he could do for his people had long been answered, too.
SUPRIYA NAIR
he children were always there in metronomically on
Shivaji Park young, grim, working crouching, blocking and adjusting their
swinging back,
Shivaji Park sometimes to watch these dustbowl
tableaux, a few dozen of which are always going on simultaneously, and wondered what it would take to make these boys happy. Was their single-minded if they ever made the Test team of one of the worlds enough to crack a smile if an IPL contract dropped khadoosi not the smiling grit that seems to implant pursuit of cricket a symptom of their childhood, or a
their small colleagues and coaches. Like caricatures of genteel expectations of cricketing stoicism, they spoke of the Lost Boys in Peter Pan, like English gentlemen. little, and mostly in scowls; ready to die, as Wendy says From time to time, as the water from the sprinklers evaporated in the heat, a fine, sifting red dust would begin to rise in drifts. When I worked in Dadar, I walked around
stances against the oncoming efforts of
denial of it? Would they remember these days fondly
most competitive sides? Would they pause long
softly on their ducked, sweating heads? Or was this the bloody root of Bombay crickets notorious itself in so many graduates of, say, the Australian
SUPRIYA NAIR 21
Nobody has ever come close to him and there is no question of comparing anyone with him. He is the best ever; there is no Ponting and no Lara, and not even Sir Don Bradman; Sachin is simply the best.
- Sourav Ganguly
TEAR JERKER The 154 at SCG in 2008 epitomised the spareness of the older Tendulkar, sinews and cockles exposed by his injuries.
domestic system, but the jealous rapacity of the 40time Ranji victor? You think of cricket idly, and with an ironic distance, I thought these things with a certain remoteness.
proved more than capable of sustaining the most when he played; that buoyed as he was at the crease there were no differences among any of us.
optimistic fantasy anyone has ever experienced in by the shouts and cheers of millions, there was no An apparent lack of poetic ambiguity in
when you have expatriated from the country of sheer joy and cringing terror where you dwelt fought its way, delivery by delivery, over by over, to an uncertain fate in match after match. That is what when you were a child, feeling your heart swell as it Sachin Tendulkar recalls for men and women who
Indian sport. We thought he carried us with him difference between us and him; and because of him, Tendulkars game makes it difficult for amateurs that went into his comprehensive, bullying sort specialist colleagues, the emotions responded to
grew up regardless of how old they were watching him, and that, perhaps, is the overwhelming regret of to enchant us back into childhood. his impending retirement. He will no longer be there moral and emotional earnestness which Tendulkar been, at all times, at least ten other men on the
to deconstruct the synthesis of flair and discipline
of domination. More so than with his other, more his presence before the intellect did. When the brain caught up, his quantifiable successes made a elicited awe and wonder because, even on the days his body failed and bowlers showed up his usually uncanny vision, there was something about him which unsubstantial tenor, piping acknowledgment that his could not be gainsaid. Even through the dispiriting India had made mistakes, there was no doubt that, that unanswerable thing became clearer and clearer. he fed it, he fed us, too. wonderful, if unimaginative refuge for his fans. He
evoked, even as a teenaged prodigy. There have field with him, ready to absorb the burden of those thundercloud emotions, but few others for whom by the certainty that I would marry Imran Khan one they were held so closely in trust. Apart from a brief day, I have never known cricket without knowing
Perhaps few other cricketers have earned the
moment at age four or five when I was overwhelmed that kinship with Tendulkar. I remember him and Vinod Kambli, almost from the beginning, a sort boldest, the most dexterous we could hope to be. as their paths began to diverge, but Tendulkar alone
days when the lights faded over alien stadia and his with him at least, failure was temporary. Over time, It was a clear and relentless hunger; the desire to bat and bat and bat, as Gideon Haigh wrote, and as
of composite, aspirational alter-ego the best, the
Something was irretrievably lost to Indian cricket
spite of such an unlikeable quality. But hunger is the

It seems strange that he was loved so much in
23
Excellence. Credibility. Tradition.

one aspect of genius which can be cultivated, acquired and nurtured and practised. Now that I think seven in the morning to seven at about it, the dutifulness of the boys in Shivaji Park, playing in shifts from night, makes perfect sense, because if all that misery can set you, even one among thousands, to grinding that mill, with your blood in the you in motion for all time.
wheat, then it has set something in long time wasnt it Allan Border
who, after Sharjah, said, Yes, but imagine what hell be like when hes 28? but ageing, too, for a great many years. We have said many impatient things about athletes who do that before our eyes. But they
Tendulkar was young for a very
ALMaNacK
Cup victory, said a provisional cricket can do that to you. I World Cup, to add to all that it goodbye to the country where did not wish to be repatriated simply because India had a
SHIVAJI PARK SLOG His exit will leave behind an imaginary homeland, hovering slightly above the ground, like the cloud of red dust that rises from a cricket field on a hot day.
UNBIaSeD RePOrtaGe
HaLL OF FaMe
INcISIVe ANaLYSIS PertINeNt StatIStIcS
ANNuaL AWarDS
are, in reality, a vital resource. I have a smug theory that female fans are vastly better equipped to absorb
the shock of seeing their male sports idols grow old, since our gender circumvents the arrogance of selfidentifying too closely with them. But to propound it I must forget that Sachin disproved that, too. Back home and watching a Test match for the first time SCG against Australia, an innings that epitomised the achieving the century, the manner of a man receiving me: So thats going to happen, too. When you love and place your faith in sport and
had already acquired in the new millennium. Tendulkar his people had long been answered, too. What remains
was, in the most immediate ways, marginal to that victory. But then the question of what he could do for from that night at the Wankhede the stadium where he will have his last bow are the voices of his younger years, now well carry him; and of Suresh Raina, before teammates. Of Virat Kohli saying, he carried us for
www.wisdenindia.com
H O M E O F I N D i A N C R ic K E T
in months in 2008, I sat transfixed by his 154 at the spareness of the older Tendulkar, sinews and cockles a blessing, and tears pricked my eyes as it dawned on exposed by his injuries. He bared his head slowly on
his own crowd once booed him off the field, and where
Wisden India
@WisdenIndia
the semifinal, saying in words what Tendulkar said to I am there. So he has been. So, after him, will remain the country that erupted in fireworks around him that night; an imaginary homeland, hovering slightly above the ground, like the cloud of red dust that rises from a cricket field on an evaporatingly hot day. Supriya Nair is associate editor at The Caravan magazine
Download Official Android Mobile App: wisdenindia.cricket
those who watched him every day for two decades:
in a sports team, even the air around you can make your skin burn. I dont think I am the only person who, uncomfortable with the depraved political economy that governs cricket, unwilling to participate in its
rituals of macho patriotism, had by the 2011 World
SAURABH SOMANI 25
of our hurt
WHEN THEIR FAVOURITE SON WAS NOT WELL, THE NATION TRULy WANTED TO KNOW WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HIM
A piece
SAURABH SOMANI
f you ask any physiotherapist or trainer, theyll
probably agree that of the various disciplines in cricket, fast bowling takes the heaviest toll look at Sachin Tendulkars career, all 24 mindon the body and batting the lightest. Then you
for such long periods of time in so many years is going to have a wear and tear on your body and Sachin Tendulkar will be no different. Hes had his remarkable to see how hes been able to keep going. share of injuries, operations and surgeries. Its been to keep playing through, because its not going to maintaining that and still wanting to go out knowing 12 years ago, shows that he truly loves the game.
boggling years at a time when more high-intensity cricket is played than ever, and you wonder about the exceptions to the rule. Any long career has its challenges, but youre
It requires a special love and passion for the game be easy. Its not going to be easy for him to get to fully well that his body is not the body it was ten or that level of fitness nowadays. So for him to keep
CYNOSURE OF ALL EYES When Tendulkar gets injured, the whole of India gets an anatomy lesson is how Andrew Leipus described the attention that Tendulkars injuries would fetch.
right that batting in itself is probably the least Dravid, who knows a thing or two about the strain batting can take on the body. Still, repetitive batting
physical activity in cricket that you do, said Rahul
Tendulkars career is remarkable not just for its

SAURABH SOMANI 27
The secret of Sachins seemingly tireless body is simple. Because he knows the game so well, he knows exactly what he has to do in order to prepare for it. Knowing ones abilities and limitations is a good gift.
- John Gloster
of training, of travel. So you have to look at it as a complete picture. alongwith with his incredible talent to time a cricket ball and his passion to long periods of stress. perfect the art of batting, he had the physical attributes necessary to cope with he has a structure that is less likely to Gloster illuminated, Biomechanically, What helped Tendulkar was that
length but as Dravid said, his ability to return from as long as he has played.
serious injuries and continue to maintain fitness for physiotherapist through 2005-2008, had a ringside view as Tendulkar overcame what possibly was his stronger. In the case of Sachin, he had a couple of well-documented injuries as we know: the elbow tenure with the cricket board, said Gloster. Both of period of time to overcome that and ensure it didnt John Gloster, who was the Indian teams
But as anyone who saw the uninterrupted highlight
reel he dished out from mid-2007 to mid-2011 will attest, once he was fit, he no longer looked laboured while batting. There might have been slightly lesser daredevilry than earlier, but that had nothing to do naturally changing styles in addition to the natural that by looking at him in match and training, you and surgeries. with injury, and more to do with team requirements,
get injured, because hes more compact, has shorter levers, more muscle bulk able to protect himself a lot better than powerful, so he has a great advantage as well, this ability to absorb loads better perhaps someone who is a lot taller, and around joints things like that. So hes leaner and more flexible. Hes also very
most serious injury, the tennis elbow, and emerged operation and the shoulder operation during my
desire to keep himself injury-free. Tendulkar shook off the after-effects of injury well and Gloster said wouldnt know hes had to overcome serious injuries physically taxing discipline, but pointed out that the challenges that batsmen dont normally have to face. I do know, myself having crossed 40, the body Gloster agreed that batting was the least
which he recovered from fantastically. But there were modifications that he had to make during a certain throwing and fielding positions things like that for a short period of time. In a match situation and in training. re-occur. It was a matter of limitations in things like
there too. It has made him more durable them. I believe hes quite strong around the crucial areas, like lower back, knees, things like that. smart trainer, knowing what limits to push
through his joints and his strength around
length of a career like Tendulkars involved unique behaves very differently than it does when youre 25 or 30, explained Gloster. Especially when youre as we have here in the subcontinent. As you get physically stressing it in demanding conditions such older, things like tendon tissue and muscle tissue do change. You dont adapt as well to loads or accept You are subject to different stresses, like long
as the Indian team physiotherapist, who provided the outside perspective of a Tendulkar injury while declaring that when Tendulkar gets injured, the
It was Andrew Leipus, Glosters predecessor
when, and what load his body needs in the lead-up to a season. Gloster advocated a longer build-up, more graded training reason his batting would be affected.
In addition, Tendulkar has been a very
whole of India gets an anatomy lesson. This was
and intensity, and added that physically, if
after every injury was dissected, diagnosed, cut, quartered and healed in televisions and newspapers across the country. When their favourite son was not well, the nation truly wanted to know what was wrong with him. When not at his physical best, Tendulkars batting
forces as well, and you recovery processes are slower. periods of concentration, long periods of batting in the sun and the heat. So endurance becomes a really important thing. When you talk about cricket, its not just batting, theres 24 years of fielding there as well, standing at slips, sprinting around. Theres 24 years
his body was taken care of properly, there was no and Tendulkar had shown he could come back form tailing off at the end of the career.
against so many setbacks is unbelievable balance and a and perfection, equally praiseworthy.
spectacularly from injury as well, which could have
For a long time his batting wasnt affected,
Blessed with a dead eye, voracious appetite for runs completed the package by Tendulkar
THE HEALTH SECRET Hes more compact, has shorter levers, more muscle bulk around joints, says Gloster. So hes able to protect himself a lot better than perhaps someone who is a lot taller, leaner and more flexible.
been among the reasons he played on in spite of his
also underwent changes, which was but natural.
field, the sheer physical task of lasting for so long
But in addition to his accomplishments on the
packing in the mental and physical attributes that
could allow all of these elements to flourish together for two and a half decades.

