The Last Hurrah

On the 1990 tour of England,just a year after his debut,he had already scored his maiden Test century at Old Trafford. But it was on his first tour of Australia that he stunned cricket lovers around the world with centuries at Sydney and Perth. And 20 years later,he rates them among his best. Thus began Tendulkar’s love affair with the hard-nosed fans Down Under.

This is Tendulkar’s sixth World Cup appearance,and most likely,his last. The most admired cricketer of the modern era has amassed 32,700 international runs and hit 99 centuries,making him the most prolific run-getter in both Test and one-day cricket. But a World Cup title has eluded the master batsman,an anomaly he has been desperate to correct in 2011.

Tendulkar,who turns 38 in April,has often expressed disappointment at missing out on a World Cup triumph. He was just 10 when Kapil Dev held aloft the trophy at Lord’s in 1983,the only time India has won the tournament. During his five previous World Cups,India reached the semi-final at home in 1996 and finished runners-up in 2003 in South Africa. Both times,Tendulkar ended as the tournament’s highest scorer,making 523 runs at an average of 87.16 in 1996 and 673 runs at 61.18 in 2003. He has scored more World Cup runs than any batsman in history,but not even his brilliance could win this prize.

As he bows out of the World Cup stage,it is an appropriate moment to pay tribute to his genius and his contribution to Indian cricket. This tribute is,however,going to steer well clear of comparisons,which Tendulkar abhors,as he made clear to me when I interviewed him in 1998 after he received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.

The award came months after his Sharjah triumph,the legendary “Desert Storm” tournament,where he smashed two audacious centuries against Australia. Tendulkar had flown to New Delhi for the ceremony from Adelaide,where Sir Don Bradman had invited Shane Warne and him home on his 90th birthday. When I asked him whether 1998 had been the best year of his career,he shrugged off the question with a brusque “I don’t like comparisons.”

But it was Sir Don who had said in 1996 that Tendulkar’s batting style reminded him of his own. I can still recall Tendulkar’s expression when his reaction was sought about this comparison. It was a mixture of pride and embarrassment. It is this innate modesty that stands out when Tendulkar is spoken of in the same breath as his great contemporaries Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting.

The senior/junior hierarchy has long been an unfortunate tradition in Indian cricket. But despite Tendulkar’s legendary status,he has been able to bridge that divide. His presence in the team acts as a huge motivating factor for his much younger teammates. These players,many of them champions in their own right,grew up watching Tendulkar’s exploits on TV.

Just as the master himself was motivated to drop his first passion of tennis and take up cricket instead after India’s 1983 World Cup triumph,so a whole generation of Indian cricketers was inspired by Tendulkar’s deeds and the dream of sharing a dressing room with him. Thus,Tendulkar’s contribution to Indian cricket is more than the tons of runs; indeed,it is hard to quantify.

On the field,his two stints as captain (1996-98 and 1999-2000) were failures,and left him traumatised and bitter. Recently,Kapil Dev,who was coach during the latter stint,explained that it was Tendulkar’s inability to communicate with the selectors that did him in. It was a depressing period for both the master and Indian cricket.

Tendulkar has not only rewritten every record there was to rewrite and brought glory to the nation,he has done so while battling intense physical pain. Starting from 1999,several injuries have brought him agony.

There was agony of another sort when his father passed away during the 1999 World Cup in England. Even as Ramesh Tendulkar’s last rites were being performed in Mumbai,the talk on the streets was whether the good professor’s youngest son would come back to help India’s campaign.

He did so on the advice of his mother. And promptly reeled off a century against Kenya the day after his return. It is hard to imagine what powers of concentration he must have tapped into that day at Bristol.

That despite missing quite a few matches due to his injury woes,Tendulkar has still represented the country in over 600 games in three formats is an indication of the grind that the Indian team goes through,more than any other cricket playing nation.

But Tendulkar’s hunger for runs and his childlike enthusiasm for the game,even after 25 years of competitive cricket,has not dimmed. It is this engine that drives him today,for surely there are very few worlds left for his bat to conquer.

One of the last barriers to fall was that elusive double century in ODIs. That he should become the first to achieve the feat last year at Gwalior in his 21st year of international cricket,and as the game’s senior statesman,proved once and for all that Tendulkar has only gotten better with age. It is incredible that players half his age struggle to keep up with him.

But all good things must come to an end. Though he has played in his sixth World Cup,Tendulkar still has enough in him to power on for at least another couple of years on the international scene,injuries notwithstanding. And only he can decide when the time finally comes to walk into the sunset.

Once he does,we must feel blessed to have witnessed the joy he has brought us. Cricket,though,will never be the same after his departure. For,it is but once in a lifetime that such a giant bestrides his chosen sport. n

Gulu Ezekiel is the author of two books on Sachin Tendulkar

(This magazine went to print before the March 30 semi-final in Mohali)