Tuesday, December 25, 2012

The Willow Wielding Warrior


Almost seventy two hours have passed, since you decided never to wear India Blue again, it is yet to sink in. Yes, life moves on, but it is difficult to get out of an intoxicating habit of twenty- three years. The mind knows the reality; the heart denies accepting it. Honestly I don’t remember when I started noticing your batting, it seems since forever, but what I remember is in 1992, during the Benson & Hedges world cup when my aunt asked me who my hero is, as an innocuous kid my answer was Tendulkar . Looking in retrospect, by 1992, you had played International cricket for only two and half years, had not scored even one ODI century, but had already become a Hero of our generation. At a tender age when many of us fail to even carry the expectation of our parents, you carried the expectation of a cricket crazy nation. I remember till the mid nineties, when the Dravid’s , the Ganguly’s emerged, your Individual score mattered to the nation than the team score. The first question anyone would ask was “Sachin he kya crease pe?” Two decades have passed since then, you continue to inspire generations.



The passion, with which you played the game, the intensity with which you prepared every single day, the sacrifices you made, the way you conducted yourself in spite of being treated as a legend from a very tender age, differentiates you from mere mortals. From bowling that final over in that chilly Nov evening of 1993 hero cup semifinal to conquering desert storm in April ’98 to coming just a day after your father’s funeral in 1999 to score a century to cutting Shoab Akhtar ‘s bowl and Pakistan cricket’s morale over point on a warm and Sunny March afternoon in 2003 , you showed exemplary skill and enormous dedication .There are innumerable test innings as well, but that is for another day. No wonder you have a colossal statistics, which the next generation will refer to. But what they will never understand and we have been privileged to witness is how for almost a decade Indian Cricket’s fortune and the nation’s mood depended only on your success or failure , how the opposition spent their maximum energy in strategizing against you (which helped your other team mates and the team) and yet more often than not you succeed in bamboozling them. Statistics will never be able to reflect on how you conquered a career threatening tennis elbow, re invented your technique and re aligned your mind set to serve the game. It will never be able to evaluate your contribution in terms of grooming youngsters, the amount of impact you had on opposition mind set and how it played a part in India’s victory. Statistics will neither be able to capture how much happiness and joy you have given to millions of fans nor about your insatiable desire to play the game, in its true spirit. It will not tell how many sleepless nights you had spent in those twenty three years to win the World Cup for the country. You weathered time and conventional wisdom to play for so long.

I’m sure it must have hurt you, that the nation that treated you as a superman for most part of your career, could not fathom the patience and courage to watch you as a human in last eighteen months. But I believe, you also know it is probably the pain of watching you struggle that made them impatient .Deep inside the entire nation adores and respects you.

We have been privileged to watch you dancing down the track to hit the spinners and fast bowlers with equal élan, to watch your straight drives , to have seen your paddle sweep , those classy glances , those amazing cover drives bisecting the field , those cheeky late cuts . I doubt we will ever get a chance to watch a bowler bowling off cutter, leg spin, leg cutter and seam up in one over, the way you did.

Thank you Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar for giving me maximum magic moments in life. As you walk into the sunset of a glorious career, we will derive joy, reminiscing the bygone.  We will miss you on the field and trust me for many of us cricket will never be the same. Thank you for being a true warrior and enthralling us with those numerous moments of ecstasy!