FEB 23-25: SCORES 326 IN A MARATHON PARTNERSHIP OF
START
DEC 14: GETS A BLOODY NOSE NOV 15: AFTER BEING HIT BY A TEST DEBUT WAQAR YOUNIS VS PAKISTAN BOUNCER IN KARACHI AT AGE 16
SCORES 57 TO SAVE THE SIALKOT TEST & THE SERIES AUG 14: SCORES 119* VS ENGLAND AT OLD TRAFFORD, HIS FIRST TEST CENTURY, TO DRAW THE MATCH SCORES CENTURY ON DULEEP TROPHY DEBUT TO ADD TO DEBUT TONS IN RANJI TROPHY AND IRANI TROPHY FEB 3: HITS 114 ON A PACY PERTH PITCH VS AUSTRALIA IN THE FIFTH TEST
1000 RUNS
1988
1989
1990
1991
1993
1992
NOV 14: FIRST BATSMAN TO BE DECLARED RUN OUT BY THE THIRD UMPIRE, VS SOUTH AFRICA IN DURBAN
NOV 24: FEB 12: BOWLS INDIA TO VICTORY SCORES 165 VS ENGLAND IN CHENNAI, IN THE LAST OVER OF THE HERO CUP HIS FIRST TEST CENTURY AT HOME SEMIFINAL VS SOUTH AFRICA IN KOLKATA WITH SIX RUNS TO DEFEND, TENDULKAR CONCEDES ONLY THREE
29
OCT 30: SCORES 217 VS NEW ZEALAND IN AHMEDABAD, HIS FIRST DOUBLE CENTURY IN TESTS
5000 RUNS
MAY 23: SCORES 140* VS KENYA IN BRISTOL DURING THE 1999 WORLD CUP, JUL 22: DEDICATES IT TO HIS REAPPOINTED AS FATHER WHO PASSED CAPTAIN OF AWAY DURING THE INDIA, BUT FINDS TOURNAMENT MAR-APR: ROLE STRESSFUL. CHRONIC BACK PAIN ANNOUNCES MISSED: PEPSI CUP RESIGNATION ON TRISERIES IN INDIA FEB 20, 2000 & COCA-COLA CUP TRISERIES IN SHARJAH
JAN 31: SCORES 136 VS PAKISTAN IN CHENNAI IN THE FOURTH INNINGS, DESPITE BACK PAIN, TO KEEP INDIAS CHASE ON COURSE, BUT HIS WICKET TRIGGERS A COLLAPSE AND INDIA FALL SHORT BY 12 RUNS
1999
1998
1996
1997
DON BRADMAN TO TENDULKAR
DEC 13: DUCKS TO AVOID BEING HIT BY A GLENN MCGRATH DELIVERY DURING A TEST VS AUSTRALIA, ONLY TO BE DECLARED OUT LBW BY UMPIRE DARYL HARPER
APR 24: SHARJAH GETS AN ENCORE AS TENDULKAR HITS 134 IN THE FINAL VS AUSTRALIA TO HELP INDIA WIN THE COCA COLA CUP
FEB: THIGH INJURY MISSED: ZIMBABWE TOUR OF INDIA (5 ODIS)
FEB-MAR FINISHES 2003 WORLD CUP AS HIGHEST SCORER WITH A TALLY OF 673 RUNS. HIS 98 VS PAKISTAN IN CENTURION, WHERE HE UPPER CUT SHOAIB AKTHAR FOR A SIX, WAS ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS
AUG 8: NAMED CAPTAIN OF INDIAN TEAM, BUT IT PROVES TO BE A CROWN OF THORNS. GETS SACKED ON JAN 2, 1998
MAY 24: MARRIES ANJALI
10,000 RUNS
12,000 RUNS
2000 2001
2006
2005
2008
By Nisha Shetty
FINISH
50,000 RUNS
2013
2012
TESTS ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS TWENTY20S INJURIES
MAY: WRIST INJURY MISSED: IPL (5 GAMES)
DEC 23: ANNOUNCES HIS RETIREMENT FROM ODIS, HAVING PLAYED 463 MATCHES, SCORED 18,426 RUNS & 49 CENTURIES, EACH OF THEM A WORLD RECORD
SEPT: APR 2: TOE INJURY ACHIEVES CHILDHOOD DREAM MISSED: TOUR OF WINNING THE WORLD CUP, OF ENGLAND DEFEATING SRIL LANKA IN THE (5 ODIS) FINAL IN MUMBAI; IS THE & CLT20 LEADING SCORER OF THE TOURNAMENT WITH 482 RUNS
2011
GUIDE
NOV 14: BIDS ADIEU TO TEST CRICKET AFTER HAVING BECOME THE FIRST CRICKETER TO PLAY 200 TESTS
15,000 RUNS
MAR 16: BECOMES THE FIRST CRICKETER TO SCORE 100 INTERNATIONAL CENTURIES, MAKING 114 APR-MAY: IN THE ASIA CUP VS FINGER BANGLADESH IN MIRPUR INJURY MISSED: IPL (4 GAMES)
JAN: HAMSTRING INJURY MISSED: TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA (LAST 3 ODIS IN 5-ODI SERIES)
FEB 24: HITS 200* VS SOUTH AFRICA IN GWALIOR, BECOMING THE FIRST BATSMAN TO HIT A DOUBLE CENTURY IN ODIS
MAY: MAY: SCORES 618 HAND INJURY RUNS IN IPL MISSED: NONE, 2010 TO TAKE PLAYED IPL FINAL MUMBAI INDIANS DESPITE SPLIT TO THE FINAL WEBBING
CAREER TIMELINE
of
SACHIN TENDULKAR
2010
JUL-AUG: TOE INJURY MISSED: COCA-COLA CUP TRISERIES IN SRI LANKA & TOUR OF SRI LANKA (3 TESTS)
JUL 23: IS PRESENTED A FERRARI BY MICHAEL SCHUMACHER FOR EQUALING BRADMANS 29 TEST CENTURIES NOV: HAMSTRING INJURY MISSED: WEST INDIES TOUR OF INDIA (7 ODIS)
NOV-DEC ANKLE & FINGER INJURY MISSED: TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND (FIRST 4 ODIS OF 7-ODI SERIES)
AUG-OCT: TENNIS ELBOW MISSED: VIDEOCON CUP TRISERIES IN HOLLAND, NATWEST ODI SERIES VS ENGLAND (3 ODIS), CHAMPIONS TROPHY 2004 & AUSTRALIA TOUR OF INDIA (FIRST 2 TESTS IN 4-TEST SERIES)
DEC 22: HITS 35TH CENTURY VS SRI LANKA IN NEW DELHI, GOING PAST SUNIL GAVASKARS RECORD FOR MOST TEST CENTURIES
DEC 1: BAGS 1 FOR 12 & SCORES 10 IN HIS ONLY T20I, VS SOUTH AFRICA IN JOBURG
DEC: KNEE INJURY MISSED: HOME SERIES VS PAKISTAN (3RD TEST ONLY IN 3-TEST SERIES)
MAY 14: MAKES HIS IPL DEBUT AS ICON PLAYER OF MUMBAI INDIANS, VS CHENNAI SUPER KINGS IN MUMBAI
AUG: ELBOW INJURY MISSED: TOUR OF SRI LANKA (5 ODIS)
2009
2003
2004
2002
2007
JAN 4: COMPOSES A DETERMINED 241* VS AUSTRALIA IN SYDNEY, ABANDONING THE COVER DRIVE IN A BID TO REGAIN FORM
AUG-OCT: TENNIS ELBOW MISSED: INDIANOIL CUP TRISERIES IN SRI LANKA, TOUR OF ZIMBABWE (TRISERIES, TWO TESTS) & ICC SUPER SERIES IN AUSTRALIA (3 ODIS)
MAR-JUN SHOULDER INJURY MISSED: HOME ODI SERIES VS ENGLAND (7 ODIS) & TOUR OF WEST INDIES (5 ODIS, 4 TESTS)
APR-JUL: GROIN INJURY MISSED: TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA (LAST 2 TESTS IN 3-TEST SERIES), IPL (7 GAMES), KITPLY CUP TRISERIES IN BANGLADESH & ASIA CUP
1995
I DONT THINK YOU WERE COACHED, BECAUSE ANYONE WHOS BEEN THROUGH COACHES IS TOLD TO PLAY WITH THE LEFT ELBOW POINTED TOWARDS MID-OFF. YOU DONT DO THAT. I DIDNT DO THAT.
APR 1: LEADS INDIA TO A WIN VS AUSTRALIA IN KOCHI WITH APR 22: A SPELL OF 5 FOR 32, HIS A BELLIGERENT 143 FIRST FIVE-FOR OFF 131 BALLS VS AUSTRALIA IN ODIS IN SHARJAH IN THE BACKDROP OF A SAND STORM HELPS INDIA QUALIFY FOR THE FINALS
MAR 27: OPENS FOR THE FIRST TIME VS NEW ZEALAND IN AUCKLAND, AND A 49-BALL 82 LATER, HE MAKES THE POSITION PERMANENTLY HIS MAR: BECOMES THE LEADING SCORER IN 1996 WORLD CUP WITH A TALLY OF 523 RUNS
SEPT 9: SCORES 110 VS AUSTRALIA, HIS FIRST ODI CENTURY
DEC 15: STEERS INDIAS CHASE OF 387 VS ENGLAND IN CHENNAI, SCORING 103* TO SEAL A FAMOUS WIN SOON AFTER THE RECENT MUMBAI TERROR ATTACKS
MAR: ABDOMEN INJURY MISSED: TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND (LAST 2 ODIS OF 5-ODI SERIES)
1994
RUNS WITH VINOD KAMBLI FOR SHARDHASHRAM VIDYAMANDIR IN THE HARRIS SHIELD
DEC 18: ODI DEBUT VS PAKISTAN IN GUJRANWALA, MAKES A DUCK
FIRST OVERSEAS CRICKETER TO BE SIGNED ON TO PLAY FOR YORKSHIRE
SALIL ANKOLA 31
The match in which Waqar
smashed his nose
EVEN SACHIN, I AM SURE, DIDNT KNOW THEN THAT HE WOULD SCORE 100 CENTURIES. BUT WE KNEW HE WOULD DEFINITELy PLAy 100 TESTS, AT LEAST
SALIL ANKOLA
ur
simultaneously. Both Sachin and I made our first-class debuts in 1988, Karachi the next year. Before that, and then made our Test entrances in
careers
started
off
almost
wickets there, and Sachin scored a half-century (81). other many times since. Everyone was talking about him, even before
Of course, we have played together and against each he scored an unbeaten century on his Ranji Trophy debut. People were also talking about me, because I had picked up six wickets, including a hat-trick, in my debut game against Gujarat. I obviously cant touted as the next great thing in Indian cricket, but I also had a decent reputation. Then came
during the 1988-89 Ranji Trophy, we were set to was with Maharashtra. I was really looking forward to playing against him because he had already built
face each other because he was from Bombay and I such a reputation around him. We had never seen each other, so it was exciting. The first time I saw him, and bowled to him, was in the Ranji Trophy game in Aurangabad in January 1989. I got a couple of
compare myself to Sachin, because he was already

IN ELITE COMPANY The team for the 1989 tour of Pakistan was packed with stars such as Kapil, Azhar, Shastri and Srikkanth.
the Pakistan tour. We were both
33
Sachin will remain amongst the top three batters I have watched. For pure technique and for effortlessly shouldering the burden of more than a billion people day in and day out.
- Shaun Pollock
young. He was only a kid. It was an extremely tough Azhar (Mohammad Azharuddin) and Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Salim Malik for them.
tour. All the heroes we had heard of were there Kapil (Dev), (Krishnamachari) Srikkanth, Ravi (Shastri), Off the field, everyone was very warm. But on
and got a half-century. He became more determined when things went against him. everyone knew. That he would play 200 Tests and score so many runs, of course, no one could predict. Sachin, I am sure, didnt know then that he would around Sachin, even as a kid. These things have happened over the years. Even score 100 centuries. But we knew he would definitely play 100 Tests, at least. There was always an aura When we went to Pakistan, he was a baby, but I knew he would make it very big. Not just me,
I prayed for
Sachin
the field, there was a lot of barracking; the fans were very emotional. It was like a ground full of people against us. But that sort of thing also charged us up. Test cricket again, but thats another story. in Karachi. I, of course, never got a chance to play But neither Sachin nor I had very memorable debuts Whenever you play for your country, there are
HE WAS VERy LIKEAbLE AND ASKED ME TO HELP HIM FIX HIS bAT THAT HAD bECOME TOO WHIPPy
butterflies in your stomach, which settle only once you start playing. Its just nervous tension and you The seniors didnt speak to me much before the game. Sachin, but he was very nervous. Of course he was.
he had the mind of a 100 year old. He has always his batting even then. I dont think he ever repeated saying things about how young he was, but he only became more determined.
MusHtAQ MoHAMMAd
been wise beyond his years. He was so mature in mistakes. The more you try to drag him down, the stronger he gets. They tried to rib him in Pakistan, I played with him off and on for the Indian team,
need to get it out of your system as soon as possible. Ravi was the only one to speak to me. He supported me a lot on that series. I dont know how it was for a muscle in Faisalabad and couldnt play the next The Sialkot Test was a memorable one. I had torn
but we got close when I shifted to Mumbai from Maharashtra. We were also colleagues at Sungrace Mafatlal, and played together for them. He always gave it his best whether playing
two Tests, but the fourth Test was played on a very
grassy pitch in Sialkot. I was fully fit, but still didnt Pakistan innings.
get picked, while Mani (Maninder Singh), who was picked instead, was given just one over to bowl in the That was the match in which Waqar (Younis)
a Test match or for Sungrace. He never relaxed. Sometimes you dont want to risk injuries when you are playing for your office or club, but he was always 100 per cent. That still hasnt changed. Salil Ankola, who played one Test and 20 ODIs for India, spoke to Shamya Dasgupta
y old friend, Sunil Gavaskar, told
me before Indias tour of Pakistan prodigy who he felt would one day be a wonder of the world.
in 1989 to look out for this child
look at the young boy after Sunils endorsement, as I wanted to compare him to myself at that age, and to another who was my protg, Javed Miandad. And after seeing him in that series and then on
Sachin Tendulkar. I was myself once regarded a child prodigy, having made my Test debut at 15. followed his career with great interest over the years and have even prayed for the lad at times. I always wanted him to do well. But back in 89, I was especially curious to take a Because of that connection between us, I have
From that moment on, I took a special interest in
the England tour in 1990, I concluded that Sachin going to have a big career.
was the best child cricketer I had seen. I knew he was Akram, Imran Khan, a young Waqar Younis and the technique was and always has been immaculate. The way he handled himself against Wasim
smashed Sachins nose. We were all so scared. Everyone remembers how Sachin continued batting
brilliant Abdul Qadir was very impressive. Pakistan
had one of the best bowling attacks around, yet his
I met him properly for the first time on the 1990
MUSHTAQ MOHAMMAD 35
He is made of the right stuff. Its in his genes: he has the maturity and good sense to acknowledge all the adulation with calm modesty. Perhaps deep down, he knows that it is only a game.
- David Frith
tour of England, when India played a warm-up match at Smethwick. He was very likeable bat that had become too whippy. I was amazed how heavy that bat was, for such a small boy! and asked me to help him fix his
200th Test, I congratulate him on a remarkable achievement and I for the tap on the shoulder. am pleased he is retiring on his own terms rather than waiting times over the years who I rate the best out of Sachin and Brian Lara, and its a question that is not
Now, as he prepares for his
People have asked me many
easily answered. Each have their own merits. Sachin obviously has longevity has been sensational, matches for his team while playing in an inferior batting line-up. many records to his credit and his though Lara has maybe won more
Mushtaq Mohammad, the only cricketer younger than Tendulkar to have scored a century when Tendulkar achieved the feat at the age of 17 years and 107 days in August 1990, spoke to Richard Sydenham
scored a Test triple-century, as he had the talent to do
it, but overall he has so much to be proud of. Garfield but I thank God that he kept me alive long enough to witness Tendulkars 25-year career.
Sachin would maybe rue the fact that he never
Sobers remains the best cricketer I have ever seen,
GENIUS DUO Sachin obviously has many records to his credit and his longevity has been sensational, though Lara has maybe won more matches for his team while playing in an inferior batting line-up.
KRITIKA NAIDU 37
career coincided with Australias dominance in
world cricket, which is why those who saw him make a century at the WACA in Perth in 1992 are still in awe of it. Matthew Hayden, the former Australian opener, made his debut a good five years after Tendulkar. In terms of age however, Hayden is a lot older. But, when he talks about his first impression of Tendulkar, it is easy to see the dynamism he thought Tendulkar brought to the team.
be sincere, hardworking and very dedicated. He has kept it simple. He is the same old Sachin a great person and a tremendous cricketer. I think it was in 2003 when I told him he could
Sachin just had that look

MATTHEW HAyDEN, JOHN WRIGHT, SOURAV GANGULy, MUTTIAH MURALITHARAN AND ALAN WILKINS ON TENDULKAR
India were meek, but
score a hundred hundreds. It was just a matter of simple arithmetic, looking at the number of runs he had left. I thought it was quite obvious. I have seen He still looks keen and fresh.
was scoring every year and the number of years he
first impression of him was that he was incredibly small; he was just tiny for his reputation which was building at that stage, Hayden recollects. It wasnt really full-fledged, but it was certainly building. His Australia with a fantastic summer of cricket. Most
The first time I saw Sachin was in 1991-92. My
him closely for years. Youngsters can learn from him. many former players and coaches, Alan Wilkins, an illustrious commentator who has followed to the insights. Tendulkars career from the commentary box for Wilkins, like everyone else doesnt perceive years now, brings in a completely offbeat dimension Tendulkar as just a virtuoso. He recognises the art While Hayden and Wright echoed the views of
bat seemed wider than Sachin himself. He treated times as well, India was a meek and mild-natured sort of a cricket team. It had guys like Kapil Dev in have that kind of punch required to win in Australia. brought confidence into the side.
kRItIkA NAIdu
the side which was phenomenal, but it didnt really Sachin was just that he just had this look; that stature and aura that came with his presence that
within the game instead, and has a different outlook. I first saw Sachin in 1996. I have always felt that he has set out to do with his bat. In his mind, he has known, because he has plotted, designed, imagined his own parameters, he knows how to work within
has been the grand artistic architect of everything he and visualised every innings he has played. He has For me, two innings best illustrate this: the 2003
n November 14, 2013, when Sachin Tendulkar walks out to play Test cricket for the last time on his home turf at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, it will be the culmination
frenzy that he does across India. Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, two of Tendulkars contemporaries
missed out on being the youngest centurion in Test history on New Zealand soil. He was out caught breaking for a 16-year-old, youd think. A decade enemy in the capacity of a coach and a senior player, respectively.
Two years before the century in Perth, Tendulkar
who made their debut after him, are well into their retirement. Some of the cricketers, who will carry infants when Tendulkar made his debut in 1989. The appreciation for Tendulkar however, isnt
by John Wright off Danny Morrison on 88. Heartlater, Wright and Tendulkar would share the same dressing room, scheming against the common I first saw him as a rival player when he was
them and he knows how to deliver from within them. ICC Cricket World Cup against Pakistan at Centurion when Shoaib Akhtar tested every facet of Tendulkars skill and courage. 98 from 75 balls launched India to Tendulkars method that set the tone that Pakistan from the outset. a win over their great rivals, but, importantly, it was Secondly, in 2004 at the SCG, Tendulkar fashioned
of many childhoods. The day will, incidentally, mark his completion of 24 years in international cricket the towards the game. longevity being testimony to his love and commitment It is easy to get carried away by his long list of
him for a lap of honour after his last Test, were just restricted to India; its universal. So much that it is believed, an Australian fan once came to the ground with a placard that read: Commit all your Lord is watching. crimes when Sachin is batting, because even the The first decade of Tendulkars international
batting records, but the number of cricketers whove
just 16. I interacted with him a lot when I was the India coach and then as the Mumbai Indians coach it has been a pleasure working with him. The best part is that Sachin hasnt changed since he was 16
played Test cricket for India with and after him is enough to validate why he generates the kind of
a double century that answered not only his critics, but also his own doubts, as to his contribution to the Indian team on that tour of Australia. Up to that
in his approach towards the game. He continues to
Test he had struggled on the tour, and this innings
KRITIKA NAIDU 39
He stands proudly for India and plays with his heart on his sleeve for the pride of his country. Not many people can have that position in a countrys psyche!
- Brett Lee
demonstrated the sheer willpower of his mind to contribute to Indias cause at the expense of his natural ability to entertain. a man for all reasons. Tendulkar is not just a man for all seasons; he is Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain, who
leaving out the views of one of the worlds greatest spinners and the highest wicket-taker in Test history Muttiah Muralitharan would be unfair. Tendulkar has enjoyed many successful battles against the spin wizard, and Muralitharan sums it up best when he says the only way out against a rampaging Tendulkar was hoping he would commit a mistake.
When Tendulkar is the subject of discussion,
was known for his grit and fighting spirit knows all
about the pressures of playing a cricket game. So much that he goes one step further in recognising and acknowledging the pressure and expectations to play for India. It is very amazing just to think that Sachin has that Sachin carried in every game that he went out
very young; he was a very attacking batsman. And after that he became a great player and now he is one of the best players in the world. I dont think international hundreds. I have played against him and I must confess it anybody will ever be able to break the record of 100 was really tough to bowl against him. You cant find
I was very impressed by Sachin when he was
been there for over 20 years on the top. That is India and you are out there and 1.2 billion people are
hard enough to do in any cricket side, but I think it watching and praying on every move that it is going to be positive. So to handle that sort of pressure you have to be mentally very strong. And I think he compartmentalises very well, so he can put things the job at hand. But at the same time his love for in boxes and figure out things and concentrate on has got the unquenchable thirst for making runs and hundreds. He tends to relax between the balls pretty to and then he can tune off and that helps him bat long periods.
is doubly hard to do it when you are representing
weaknesses in Tendulkar because he is perfect when it comes to batting. And we can only hope that on can capitalise. Tendulkar has no weak area where you can bowl to, but human beings make mistakes the ground. I think it is the most important thing that is how things come to you.
a particular day he does something wrong, and we and we sometimes hope he does that too. But the best thing about Sachin is in how he has his feet on because however successful you are, you have to be humble. Sachin is humble. That is the way of life and Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian captain; someone Tendulkar had remarkable success with as an opener, Nobody sums up Tendulkars parting better than
WIZ COMPLIMENT Tendulkar has no weak area where you can bowl to, says Muralitharan, but human beings make mistakes and we sometimes hope he does that too.
batting is very important, he loves to score runs, he well. So he has caught almost the unique focus where
a great friend, teammate and someone Sachin played under. Ganguly and Tendulkar together One-Day Internationals and set the trend that would Gautam Gambhir. changed the dynamism of batting for openers in later be matched, if not bettered, by the likes of
one of the best. He will always be the champion he
is. He has made the right decision, going out on a high at his home ground. He deserves every bit of the adulation he is getting; its the right send-off for in South Africa, all of this that has happened in Kolkata and that will happen in Mumbai a champion. While he would have been celebrating wouldnt have happened. I am happy he is going on his own terms.
he can concentrate for that split second when he has
Hayden and Adam Gilchrist or Virender Sehwag and a hundred or not in his final Test; he will still be For me it doesnt matter whether he gets
SIDHANTA PATNAIK AND DISHA SHETTY 41
the common man

TENDULKAR, by VIRTUE OF HIS ACTIONS ON AND OFF THE FIELD, HAS INFLUENCED COUNTLESS LIVES AND EVEN SHAPED THE CAREERS OF MANy
He meant so much to
SIDHANTA PAtNAIk ANd DISHA SHETTY
loke Shetty is an ad filmmaker who follows Facebook profile picture is of him wearing a pullover of the Indian cricket team. It is not that but his cricket religiously. His
make the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity count for
nothing. Such moments require mental preparation. direct one of my lifetime idols.
Shetty was understandably flustered. The day before the shoot, I was nervous just thinking how to work. I revisited my old assignments and calmed myself. Next day, I woke up with recharged batteries, around and Tendulkar was standing behind me. remembers Shetty. It was chaotic at the set but suddenly there was a collective silence. I turned He found his rhythm back through his body of
snap with Sachin Tendulkar that has garnered him more likes. He spent close to an hour with Tendulkar before the joy of that day. the 2011 World Cup and has not grown tired reminiscing I could not believe it when I was asked to
direct Nikes advertising campaign for the Indian team, says Shetty. A country where reverence for Tendulkar is unmatched, a chance to work with him has its own set of complexities. Stage fright could
retakes. That settled me down. Prior arrangements had been made to capture the day. As a production
He trusted my abilities and agreed for many
FAN FOLLOWING In 2011, I skipped a close friends wedding in India to travel to England and watch Sachin in the Lords Test. I have already applied for leave to be in Mumbai for his 200th game, says Nitin Bajaj.
SIDHANTA PATNAIK AND DISHA SHETTY 43
We have this running competition between ourselves in the Bangladeshi team to see who can get him out so that we can talk about it years later when we all have quit the game.
- Shakib Al Hasan
Aloke shetty
gimmick, I purposely rotated around Tendulkar and my assistant director clicked many pictures. Those are my lifetime possessions. Tendulkar has touched millions directly or
thank for not only being a role model, when there werent any, but also for giving us a sense of selfconfidence about ourselves, observes Bajaj. Tendulkars status as a positive icon and his deep
I belong to a generation who have Sachin to
indirectly. The individual bonds he has built over 25 that the anecdotes retain even after innumerable retellings.
years of mastery can be measured in the freshness He kept his promise, recalls Vaibhav Garg, who
desire to win struck Panchamukhi, who started his career around the same time as the 1989 Karachi Test, the most. Today, like Tendulkar, Panchamukhi has an exemplary portfolio. He was one of the Games and 2011 ICC World Cup ceremonies.
clicked a picture with Tendulkar in Delhi during the the match. Next day he fulfilled my wish.
2012 Indian Premier League. When I approached This story starts in mid 1988. Sam Panchamukhi
him, he was busy and asked if we could do it after read about Tendulkar for the first time in a national
creative minds behind the 2010 Commonwealth
profession. As a kid, he motivated me to give my best and was the accelerant in my decision to join the sports marketing industry as far back as 1998. Chakraborty, vice-president of a national bank,
For Teny, Tendulkar influenced the choice of his
in Australia for a while. Sumanth DS, an entrepreneur with multiple interests, has learned the importance of teamwork from Tendulkars hundreds in lost causes. Yogesh Gandhi started to back his abilities by
her birthday with the little I always use products that
magazine after his unbeaten 664-run stand with Nitin Bajaj heard him speak to Tom Alter on television.
master, considers Tendulkar
Vinod Kambli for Shardashram Vidyamandir in the
Harris Shield semifinal. A little later, in January 1989,
has refused to grow up when it comes to his favourite cricketer. I am so absorbed with Sachin that even and pick up fights with people easily. today I am intolerant to any criticism against him Bajaj. In 2011, I skipped a close friends wedding in India to travel to England and watch Sachin in Mumbai for his 200th game.
observing the work ethics of a 40-year-old Tendulkar. half-marathon in Pune. Amrit Mishra went home from the middle of a
to be an extension of herself. there is Leon Samuel, a BPO
Around the same time, in Mumbai, his father through the newspaper enlightened Rahul Teny about their citys new boy wonder. Dr. Sumanta Chakraborty was sixes in one over in an exhibition match. Today Panchamukhi, Bajaj, Teny and Chakraborty just nine years old when Abdul Qadir was hit for four hold strategic posts in their respective domains. Tendulkar remains the sole link in their chaotic and helped them track their own progress. branch, whose growth gave initial identity to many
At 32, he started running and recently completed a haircut to see Tendulkar attack Pakistans bowling in life. He has a day job in Hyderabads IT sector, reads
are endorsed by Sachin. Then
WORK WORSHIP Tendulkar trusted my abilities and agreed for many retakes, says Aloke Shetty who shot an advertising campaign with the Indian team.
Like Chakraborty, priorities remain fixed for
employee, who energises himself during long hours on the shift through Tendulkars sketch, drawn by him, fixed over his workstation. for the 2012 England Test when Tendulkar got out started crying thinking that it was his last outing at home. He meant so much to the common man. Zenia Dcunha was at the Wankhede Stadium
the Lords Test. I have already applied leave to be in each of his innings has edified many. I was at the After that I cut out waste work at job and focused on my strengths, notes Lagnajeet Pattanayak, who lived Tendulkar has grown to be a tree of wisdom and
the 1998 Independence Cup final. Mishra no more literature, goes on road trips for fun and has trekked to the Everest base camp. Tendulkar has driven home the importance of adapting to changes and I have implemented it in my life. While experience has made Mishra logical, Niyanti
basks in reflective glory and today leads a diversified
cheaply and she grasped the essence of the story. The North Stand became silent. Grown up men The last day at home is not far away. That will
transition from childhood to adulthood, a familiar
SCG when he scored 241 without a single cover drive.
Verma, a 22-year-old girl from Agra, who shares
end a habit for those whose age was defined by Tendulkars time on the field.
SIDHANTA PATNAIK 45
remembers how that unbeaten knock of 148 uplifted
the dressing rooms confidence. Their bowlers were quick and bouncing us but his positivity stood out. innings was an eye-opener, he says. It told us that Ravi (Shastri) got a double-hundred but Sachins
never tough on people

FORMER TEAMMATE AND FRIEND SUbROTO bANERJEE ON HOW AND WHy TENDULKAR IS WHO HE IS
No tantrums, soft spoken,
if you are a big-hearted player, have high ambitions then circumstances can never be a limitation. That innings inspired all of us. that kept him going for 25 years in the international consistently for so long. Banerjee feels that it is Tendulkars mentality
circuit. His first priority has always been to see how Also as a human being, away from the public
his score can help the team. That is why he got runs gaze, he has remained grounded. He is the simplest cricketer you can ever think of, says Banerjee. Leave sIdHANtA PAtNAIk saw him smash Lillee, who first bowled from four paces. After or Subroto Banerjee, 1989 brings back spikes and pumped in really fast. Tendulkar continued
CLEAN IMAGE He is the simplest cricketer you can ever think of, says Banerjee of his teammate from the 1992 tour of Australia.
aside cricket, just as a person he is awesome. Easily inside and outside the dressing room. playing so well.
accessible, approachable, no tantrums, soft spoken,
never tough on people, he helps anyone he can both have followed his work ethics, that they are all Banerjee chuckles before admitting that he has
that Lillee requested for his memories of a friendship that is one of his cherished possessions. His impressive bowling performance for Bihar had earned currently engaged as the coach of Jharkhand. After I got selected for India, the tour of Australia was for
It is because todays generation of cricketers
the Irani Trophy game against Delhi. The match is best which he was selected for his maiden tour of Pakistan. formed the genesis of his bonding with Tendulkar.
him a call-up to the Rest of India squad for
five and a half months. Then we were in South Africa and Zimbabwe for three and a half months and went time we spent during those days. Dennis Lillee had once famously said that if he to Sharjah too. So, you can imagine the amount of had to bowl to Tendulkar then he would do that with his helmet on. Lillee had actually bowled to the little master once and it was when Banerjee saw Tendulkar
without any fear and that left an impression on
Banerjee. The cute little boy amazed us with his footwork. The moment he tackled Lillee, one of the best in the business, we straightaway knew that he would soon be playing for India. astonished by the young boys maturity. I used to aggressive and never spoke negatively.
benefitted from his friendship with Tendulkar. Of course, I have picked up quite a bit from my friend. I took advantage of being close to him. with his mate. He is a very private person outside He is, however, quick to guard his closeness
remembered for Sachin Tendulkars unbeaten 103, after Though Banerjee did not play the game, the occasion It all started in 1989 when he came to bat at the
pick his brain a lot. Even those days, when he was young, there was clarity in his answers. He was It was in Banerjees debut Test match at Sydney
Banerjee, four years older to his friend, was also
of cricket. Therefore it is not right for me to share anecdotes with you from his personal life, he mentions. Banerjee believes that Tendulkar cannot be away from cricket for long after retirement. He will go on a holiday, spend time with us and then will be soon back in cricket.
MRF pace foundation, and during the Irani Trophy
our friendship just clicked, reminisces Banerjee,
for the first time. Sachin requested Dennis Lillee and Vasu Paranjpe to face Lillee after the end of regular nets at the MRF academy, remembers Banerjee. We
in January 1992 that Tendulkar became the youngest
cricketer to score a century in Australia. Banerjee
career, Banerjee will be among the first few to know about it.
Whatever Tendulkar plans to do after his playing
SAURABH SOMANI 47
Like any other great player, he has an array of shots, but more often than not he sticks to the basics. Personally, his straight drive is very pleasing. He is a complete batsman.
- Mike Gatting
the hundreds
A PROFILE OF TENDULKARS bEST bELOW-100 SCORES IN TESTS AND ODIS
Beyond just
Manjrekar. In the fourth and final match, Tendulkar Tests had been drawn, and Pakistans pace attack Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis in a century stand
walked in at 38 for 4 with Navjot Singh Siddhu at the crease, and Pakistan with their tails up. The first three was sniffing blood with the chance of a Test and
over 18 years, Tendulkar averaged over 47 and took less than three innings to pass 50 on average. 44 vs West Indies, Trinidad 1997
series win. Tendulkar weathered the storm of Imran, the bowlers against intimidatory bowling. In what
In what could have gone down as an unremarkable innings in an unremarkable match, if you looked at
with Siddhu during which the umpires had to warn sAuRAbH soMANI has now become part of folkore, he carried on after or offers to retire hurt. The volume of runs wasnt overwhelming, but the volume of talent and spunk in in-a-generation talent. would be gross injustice. Tendulkar has had several innings where he a nose bloodied by a bouncer, waving off assistance one so young was staggering, and served to confirm the growing opinion that India had unearthed a oncef you enjoy an extended run at the topmost you build up a body of chef doeuvre, no matter 82 vs New Zealand, Auckland 1994 The knock that kickstarted Tendulkars career as an opener non-pareil in One-Day Internationals and the greatest ODI batsman the game has known. By 1994, Tendulkar was already established as one of the worlds best batsmen, and had the feats in Test
only the score or the result, Tendulkar produced up against Curtly Ambrose on fire, and Ambroses support cast included Ian Bishop, Courtney Walsh Test series, and India were rolled over for 179, but Tendulkar was batting on a seemingly different
what might be his shortest masterclass. India were and Franklyn Rose. It was the first ODI after the surface from the one that hissed and spat at the other Indian batsmen. Given out caught off his sleeve, Tendulkar made 44 off 43, with ten boundaries each struck more sweetly than the last. Nayan Mongias 29 was Indias next highest score, and he plodded for 75 talking of batting in the zone. balls to get there. Tendulkar himself has spoken of
rung of any profession, it is only natural that what you do. For a Sachin Tendulkar, the
narrowed by numbers to some extent. You speak of his greatest innings, and you think of his centuries. Simon Barnes wrote memorably and movingly
canvas is so vast that the focus is automatically
might not have touched three figures, but which were no less significant, no less exhilarating and no ones that left a lasting impact.
this innings as among the ones he remembers when 76 and 65 vs Australia, February 2001 VVS Laxman and Harbhajan Singh were the headline stars in Indias greatest Test series triumph when
less memorable. Heres a selection from among the 57 vs Pakistan, Sialkot 1989 In his debut series, already looked at as a prodigy even though he was all of 16 years old, Tendulkar was up against Imran Khans formidable Pakistan side in their own den. He had already scored a half-century in the second Test, rescuing India from 101 for 4 with Sanjay
cricket to back it up. With his promotion to the top of that he caught up quickly in ODIs too. In 49 balls,
of Tendulkars quest for the 100th international
the order following a stiff neck to Siddhu, he ensured way to 82 a strike-rate that would draw praise in
hundred and the struggle it entailed. If you have to most of them will be comprised of the 99 centuries that preceded the 100th, but in some ways, that
cherry pick moments from his career, it is likely that
Tendulkar smashed 15 fours and two sixes on the a Twenty20 match, and one that was unheard of in 1994. Since that innings, for the rest of his ODI career
Steve Waughs all-conquering Australians were
stopped at the final frontier. Rahul Dravid was the Its not entirely surprising therefore, that Tendulkars
brightest member of the supporting cast, and for the opposition, Matthew Hayden loomed like a colossus.
49
contributions form part of the background for this series, but what a background it was. The record will show that Australia won by ten wickets in the first Test in Mumbai, masking just how close the Test was, India, it was Tendulkar who stood tall, and mostly and how it ebbed and flowed. And in both innings for India in both innings was Nayan Mongias 26 not out it needed a peach from Glenn McGrath in the the second innings, an unbelievable catch by Ricky corridor and shaping away to get Tendulkar and in
WORLD CUP MAGIC There hasnt been an exhibition of batting that packed so much ferocity into such elegantly played shots since Tendulkars 98 at Centurion in 2003.
alone. He made 76 and 65, and the next highest for and Sadagoppan Rameshs 44. In the first innings,
Shaping legendary
strokes
Ponting after the ball had ricocheted off Justin Langer at short leg. Before those two dismissals, Tendulkar drove the ball down the ground with majesty, cut Masterly was the only word to describe his batting. 98 vs Pakistan, March 2003 fast bowlers with disdain and flicked spin with ease.
THE MAN WHO CARVES bATS FOR TENDULKAR OFFERS AN INTIMATE GLIMPSE OF THE bATSMANS RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS FAVOURITE TOOL
kRItIkA NAIdu
Possibly Tendulkars most famous innings that an occasion, opponent and setting to match. It didnt get bigger than a World Cup match against Pakistan, soared above the levels that other batsmen had
didnt reach triple figures, in a crucial match with and faced with a stiff chase, Tendulkar once again
reached in a match that saw many good innings. and a six over point perhaps the most astonishing
Shoaib Akhtars first over disappeared for two fours shot of the match because of the complete authority and dismissal it contained against the worlds fastest
bowler. Neither Akhtar nor Akram and Younis could dent Tendulkar, who raced to 98 off a mere 75 balls. It took an unexpected snorter from Akhtar to finally and Pakistans bowlers were off it. There hasnt been an exhibition of batting that packed so much ferocity dismiss him, but by then Indias chase was on track into such sweetly timed and elegantly played shots within such a short space of time before or since.
or some, cricket is a passion. For others like Ram Bhandari, it is more than just a game. It takes just one glance at his workshop in the bylanes of a modest housing colony in South Bangalore to understand why many
willows customised from him. He remembers his
Tendulkar as if it was yesterday. It was in 2004
regard him as crickets bat doctor. For the better part of the last decade, Bhandari has been carving bats and country. Among his clientele are Ricky Ponting, about two gentlemen with most fondness Sachin
when he was at the NCA in Bangalore, he recollects, Tendulkars bat. He didnt realise then that the association would continue for almost a decade. Tendulkar was facing excruciating pain in his
first
interaction
with
before adding that he made some adjustments to
to the specifications of cricketers across the state Matthew Hayden and even Chris Gayle. But he talks Ramesh Tendulkar and Rahul Sharad Dravid. Both have found a great deal of comfort in getting their
elbow and back in 2007, and hence, he had a problem with the weight of the bat, says Bhandari. So I a considerably light bat thereafter. Then gradually
reduced the weight of his bat and he started using towards 2011, he went back to the old, heavy bat
KRITIKA NAIDU 51
I dont believe there will be another Tendulkar, and his achievements on the cricket field will never be matched. Like Sir Donald Bradmans batting average of 99.94.
- Graeme Hick
the make of the bats are also different
depending on the companies, explains Bhandari. In India, we have about ten
to 15 bat companies that have different dyes; their curves are different, bottom style of batting, the bats they use and the bat manufacturers. weights are different. For each player, the level of modification differs with their Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir
that he had used in 2004.
designed the bats of several international cricketers, but believes the minor adjustments he made to Dravids bat were what got him noticed among several other cricketers.
Bhandari considers himself lucky to have
pricked and cut quite often with shards of wood. Sometimes I cut myself with the saw, sometimes with the grinding machine. With the dust that emanates from grinding, I have dust allergy; I have
It is very tough, says Bhandari. My hands get
and Dravid play with lightweight bats,
the Ranji Trophy, he called me to the dressing room
and told me he needed me to fix his bat. After seeing that the bat was of the perfect balance and weight, began calling me and getting their bats done. and was producing the desired results, other players When players practised at the NCA, I used to sit
When Rahul Dravid was playing for the state in
constant bouts of coughing. With the smell of the
whereas MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Virat
adhesives, my eyes burn. I have severe headaches, and experience dizziness. I have to go out to get some fresh air, and then get on with the job at hand. Its definitely not easy, but I havent thought of giving it up ever.
Kohli play with bats of normal weight, like Gayle and Tendulkar use heavy bats that weigh around 1350 grams.
around 1250 grams, he says. Players The one factor that gives him most
and watch them for hours together. I would observe their footwork, batting style, balance and strokes. about bats too. So when a batsman would come to me with an adjustment to be made, I would know width and weight a bat would generally require. exactly what was needed as I knew how much curve, Since I used to play a bit myself, I had a fair idea
cricketers in the early 2000s, has not had it easy, but theres no doubting his passion for the craft. He jobs to begin with, but eventually, ended up aiding some of the best cricketers in the world. I have worked on the bats of not just Indian picked up most of it by mere observation, assisting his grandfather who was a carpenter. He did menial
Bhandari, who started fine-tuning bats for
satisfaction is the fact that none of his what Im asked to do by the players;
revisions have gone wrong. I only do
their requirements are what I pay heed to. They test the modified bats in their net sessions and if it suits their game, why would players keep coming back what Ive done? Although bat manufacturers they use the blades thereafter. Besides,
and body language when a bat is heavy or light; or about modifying them.
how strokes change with a curved bat. With these
You can tell the difference between footwork
cricketers, but international players like Ricky Ponting, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the satisfaction and happiness evident.
to me if they havent had success after
observations and what their requirements were, I go play and Bhandaris hands are testimony to the kind of effort and skill it requires, especially in an age than ever before. where the bats are predominantly heavy and meatier
Matthew Hayden, Brad Haddin and Dilshan, he says, the owner of a sports store in Gandhi Nagar, handed him two bats on a trial basis. Once the experiment and propelled him in the right direction.
approached Bhandari, he would not like to collaborate
Like every profession, crafting bats is no childs
Bhandari first began modifying bats when P Doshi,
or work with anyone. Hes a one-man show. This is my life; my bread and butter, he says, while working on a bat from the many he has stacked in a small, working for a big company. I am comfortable and happy where I am. dim room in his workshop. I am not interested in As the conversation veers towards Tendulkar
have
never
his voice when he echoes the sentiments of millions of fans last time. across the country, gearing Sachin is a genius player up to cheer their hero one
WOOD WORK You can tell the difference between footwork and body language when a bat is heavy or light, says Bhandari, who carves Tendulkars bats.
was successful, he began to improvise. He believes
and someone like him cannot be born ever again; not just in India, but in the world, he says. He has
that working with Doshi gave him encouragement Every player has different preferences and
played some amazing knocks and his career has thing that is left for him to achieve is breaking Laras
and the topic of his retirement, one cant help but feel Bhandaris admiration. There is emotion in
spanned so many years its just amazing. The only
record of 400 runs. I hope he can sign off with tons in both his final Tests.
53
bOttOM hAnd OF SUCCeSS

After a dispiriting World Cup campaign in 2007, a shiny, new trophy after winning the three-Test series 1-0 in England, puts a smile back on Tendulkars face.
GReAtS On the LAWn

What do two men whove transcended eras in their respective sports speak of when they meet? Perhaps Tendulkar recounted his childhood dream of emulating John McEnroe to Federer.
55
PitChinG in Line
Wherever he is in the world, crowds, red carpets and adulation are never too far from Tendulkar.
tWeAK in the tALe

He could give it a rip, or keep it on length and had a googly that was good enough to deceive batsmen even in the drawing room. Tendulkar, the bowler, was a joyous sight who made things happen.
FOOt On the GAS

At ease in Mark Webbers machine, Tendulkars love for fast cars is second only to his love for batting. Did India trade in a potential F1 winner for a batting champion?
57
A CUP OF eMOtiOn
A man who has been Indias Atlas, carrying the hopes and expectations of a nation whenever he walks on the field, is overwhelmed by emotion in the arms of Yuvraj Singh as his childhood dream of winning the World Cup is fulfilled in his sixth attempt.
KinG POnG
Competitiveness was inscribed in Tendulkars DNA. On his maiden tour in 1989, every table-tennis defeat was avenged by the 16-year-old.
RAnJi RiGOUR
When he played for Mumbai, Tendulkar inspired victories on the field, and affection and admiration in spades off it.
59
The
Writers remember
After Kolkata, in Chennai, back in 2001, it was understandable that everyone was talking of Laxman and Dravid, and Harbhajans feats with the ball. On the eve of the series decider in Chennai, Peter Roebuck came to the nets, not to file copy but just to watch. I cant recall more than a handful of deliveries getting past Tendulkars bat during that session. He doesnt like being on the periphery, you know? said Roebuck, a man of few words, to an awed young man covering just his second Test. Big hundred coming up. You can take it for granted. Tendulkar made 126. When you summon up his most crucial or beautiful hundreds, this is unlikely to feature. But I, for one, will never forget three fours in an over off Warne, each ramped over the slips with a nonchalance and mastery that had the bowler at the end of his tether. Tendulkar the dominator, and Roebuck the clairvoyant Ill remember both with equal fondness.
Ask any coach or expert why he thinks a particular batsman is special and he will tell you the easiest way to spot this is to see how much time a person has to play his shots. What this means, of course, is that some players get into position sooner than others, are more balanced at the point of striking the ball, and therefore give an illusion of having more time to play the ball. Sachin Tendulkar has always had time, but this is not because his eyesight is so extraordinary that he sees things before other people do. Its a byproduct of a lifetime of absorbing cricket and being able to read cues better than anyone else. The prime example of this came in the World Cup in South Africa, at Durban, against England. Andy Caddick, dropped one short when Tendulkar was on 22, and the batsman had clearly anticipated the delivery. Tendulkar pulled so fiercely over midwicket that the ball ended up in a car park abutting the ground. It was a moment that perfectly showcased one mans complete mastery over the game.
- Anand Vasu
- Shamya Dasgupta
- Dileep Premachandran
This is from the great Kolkata Test of 2001. It wasnt Tendulkars Test. It belonged to Laxman and Harbhajan, and Dravid and, me as well, seeing that it was the first Test I ever covered. The moment I remember most fondly took place as the game wound to its famous close, when Tendulkar was thrown the ball. The game wasnt quite in the bag yet for India, with Hayden and Gilchrist at the crease. Tendulkar first sent Gilchrist, and then Hayden, back lbw. In his next over, Warne confronted him. He was bowling legspinners. With Hayden and Gilchrist gone, the game had turned, decisively as it turned out, in Indias favour. But there was time enough for Tendulkar to make one final statement. He did, getting Warne out lbw to a wrong un. The series was touted as one between Tendulkar the batsman and Warne the bowler. My interpretation is that Tendulkar just wanted to show that he could beat Warne at his own game. A googly, which even the master of the art couldnt pick, at least on the day.
It was in 1994, in Hyderabad, the Wills Trophy was underway, with Tendulkar leading Bombay. After their practice session at the Gymkhana Ground in Secunderabad, a couple of us journalists approached him for a short chat and Tendulkar was more than happy to oblige. As we huddled around him, an unfamiliar voice asked, Dont you think Pakistan are better than India? They will beat India every time, wont they? As we whirled around to identify the source of these questions, Tendulkar, cool as ice, asked him, And which paper do you work for, sir? Are you sure you are a journalist? When the intruder said he wasnt a mediaperson, Tendulkar summoned a security guard and told him, Can you please gently escort this gentleman out of here, and make sure that only journalists are asking questions. He was all of 21 then and had already proved himself on the field. The maturity and composure that evening in the face of some provocation, however, made a more lasting impression on me than his on-field exploits.
- R Kaushik
One moment but one of a thousand others similar frozen in time. It is a delivery, from a pace bowler, of no exceptional merit beyond its impeccable line, on middle-and-off to off, and good length, but surely one to be treated with respect. The danger to the batsman lies only in his own lack of such. Tendulkar watches, and, quicker than almost anyone who has played the game, picks up the length, and moves automatically into position,head and feet synchronised. He might play it with defensive bat, but he is in now. He waits, just a fraction longer than the mortals, until the ball is almost on him, and then the bat comes down straight, on the line of the delivery, as if to hit it back to the bowler. But then comes the magic: a turn of the wrist in the last micro-second sends the ball skimming to the legside instead, the placement impeccable and timing immaculate.Mid-on is beaten to his right hand, and midwicket to his left. The ball goes unchallenged to the fence. Tendulkar does not bother to run.
- Mike Selvey
DILEEP PREMACHANDRAN 61
FIRst PubLIsHEd IN WISDENINDIA.COM oN APRIL 24, 2013
the game
TENDULKARS bLADE MAy NO LONGER bE AS SHARP AS A 16-yEAR-OLD PRODIGyS bUT HE REMAINS SINGULAR IN THE LIMITS HE CONTINUES TO PUSH 23 yEARS LATER
For love of
DILEEP PREMACHANDRAN Zidane, who retired in 2006. Lionel Messi was two. Manchester United had been champions of England seven times, and not 20. Barcelona had yet to win the Champions League. he same moment that you are seen as the best, the fastest and somebody that cannot be touched, you are enormously fragile. Though he didnt say it, its a sentiment Schumacher, who retired last year with seven titles and 91 race wins, was still unknown outside Germany. Carl Lewis, who turns 52 this year, was the worlds The oldest of Tendulkars teammates on that first Jack Hobbs played his final Test when he was 47, and went on to represent Surrey for four more Rhodes won the last of his 58 Test caps at the age of 52. seasons. Yorkshires Wilfred
THE CONSTANT There have been so many halcyon days and years that weve lost track. But like O Henrys last leaf, Tendulkar remains, keeping winter at bay.
tour to Pakistan in 1989, Arshad Ayub, turns 55 later back then Vivek Razdan, Salil Ankola and Maninder Singh are lost in the mists of time.
this year. Memories of the other young uns from Many of the journalists covering the Indian
from the teenager who set about Abdul Qadir in an
him throughout a career that is now nudging towards the
that Sachin Tendulkar has carried with
quarter-century mark. For all the unimaginable highs, man is an island, in his case, he has often had to be.
fastest man. Usain Bolt was three. Joe Montana, who
there have been terrible lows. And though they say no The man who uttered those words about fragility,
now makes wine, was American Footballs premier quarterback. Steve Davis ruled the green baize, and Jocky Wilson, the chunky Scot who passed away last year, was the boss of the oche. Basten, Roberto Baggio, Lothar Mattheus and Ruud Gullit, some of the other outstanding footballers Diego Maradona was still around, with Marco van
Premier League beat this year are far too young to have as are the majority of fans following the event. But for the wonders of YouTube and other archives, youd be was a chapter from the Brothers Grimm.
exhibition game in Peshawar on his first tour. He bears little resemblance to the boy-man who stood on tiptoe to defy Australia on a Perth trampoline. series in 1998. There are merely faint traces of the player he As the support cast around him changed two
The Tendulkar of today is unrecognisable
any memories of the early part of Tendulkars career, tempted to think that the story of the boy wonder who went on to become a run gatherer without parallel Of course, cricket has some previous when it
was when Shane Warne was savaged in a Test generations of players have come and gone so a while, you can catch glimpses of the man who could hit the ball where he wanted, when he wished
Ayrton Senna, has been dead nearly two decades.
When Tendulkar made his debut, he had yet to win two of his three World Championships. Michael
of that era. The world hadnt yet heard of Zinedine
comes to greats attempting to defy the onset of time.
Tendulkar continued to reinvent himself. Once in
63
Sachins innate talent combined optimally with him being a true Indian, a team player and a hard worker brings him to the cusp of achieving what no other cricketer has achieved.
- Kiran More
to. That sort of exuberant stroke-making was in
evidence during a second childhood, between 2008 the line-up around him was strong enough to afford him that luxury.
and 2011. After years of playing the percentages, he
against age, and even when you think about his career, against ending. And tonight I think he might to push the sun back up in the sky and give us one more day of summer. be able to use that aching old arm one more time
expressed himself as he had in his pomp, aware that The performance graph has dipped since the
World Cup win in 2011, but even as sports desks around the world keep retirement copy ready, the man himself shows little sign of walking away. What keeps him going is something that he alone knows. In the movie, For Love of the Game, Billy Chapel,
and years that weve lost track. But like O Henrys
last leaf, Tendulkar remains, keeping winter at bay. If we agree that a sense of purpose and destiny in his final years. find a clue to his longevity in something Senna said On a given day, a given circumstance, you think
There have been so many halcyon days
separates the greats from the rest, then we may
a 40-year-old baseball pitcher staring at the end, is asked by Jane, his lover: You dont lose much, do you? I lose, Billy replies. Ive lost 134 times. You count moments and numbers from the past borders greatest innings, and find him summoning up he felt in near-perfect touch against Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop and Rose. Like Billy, Tendulkars ability to recall them? she asks. We count everything is Billys reply. on the intimidating. For an interviewer, it can
you have a limit, he said. And you then go for this limit and you touch this limit, and you think, Okay, this is the limit. As soon as you touch this determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high. reach, Tendulkar still wants to spread those wings. pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the limit, something happens and you suddenly can
be embarrassing to go prepared for a chat on his
go a little bit further. With your mind power, your Having left behind limits once considered out of
details from a cameo of 44 in Trinidad, a day when Seeing Tendulkar in the IPL is to be reminded of
Somewhere behind the athlete youve become and game and never looked back ... play for her, said Mia
the best lines from For Love of the Game. You get the feeling that Billy Chapel isnt pitching against he isnt pitching against the Yankees. Hes pitching
the hours of practice and the coaches who have Hamm, whose 17-year career with the US womens football team included a world-record 158 goals.
left-handers, he isnt pitching against pinch hitters, against time. Hes pitching against the future,
Substitute boy for girl and him for her, and you have Tendulkar in a nutshell.
SURESH MENON 65
Merchant to C K Nayudu. Six degrees of separation.
FIRst PubLIsHEd IN WISDENINDIA.COM oN dECEMbER 25, 2012
hastily-arranged friendly (or as friendly as you could get under the circumstances) match after overnight Dev pulled out with a stiff neck. It was a theme that of the order, one that Tendulkar made his own with 82 off 49 balls in Auckland. Just get a feel of the game, Srikkanth told rain had made a full international impossible. Kapil
All that was academic as India took on Pakistan in a
little bugger who can play

THERE WAS NO PLAN TO PLAy THE 16-yEAR-OLD IN A ONE-DAy INTERNATIONAL THEN; yOU DIDNT THROW TEENAGERS INTO THE DEEP END
a poor tour of the West Indies. The forced camaraderie for security reasons meant that the team and the journalists had to find entertainment
GOEL WONDERS Just get a feel of the game, Srikkanth told Tendulkar. There was no plan to play the 16-year-old in a One-Day International then.
In Peshawar, India find a
was to play out with greater significance later, when
Navjots Singhs stiff neck opened the slot at the top
Tendulkar. There was no plan to play the 16-year-old in a One-Day International then; you didnt throw in transition. Sanjay Manjrekar was establishing in Barbados against the West Indies).
teenagers into the deep end. But this was a team himself as a pillar of the batting (he was to make a double hundred in a Test in Pakistan, after a century Indias one-day future arrived with startling
SURESH MENON
among ourselves. I have a wenty three years ago, it was easy to see Everything was in the hosts favour. But Peshawar
speed. Everything changed in 18 deliveries. Srikkanth, till then Indias best regarded one-day batsman, sixes off the leg spinners Abdul Qadir and Mushtaq and gleeful driving and pulling. Three sixes in a row. hardly got a stroke in edgewise as Tendulkar hit five Ahmed. The unbeaten 53 he made included 27 in one When Qadir dropped one short as Tendulkar
picture somewhere of Tendulkar in a false beard we had to wear one to attend one of the club meetings. why the forefathers of the security men at Peshawar could not control the Khyber Pass. A huge crowd had turned up at the cricket stadium, many fans allowed in was bound to be different. On a clear day, a guide told us, you could see Afghanistan. But this wasnt a clear day. In fact, it rained, putting paid to the aspirations of thousands of spectators some of whom had even bought tickets. It is possible that those who shouted have any tickets. It is often that way. The Indian team was coming together as a unit was Dicky Rutnagur who had been touring for over in 1952 when India were led by Vijay Hazare. It separation, three at most, between me and a reporter It was easy to feel a part of history.
three decades. He had reported the series in England was possible that there were only two degrees of who covered Indias first-ever Test, in England 1932. couldnt say. His connection to that Lords Test would Dev to Erapalli Prasanna to Vijay Manjrekar to Vijay If Sachin Tendulkar nurtured similar thoughts, I
It was my first Test tour; the oldest among us
Qadir over. There was no wild slogging, just scientific stepped out, and was technically beaten. But he was 16, he didnt know better, and so he went through with the shot. The bat made a lovely arc, and for all find it. we know the ball is still travelling - no one could
by the combination of the friendliness of those paid to valour might be the better part of discretion.
check the tickets and the aggression of those who thought The India-Pakistan match was an occasion, as
loudest about being deprived were those who didnt on that tour led by Krishnamachari Srikkanth, it Dilip Vengsarkar having lost his job as captain after
always. India hadnt been to Pakistan in five years, they had a brand new captain, and Pakistan were led by that wily fox Imran Khan.
was in transition, Sunil Gavaskar having retired and
necessarily have more links. One route was: Kapil
That evening Srikkanth made what must rate as an understatement. The little bugger must play now. Suresh Menon is editor, Wisden India Almanack
LAWRENCE BOOTH 67
FIRst PubLIsHEd IN WISDEN INDIA ALMANACK 2013
Waiting for
Sachin
THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER OF 2011, ENGLAND WAITED FOR TENDULKARS 100TH INTERNATIONAL CENTURy, bUT THERE WAS A SADNESS THAT WENT bEyOND THE LANDMARK WHEN HE FAILED
LAWRENCE BootH
even a touch of rancour. ometimes, as a cricket writer, you are
lucky enough to be in the right place at terrestrial align, and all seems right with the world. In July 2011, when Sachin
the right time. The stars celestial and
dine and be seen were in good spirits.
unusual attractions: the hairy lady, say, or the the sight of a run machine forced to recalibrate its own mortality and all because of a blessed number.
James Anderson off his pads, then stroked Tremlett a legitimate excuse one we rarely need to lapse into eulogy. Truly, the scene was set. It goes without saying that Tendulkar did not
Tendulkar stood as tall as nature allows and punched Chris Tremlett through the covers on the Saturday of the Lords Test, the world could hardly seem righter. The Lords buzz can be exaggerated, as if tradition
on the up through extra cover, thus providing us with
More to the point, so was Tendulkar. He tucked
elephant man. Now, from north to south London, via Nottingham and Birmingham, we were treated to Roll up, roll up and see the 100th bead on the abacus refuse to budge! For students of psychology and accountants at the England and Wales Cricket Board this was gold dust and nectar. And for the man himself? Well, it was all a little undignified.
Victorian circuses used to draw crowds with
point against England, it still
meant he had only a 16 per given innings. (Apologies for the maths: it was that kind of summer.) The way Englands Anderson was
cent chance of doing so in any
LONG WALK BACK Fans turned up in their thousands at every venue in anticipation of Sachin Tendulkars 100th hundred, but went away disappointed and sad every single time.
seamers were bowling, you could have knocked off a few more percentage points too. especially Tendulkar across his stumps with his outswinger, then zipping it back in to trap him leg-before in the second innings at Lords. He got him again in the who have followed Tendulkar all over the world for more than two decades recharged their laptops. skilful, dragging
automatically begets frisson. Just occasionally the place can be cold, damp and empty, though you rarely hear about it. But that day Lords was magical.
reach three figures. Edging Stuart Broad to Graeme Swann in the slips, he fell just the 66 short, and so set the tone for a curious summer in which the expected waltz to a 100th international century would become a danse macabre. By the end, he was provoking sympathy and among those who apparently believe
that, in sport, hope rarely defers to bitter experience. Tendulkar, lets not forget, scores a Test century that he would inevitably tick off the hundred at some roughly once every six innings. And while that may have suggested, at the start of a four-match series,
What became clear as the series developed was
second innings at Trent Bridge. In between, Broad
had him fending into the slips. The technical experts In fact, Tendulkar wasnt playing all that badly.
St Johns Wood was in one of its hazy moods, and both sets of fans plus those who turn up to drink,
Tendulkar exists only to boost their own self-esteem
Among the Indian batsmen, only Rahul Dravid was
69
Sachin Tendulkars charm goes beyond the field. For cricket, he is Maradona and Pele out together it is as simple as that. Cricket will be a poorer sport when he quits the game.
- Allan Donald
FIRst PubLIsHEd IN WISDEN INDIA ALMANACK 2013
coping. Tendulkar kept tantalising us, then getting out. It wasnt that the script kept being torn up, because the to do was transfer the pre-written paeans to the page.
script existed, on red alert, in a hundred newspaper offices around the world, and all the editors needed Still, there was something especially cruel about the way Tendulkar fell at Edgbaston, run out at the nona genius to reach 40. For English cricket followers, Tendulkar will
would have ended his innings on 34. Next day, in the company of nightwatchman Amit Mishra, he was making good headway. When he moved into the 80s, I left the press box
A hundred reasons
to smile
to sit by the crowd and soak in the atmosphere. You would not have guessed India were trailing 0-3. It numbers, however, most certainly did. was as if nothing that had gone before mattered. Tendulkars pursuit of a nice round number of round Enter Tim Bresnan, one of Englands unsung
strikers end via Swanns fingertips after playing like always be synonymous with Old Trafford, where off innocent and barely bumfluffed to bemused applause from ancient-looking players sporting a variety of facial hair. But Old Trafford wasnt on the to The Oval for the fourth and final Test. The Oval performs a particular rota this time, and instead Tendulkar headed in hope Traditionally the final Test of the summer, it is where and the Ashes urn is regained or retained. It emits finality Don Bradmans second-ball duck, and eternal average of 99.94, is the most infamous example. Now, as India followed on Tendulkar had made function.
TWENTy-ONE FRUITLESS TEST MATCH INNINGS AND A DOZEN IN ODIS bEFORE THE 100TH HUNDRED. SOMETIMES EVEN THE GODS MANIFEST THEMSELVES AS MORTAL FOR A WHILE
he saved a Test in 1990 at the age of 17 and walked
heroes. Was his shout a fraction high? Or even Tendulkar was gone, for 91. Bradman had left to a disbelieving, almost reverent, gasp, but crowds are even while Indians looked on in mute incredulity. more partisan now: English fans instinctively cheered applauded to the crease then applauded all the
leg-sidish? Umpire Rod Tucker thought not and
MIkE SELVEy
last-ditch bids are made for a spot on a winter tour,
way back again. This time, there was a sadness that
Throughout the summer, Tendulkar had been
went beyond the missed landmark. English crowds Had they enjoyed him as thoroughly as they would Greatness sets itself high have liked throughout the summer? Only to an extent.
suspected they would not see him bat in a Test again. standards.
23 in the first innings the mood changed. Few sportsmen have the aura to transcend the narrative all by themselves. But Tendulkars quest for that century had developed a mischievous momentum of
Statistics can be dry and unforgiving. Tendulkar fell
ery few, perhaps in the history of sport, can truly understand what it is like to be Sachin Tendulkar, to regard
international career as a curly haired youth of prodigious reputation and achievement, he has stage he has dominated for two decades. It followed carried the hopes of a billion people on his shoulders each time he has pottered, invariably blinking, to the
as normal that which the mortals of this world see only as an abnormal
existence that demands he is all but incarcerated within only in the dead of night, when the streets clear, that
his own country, on a kind of house arrest so that it is he can take his sports cars for a spin. The attention he
him to England last summer when each entrance was accompanied by a standing ovation and each exit similarly marked. Every dismissal is accompanied by film Clockwise, the English comedian John Cleese distinguishes between the two emotions: I can take despair (and, in the huge stadia of India, a deafening
its own. Fate appeared to be with him: on the fourth evening, England failed to appeal for a stumping that
short on both counts. But, really, we shouldnt hold it against him. Cricketers Almanack
receives goes beyond mere adulation and enters the And with the microscopic attention comes
Lawrence Booth is editor, Wisden
world of veneration. Is any deity ever worshipped more? the expectation. From the moment he began his
silence), each entrance by hope renewed. In the the despair, he says of his situation, it is the hope
MIKE SELVEY 71
It takes a master to produce a masterpiece. Lesser mortals might tap into the well of brilliance or temporarily befriend inspiration, but mastery belongs to the precious few.
- Peter Roebuck
I cant stand. For followers of Tendulkar, rather hope of another hundred.
than the man himself, it is hard to know which is the
greater encumbrance: the despair of a failure or the
the intensity began to build up in the game even of one so mentally strong.
Indias World Cup match against South Africa,
everything intensified. For that day Tendulkar made for his country, and suddenly came the clamour for him to reach a landmark. Now there were many, this correspondent included, who saw this as a contrivance, a concocted effort to further the adulation of one who needed none further. Adding apples with pears and come up with a fruit bowl. yet to come but in all probability, the same in limited summit of cricket achievement? together Test match centuries and those scored in
Then, on 10 March 2011, in Nagpur, following
between this milestone (or was it millstone?) and first-class centuries. What it shows is that luck, dictate how readily the transition is made from 99
that of those few who have scored one hundred circumstance, form, fortune and state of mind can
There is an interesting comparison to be drawn
111, the 99th time that he had reached three figures
centuries to 100. Geoffrey Boycott, for instance, did it in his very next innings, and in the highest profile manner imaginable for an Englishman, in his 100th match. So fraught did the great Walter Hammond with abandon and made 116. Test, against Australia, on his home ground. Graeme get, on the other hand, that he went 23 fruitless
limited overs cricket was, it was reasoned, to mix
Hick even managed his 99th and 100th in the same innings before, at a loss, he went out, threw the bat
himself found it difficult. As batsmen age, they lose youth, when everything is an adventure, and settle vulnerable early on in an innings, as bowlers into a pragmatism forged in the heat of experience.
Was not a half-century of Test match hundreds, and, overs not sufficient in their own right to mark him as one standing with other gods on the Olympian But then we outsiders do not, cannot, fully
the instinctiveness, impetuosity, and verve of their At times it must be wearying. Tendulkar looked no longer twinkling and just a fraction more ponderous now. He still played sublimely at times: the back foot punch through the covers; the flick
not until an ODI against
Bangladesh in Dhaka, one grateful and relieved, he was
the hope heaped on Tendulkar. The more he batted,
and the more he failed to cross the threshold, the doubt must inevitably have crept in, even with him. Mumbai and what almost seemed preordained cut year, brought down by an lbw decision. It was during the tour of England, valedictory off by the sharpest of slip catches; 91 at The Oval last for him, that the weight may have borne down
Yet none of these achievements remotely carried
year and four days since his Nagpur hundred, that, able to trot through for the
THE EVOLUTION As batsmen age, they lose the instinctiveness, impetuosity, and verve of their youth, when everything is an adventure, and settle into a pragmatism forged in the heat of experience.
understand quite what Tendulkar means to the people of India. His achievements embody the unattainable aspirations of a nation. Through him whatever level he reaches, there will always be one it is they themselves who live the dream. And so more beyond. It takes a remarkable fellow to be philosophical and sanguine about this. And yet with
more the questions were asked and the more self-
sought his outside edge or his pads, his movements
leg side single that with it brought release. The last leg of a remarkable journey had taken him through in ODIs before this last one. Never, in his entire
There were flirtations: 94 on his home ground in
through midwicket with nothing more than a turn of the wrist; the straight drive that was little more
than a defensive stroke played with chronometric timing. But the air of invulnerability was no longer had slipped. He left England without a century and it was there. Respect for him never wavered but his aura
cricket life, had he gone as long without a hundred.
21 fruitless Test match innings and a dozen
Sometimes even the gods manifest themselves as mortal for a while. Hammond, he might like to know, went on to make a further 67 hundreds. Mike Selvey, former English Test cricketer, is the cricket correspondent for The Guardian newspaper.
each innings, and each failure to reach three figures,
heaviest. It dominated the agenda even as India as a team struggled to make headway. Tendulkar
Achrekar
BRADMAN
Where would Tendulkar be if not for Ramakant Achrekars guidance and disciplining in his early days? It is said that Achrekar used to take Tendulkar on his bike to all the grounds around Mumbai and make him play four-five games every day.
Don Bradman anointed Tendulkar as the modern day master, the one who reminded him the most of himself. The baton had been passed. They famously met at the formers residence in Adelaide in 1998 with Shane Warne for company.
He has been dismissed for a duck only twice in domestic firstclass games once by Hampshires Paul-Jan Bakker in 1992 and then by Uttar Pradeshs Bhuvneshwar Kumar in 2009.
ZERO
Yorkshire signed him as an overseas player when he was just 19 Tendulkar became the first overseas player to represent the county.
YORKSHIRE
GAVASKAR
One of his heroes while growing up, and whose record he ultimately broke, was Sunil Gavaskar, who also gifted Tendulkar with light-weight pads, which Tendulkar wore when he made his debut and later, when he scored his first Test hundred.
DOUBLE HUNDRED
Y
VIV RICHARDS
It was probably fitting that the first double hundred in ODIs was registered by Tendulkar, who redefined the way batting was done in limitedovers cricket over the years.
G
ERA
Usually the stepping stone to international cricket for all cricketers, in Sachins case he moved from school cricket to senior cricket directly and never played an U-19 game for the country.
UNDER-19
Viv Richards was Tendulkars childhood idol. He wanted to be as destructive as the Antiguan and did achieve that in the first half of his career.
The period between 1989 to 2013 will have to be known as the Tendulkar Era, during which he played 662 international matches, including playing with or against 982 cricketers.
CENTURIES
Tendulkars century of international centuries 51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs; a record that will probably never be broken. The enormity of it is such that the next two in the list are 29 and 39 behind respectively.
He is the only Indian in the Wisden World XI selected to mark the publications 150th anniversary and only Indian and modern day cricketer to be included in Don Bradmans alltime Test XI.
XI
FERRARI
The Ferrari Modena 360 didnt cost him anything, but it created controversy and fury when Tendulkar asked for exemption from paying the import duty of 1.1 crore. The car was later sold to a Gujarati businessman.
No player except Jack Hobbs has scored more Test runs against Australia, the best attack of that era, than Tendulkar. With 11 centuries in Tests and nine in ODIs, he stamped his authority on the best in the business. *Jack Hobbs has 3636 runs against Australia to Tendulkars 3630. It took more than two decades for the dream to come true, but he made the 1996 and 2003 World Cups his own and, apart from the winners medal in 2011, also owns the records for most runs, hundreds and appearances.
OZ
WORLD CUP
F
KAMBLI
Kambli was the school friend and club mate with whom he notched up one record after another playing for Sardashram Vidya Mandir. Their 664-run partnership created in 1988 was a world record till two boys from Hyderabad broke it in 2006.
W
Tendulkar and Gangulys opening partnership is the best in ODI history in terms of runs scored (8227) and hundreds (26). In Tests, he and Dravid added 6920 with 20 hundred partnerships.
I
INJURIES
PARTNERS IN CRIME
From the back pain that thwarted him against Pakistan in 1999 in Chennai to the tennis elbow condition each made headlines; injuries to the toe, thigh, hamstring, ankle, finger, shoulder, knee, groin, elbow, abdomen and wrist Tendulkar has seen it all.
P R
He holds most of the important batting records in Tests and ODIs including most runs, hundreds and appearances.
S
The desert city has seen some fine ODI performances from Tendulkar including the epic back-to-back centuries in 1998 against the Australian bowling line-up that included Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.
SHARJAH
H
HANSIE CRONJE
It wasnt Curtly Ambrose, Wasim Akram or Glenn McGrath that Tendulkar picked as the bowler who troubled him the most: Hansie Cronje. Honestly. I got out to Hansie more than anyone. I never knew what to do with him.
RECORDS
JOhN McENrOe
LITTLE MASTER
Thought the title was bestowed to Hanif Mohammad first and then passed on to Sunil Gavaskar, it was to Tendulkar that it would remain associated with the longest.
In his formative years Tendulkar was a huge fan of tennis legend John McEnroe and wanted to be a tennis player. He even aped his idol by growing his hair long and tying a band around it.
Some say Tony Greig had a huge role to play in making Tendulkar famous. That might be an exaggeration but anybody who heard Tony Greig yell, The little master has smashed it over the bowlers head will agree it added to the excitement.
TONY GREIG
Q M N
For the hundred international hundreds he scored, there were also 27 nineties on three of those occasions, he was out on 99.
MRF PACE FOUNDATION
By Dileep V
Before his career really took off, Tendulkar wanted to become a fast bowler and went to the MRF Pace Foundation, where Dennis Lillee rejected him and asked him to focus on his batting.
NERVOUS NINETIES
Whether it was from his first known interview, where he said, I always wanted to play Cricket to Kohlis Tendulkar has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years ; quotes around Tendulkar have been, well, quotable.
QUOTES
ANJALI DOSHI 75
FIRst PubLIsHEd IN WISDENINDIA.COM oN APRIL 24, 2013
age of innocence
TENDULKARS FIRST INTERVIEW IS A REMINDER OF A TIME WHEN PLAyERS ACTUALLy SPOKE THEIR MIND WITHOUT FEAR OF THE CONSEQUENCES
Sachin, and the
ANJALI DosHI
H
Long
is fortieth birthday is a good occasion to recall my favourite
Tendulkar interview. Lest you worry, this is not another birthday-induced Sachin tribute God knows there are
Sachin
grammatically correct English. And tackle questions with an air of practiced and noncommittal ease.
to face Marshall, hes not too young, he loves fast
that may involve a possibly controversial answer
bowling because it comes on to the bat (note the
He tells Alter that he wont have any trouble
interview for free when you are obligated to plug publicitystarved sponsors? upon cricketers Its odd then to chance
strong emphasis on the final consonant of bat) and utmost sincerity, This is just the start.
enough of those doing the rounds already.
now - Sachin being interviewed by Tom Alter, veteran theatre personality, in January 1989. Long before he took to experimenting with his hair, wearing flashy Ed Hardy T-shirts, signing multi-million dollar contracts, or sporting a diamond stud in his ear. before he learned how to speak
If you havent chanced upon this gem, watch it
interviewed after DilipVengsarkar, sipping tea from a steel cup in Shivaji Park and, if its possible, his voice was even thinner than it is now. This is Sachin in the age of innocence. When there
This is Sachin at 15, waiting patiently to be
he enjoys bowling middyum pace. When asked if There is a certain purity to that interview the
he was tired of doing interviews, Sachin says with casual setting, no studio lights, no sponsors in the backdrop or on the gear, no rehearsed questions and responses that has long since escaped the game. Nowadays, youd be hard-pressed to gain access
interviews, when they werent the finished product they are today. By finished, I mean sans the naivet and earnestness that once informed their public persona jaded as most of them are now by all the attention, the constant hankering for interviews and the plethora of back-to-back media commitments. When they do occasionally deign to indulge the Indian media. press usually at the behest of a sponsor its with But its not just innocence that is now gold dust -
earlier
ONE FOR THE FUTURE Tendulkar before making his debut for Yorkshire in 1992, at an age when the setting for interactions with cricketers had a certain purity.
was plenty of speculation over his probable Test to the worlds most fearsome pace attack - Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop - at such a tender age.
debut during Indias tour of West Indies (in MarchApril 1989) and questions over his ability to face up
to any player - even those yet to find their bearings in international cricket - without the interference of an marketing-branding types. After all, why agree to an entourage of sponsors, agents, PR professionals, and
a cynical view of the media in general, especially the
ANJALI DOSHI 77
The best thing about Sachin is he never sledges. During the matches in Toronto for the Sahara Cup in the late 1990s, I abused him. But by choosing not to reply, he showed how great a human being he is.
- Saqlain Mushtaq
honesty is too. A piece I did for Vogue soon after MS Dhoni became Indian captain had him talking openly
about his lack of confidence as a pimply teenager and contract in the 2008 IPL auction.
with a show cause notice. One can
his aspiration to own a Rolex having just ordered In another interview to NDTV, right after India
his first one, following his handsome US$1.5 million won the CB series in Australia, when asked about being critical of his team members, he says, I am nothing confidential about it. a transparent person. Whatever happens on the Such candour is now off the table, as the press field, I just repeat it at the press conference. There is pack knows only too well. Hows this for honesty? Mark Butcher, when asked what he had for tea replied: A coffee and a fag in the shower.
interactions during a series. But the new rules apparently involve not speaking about a series even after the 4-0 whitewash against Australia.
understand
disallowing
media
a month after the dust has settled. This explains the In the post-IPL era, its not just the BCCI calling
absence of any interviews from the Indian players the shots but franchises too. When Saurabh Tiwary
made a point during his 2010 stint with the Mumbai Indians about a 30-run cameo in the IPL grabbing headlines (compared to a century or double century in the Ranji Trophy that is often overlooked), the moment in ordering the press to delete that bit.
after his 173 not out during an Ashes Test at Leeds, honesty, especially as far as the Indian cricketers are concerned, is the gag imposed by the BCCI a constant reminder lurking behind the code-ofsuperstars of this country who their daddy is. When Greg Chappell, the coach, spoke about the conduct euphemism that shows the cricketing teams seniors operating like the mafia after Indias 2007 World Cup exit, Tendulkar told the Times of mentioned, even in passing, that my attitude was not India he was deeply hurt. Ive given my heart and correct. The BCCIs response? Slapping Tendulkar soul to Indian cricket for 17 years. No coach has ever Among the many reasons for discarding
Mumbai Indians team management did not waste a not help matters when its raison detre seems to be
did manage some off-the-cuff and candid answers my own experience involved interviews with Muttiah Muralitharan and Rahul Dravid - a polite request they feared would be taken out of context, or invite censure from their respective cricket boards. was made soon after the interaction to remove bits The day is not far, then, when cricketers will
This explains why, on the rare occasion when one
not approve. But
imposed embargoes, stifling
twisting innocent remarks for a sensational story. At Test in 2007, when asked whether the bowlers were
Of course, the media - particularly in India - does
codes of conduct and intense media scrutiny always been
had
these
self-
NO MIC, PLEASE The day is not far when cricketers will regularly have their agents stage-manage interviews with them to cut the media out of it altogether.
the case, some of crickets most memorable quotes would never have made it past the lips of the games with no love lost for his English opponents. Stuff stiff it is when its split. And heres another delicious bit of honesty from
the press conference after the fourth day of the Oval
tired because Rahul Dravid opted not to enforce the I have given my everything to the series. I dont think I was tired or anything. That was enough to set off a massive TV news-generated controversy back home. for months after. And the manager on tour told a newspaper, The players are quite tired with the way home, especially on television.
regularly have their agents stage-manage interviews with them to cut the media out of it altogether post-TextGate interview on YouTube.
greatest characters. Among them is Jeff Thomson, that stiff upper lip crap, he once said. Lets see how
follow-on, Zaheer Khan said, As far as I am concerned,
Kevin Pietersen has clearly shown the way in this by Pat Collins as sensationally awful, talks of a
Zaheer refused to entertain any media requests
disembodied voice his agents - feeding him some gentle full tosses masquerading as questions that an insincere apology that was unwittingly revealing
The clip, described in the 2013 Wisden Almanack
Thomson: It doesnt worry me in the least to see the batsman hurt, rolling around screaming, and blood on the pitch. Now, if only Dale Steyn would be so kind as to oblige. Anjali Doshi is former cricket editor, NDTV 24x7, and is currently enjoying cricket from the vast expanse of her living room couch
quotes are being misinterpreted or being used back
he answered with a series of wooden cliches. As
Collins goes on to suggest, the whole thing reeked of
of Pietersens priorities. Unsurprisingly, the ECB did
tarika kHattar 79
college and officially transitioned into adulthood, I began, for the first time, to examine my Sachin Wall. It had been such a constant in my life, as constant as the man who adorned it, that I
memory
IN AN AGE WHEN THE IMAGE, MOVING OR STILL, IS SO ESSENTIAL TO PROJECTING MEMORy, HOW WILL yOU REMEMbER TENDULKAR? WHAT WILL EXIST OUTSIDE THE FRAME?
The wall of
had never given it much conscious there; the occasional Sportstar special middle. But I had never paused to
thought. Over the years, I had added a newspaper cutout here, a photograph edition poster somewhere in the consider what it represented. This was the lime green canvas of my childhood, a hundred images that became the memories, this world? collection of my world. But why did I choose these photographs, these My eyes find that first article on
TARIkA KHAttAR
the wall, crookedly placed next to a
photograph from the day before. Time to a watercolour blur. Tendulkar is have lived in the same room all my life. A small, square room with green walls, the exact shade and a cupboard cover two walls; my bed is of a Nirulas lime ice cream soda. A window against the third and opposite it is a story that of Sachin Tendulkar in Test whites, bat raised nonchalantly. sitting on the floor clutching a pixelated image of a man whose name I couldnt pronounce, unsure of what to do. And then it came to me. Scotch tape. scrapbook didnt even cross my mind. Who needed a book, when you had a wall? world. the marvellous essay In Platos Cave, is to collect the To collect photographs, wrote Susan Sontag in Four long strips, and it was done. The thought of a I dont know what made me do it. There I was, Adam Gilchrist looks on. dancing down the track and lofting the
has curled its edges off, faded the ink ball over cover as an open-mouthed
LESSON ON RESTRAINT Three photos down is a very different Sachin Sachin of Sydney. Blurred green stands at the SCG. In the foreground, Tendulkar raises his arms in characteristic fashion towards the heavens.
I remember a lot of yellow. A goateed Damien Fleming perpetually walking back to his run-up the memory of him actually bowling doesnt
Sharjah. The Desert Storm of 98.
begins on April 25, 1998.
for the morning paper, I sneaked the Times of India into my room and tore off the front page. I then proceeded to carefully cut, with scissors too big for my seven-year-old hands, around the dramatically titled Tornado Tendulkar gifts India a perfect present. It featured a black-and-white long shot
Dodging multiple family members who searched
seem to have registered. Red Wills
stickers plastered on blue. The flat-batted swat be played, any bowler could be demolished. This and it began with Sachin of Sharjah.
over a ducking non-striker. The ferocious pull over
Sachin of Sydney. Blurred green stands at the SCG.
midwicket. Anything was possible. Any shot could was the self-belief that came to define a generation, Three photos down is a very different Sachin
In the foreground, Tendulkar raises his arms in
characteristic fashion towards the heavens. But there
is so much more to this photograph. The ball crashing midwicket boundary. And most of all, restraint. A new word to associate with a changing man. The same selfbelief expressed not through power, but discipline.
into Gilchrists gloves over and over again. The
This summer, having just graduated from
81
It wasnt until I really played against him that I understood that there was a tiger that lay within him: he was a very competitive little man.
- Matthew Hayden
for me, but one of my favourite Tendulkar centuries. at the peak of his natural ability, and a man who succeeded in reinventing himself.
Heres Cape Town 1997, and again in 2011. A man There is so much in between. Here, a back-foot
Theres Edgbaston 1996. A YouTube discovery
Cup. As if my 15-year-old self wanted to spare me only in these photographs. Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality,
The numbers prove
the pain in the future, as if the memories existed Sontag wrote. One cant possess reality, one can one can possess the past. So I ask myself the question, knowing, like
his greatness
punch from the 2003 World Cup. Feet withdrawing gracefully into the crease, the sudden spring on to
possess images one cant possess the present but everyone, that the end is near. Do I need photographs to possess the past? No, not when so much of it exists outside the frame. are so carefully cut. I trace the words that had, so to keep forever on my wall the perfect present. My nails peel back the tape, taking with it part of the wall. Lime green sticks to white. My fingers brush against frail paper. The edges
WHEN TENDULKAR WAS IN THE ZONE, IT WAS ALL AbOUT HIS bATTING bEING IN A RAREFIED AIR, THE FORMAT AND OPPOSITION WERE MERE INCIDENTALS
the toes, the quick back lift to meet the ball and then, batsmanship. Its the shot that for me, even more than the straight drive, truly marked when he was in form.
the follow-through frozen in time, a sculpture of One of my favourite photographs is of Tendulkar
SAURABH SOMANI
defending a short ball. There is nothing remarkable about the image except the moment it captures. A and Dravid at the crease. What follows is one of the bowler. Sachin made 95. India won. phenomenal spell of seam bowling from Asif and Gul in Lahore, 2006. India are 12 for 2 with Tendulkar best displays of batting judgement. Patience. The Chennai 99. All I remember are tears. Multan
many years ago, inspired me to preserve the past,
ability to leave the ball. The humility to respect the 2004. Not his 194*, but his celebration after bowling Moin Khan between the legs. December 2005 the 35th Test century. I was there that day, climbing up the spectators cage, floating above the Kotla as if in a dream. I dont need a photograph to remember that.
seems to have taken a part of it with it. Cracks of my holes in my wall. Just days after Sachin
childhood. Marks of my memory. Tendulkar-shaped
The wall is now scarred and empty. Every picture
his retirement, my mother informed me that she was reconstructing part of the house. Time to resistance. If there can ever be a marker for the end of an era, this is it. Its time. Tarika Khattar is a graduate student move into a bigger room, she said. I offered no
announced
I
played.
f you had to describe Sachin Tendulkars
international career with the shortest, and most pithy, phrase possible, it would be length of excellence. Its a description that has been used several times when writers try to evoke why
been. Numbers are comfortably low on priority for drive or the rocket straight past the bowler, but one day, when there is a generation who knows Tendulkar eyed when recalling the boy who square cut in Perth, of his teammates at the Wankhede.
those who took sublime joy from his backfoot cover only through videos, numbers will provide the crux of why their grand-parents are likely to get mistythe man who sent the ball into the stands at Sharjah,
he was one-of-a-kind. So often, in fact, that the sheer perhaps not understood fully. Its just a recitation of 24 years, X number of cricketers who have come and gone,
mind-boggling scale of the length of his excellence is
to remember, the deliberate gaps in my wall of
memory. Tendulkars captaincy. The 2007 World
And then there are moments I didnt want
Y number of historical facts that have changed while he Ironically enough it is numbers that illustrate just
and the gent who was carried around the shoulders Tendulkars phases as a Test batsman and as a OneDay International batsman, as evidenced by this There is a remarkable similarity between
at the University of Cambridge
how dominant his 24-carat international innings has
SaUrabH SOMaNi 83
Heres a snapshot of Tendulkars Test career, broken down in phases:
Span
Nov 1989 to Feb 1990 Jul 1990 to Jul 1996 Oct 1996 to Apr 1997 Aug 1997 to Mar 2005 Dec 2005 to Jan 2007 May 2007 to Jan 2011 Jul 2011 to Present Overall
Mts
7 34 12 70 12 42 21 198
Inns
10 50 20 118 19 73 37 327
No
0 7 1 13 1 10 1 33
Runs
332 2579 706 6517 534 4024 1145 15837
Avg
32.20 59.98 37.16 62.07 29.67 63.87 31.81 53.87
100s
0 10 1 23 1 16 0 51
50s
3 11 4 23 2 16 8 67
0s
1 2 1 8 1 1 0 14
NUMERO UNO For huge stretches of his career, Tendulkar was almost one and a half times as good as the average top-order batsman worldwide in Test cricket.
study on the occasion of his ODI retirement. When Tendulkar was in the zone, it was all about his batting being in a rarefied air, the format and opposition were mere incidentals. There have been only three serious periods when he wasnt performing at his best when he was first handed the captaincy and reached the final lap. struggled with the demands of the job, when he Offsetting these dips, by a margin as wide as his
almost one and a half times as good as the average
top-order batsman worldwide in Test cricket. The the second half, Tendulkar had a galaxy of batting
more interesting column is how the Indian top talent around him in the team, but how the batsmen a significant part in lifting the stats of the entire top better than average. When Tendulkar was in one of his troughs, India slipped back to towards the mean, just how pivotal Tendulkar has been. with hardly any difference between their top six and that of the rest of the world a fact that illustrates The other length of excellence that was talked
order performed over the course of his career. For did is very closely mirrored to how his own form was. When Tendulkar hit the high notes, he played order, and Indias performance was considerably
battled the most serious of his injuries, and when he bat when in the zone, are the peaks. We call them peaks because of the length of his career, but a cursory look at the time spans shows that they were more extended high-raise plateaus. When Tendulkar
Heres how Tendulkar stacked up against the rest of the world during each of his phases.
Span
Nov 1989 to Feb 1990 Jul 1990 to July 1996 Oct 1996 to April 1997 Aug 1997 to March 2005
SRT Avg
33.20 59.98 37.16 62.07 29.67 63.87 31.81
World Top 6 Avg

43.72 37.06 33.73 38.42 39.08 41.45 38.53
Difference %
-24.06 61.85 10.15 61.56 -24.08 54.11 -17.46
India Top 6 Avg

41.60
Difference %
-20.20
got going, he never seemed to stop. He took a captaincy crisis quickly enough, and took a little longer than that to overcome injuries, but pockets of for him from November 1989 to January 2011. The longest downturn came when
short while to ease into Test cricket, dusted off the months apart, it has been one long, continuous peak
of is best illustrated by picking out the top five batsmen worldwide during each of Tendulkars three long peaks. It is important to remember that the time spans
Dec 2005 to Jan 2007 May 2007 to Jan 2011 May 2007 to Jan 2011
40.38 33.27 45.43 38.92 49.29 39.15
48.53 11.67 36.61 -23.78 29.58 -18.76
combination of chasing the 100th ton, being on his last legs and Indias sudden downward turn overseas as a team, became finally too much to handle and keep churning out runs. For huge stretches of his career, Tendulkar was
the
represented above account for about 80 percent of Tendulkars playing career, and of the two decades
form far more than out, and when hes been in form, everytime. How remarkable and difficult that is can batsman makes a second appearance in the tables
and from July 1990 to January 2011, the above covers 85 percent of the total time. With that in mind, you can go ahead and let your jaw hit the floor. Across the majority of two decades, Tendulkar has been in
hes been amongst the five best batsmen in the world be seen by the fact that save Jacques Kallis, no other above. Granted, the time spans are Tendulkars career centric, but they cover such large swathes
that its impressive nonetheless. The dominance is similar to his ODI dominance. seemed to become bigger than 22 years that required, of the extent to which Tendulkar sustained world-beating form. The last two years of struggle have sometimes
preceded it. This is numerical proof, if any was
July 1990 to July 1996
Batsman Steve Waugh Brian Lara Sachin Tendulkar Graham Gooch Michael Slater
August 1997 to March 2005
Tests 42 33 34 41 33
Inns 65 55 50 76 57
NO 16 2 7 1 3
Runs 3019 3197 2579 3926 2611
Avg 61.61 60.32 59.98 52.35 48.35
Batsman Sachin Tendulkar Rahul Dravid Jacques Kallis Ricky Ponting Matthew Hayden
Tests 70 75 85 81 60
Inns 118 128 144 132 105
NO 13 15 25 20 10
Runs 6517 6657 6997 6493 5460
Avg 62.07 58.91 58.80 57.97 57.47
May 2007 to January 2011
Batsman Mahela Jayawardene Jacques Kallis Sachin Tendulkar AB de Villiers Virender Sehwag
Tests 31 38 42 38 35
Inns 50 64 73 61 63
NO 1 9 10 11 3
Runs 3238 3517 4024 2984 3539
Avg 68.89 63.95 63.87 59.68 59.98
Fw Sports And Media India Private Limited, Wisden House, 13/A,1St Cross,Lavelle Road, Bangalore 560 001, India

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ISSUE 4, NOVEMBER 2013

A TRIBUTE TO a GLoriouS 24 YEARS. THANK YOU, SACHIN TENDULKAR

BeYOnd the hUndRedS

ShAPinG LeGendARY StROKeS

ISSUE 4, NOVEMBER 2013

06 THE FACe BEHIND THE MASK OF SAnitY

From the Wisden India archives 60

11 MY initiAtiOn intO SUPeRStitiOn

28 tiMeLine | By Nisha Shetty

Sachin Tendulkar: From start to finish

14 The PROPhet WhO tAUGht IndiA hOW tO Win

A LittLE bUggEr wHO CaN PLay

18 The PROSPeCt OF hiS AbSenCe

WaitiNg fOr SaCHiN

A HUNdrEd rEaSONS tO SMiLE

30 The MAtCh in WhiCh WAQAR SMAShed hiS nOSe

Writers on their favourite SRT moment

33 I PRAYed FOR SAChin

SaCHiN, aNd tHE agE Of iNNOCENCE

36 IndiA WeRe MeeK, bUt SAChin JUSt hAd thAt LOOK

40 He MeAnt SO MUCh tO the COMMOn MAn

78 The WALL OF MeMORY

PiCtUReS Tendulkar through a kaleidoscope

44 NO tAntRUMS, SOFt SPOKen, neVeR tOUGh On PeOPLe

81 The nUMbeRS PROVe hiS GReAtneSS

6 THE SaCHiN SUNSEt

The face behind the

journalists and those that chronicled Bollywood, my

choosing the lesser evil. Our most talented actors

ISSUE 4, NOVEMBER 2013

8 THE SaCHiN SUNSEt

daily reality. For 24 years.

the game since he watched Jardines side in Madras

of such a person? Maybe his

dearest friends did. Very few

How could you make sense

Has any sportsman carried a greater burden

that was essential for him to maintain his sanity.

great expectations that went with wearing a Brazil

and civil rights politics, but within the ring, he was

a little beneath the surface, unearth a little more

Each time you spoke to him, you could scratch

I often recall two old men. The first was at a press

Expects wasnt the title of some TV show. It was his

ISSUE 4, NOVEMBER 2013

10 THE SaCHiN SUNSEt

Tendulkar was much the same. He never

Even with Tendulkar though, you know that time

1990, Old Trafford: My initiation

into superstition in international cricket.

had 80 caps by the time I covered my first. I watched

of a mischievous child whod finally got the prim

of Tendulkar was considered sacrilege. Players,

the coming weeks, months and years, youll read and

Tendulkars maiden Test century, not

cow in a country that already had too many, one more

unlikely 408 for victory and had been reduced to 109

ISSUE 4, NOVEMBER 2013

12 THE SaCHiN SUNSEt

knew the situation and he knew that he had to bat till

What stood out for Kumble even then was

His driving on the up, off the back foot, was a

ISSUE 4, NOVEMBER 2013