'I don't play for records'

Sachin Tendulkar is the first Indian sportsperson to have his wax figure installed in the famous Madame Tussauds museum in London. He has many awards and honours to his credit and will have many more in the days to come, but this is one laurel that he will always cherish. The Day After caught up with the maestro 

Srabanti Chakrabarti

Seldom do you get a chance to interview Sachin Tendulkar. Firstly, he doesn’t give too many exclusives and secondly, he doesn’t have the time. If he is not playing cricket, he is either busy shooting for some commercials or spending quality time with family.

His two-decade old international career has seen him going through innumerable ups and downs, at times, phases when his epitaph was being prepared, but Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has weathered all storms and even at 36, is a force to reckon with. The Youth mantra of Indian cricket skipper M S Dhoni has failed to keep the Little Master out of it and even at this age, he shows the zeal of a 16-year-old. One look at his performance in both the versions of the game, of late, is enough to pray that he prolongs his stay at the international level.

When you honour a person, you take into consideration the man overall. And over the years, Tendulkar has been the perfect ambassador for Indian cricket. His image is clean and he has always let his bat do the talking. Yet, he has spoken whenever he has felt it fit to. If he was for the seniors stating that it is experience and performance that work countering Dhoni’s stance, it is the same man who has showered praise on the Indian captain. "I’m extremely happy and delighted at the way he has conducted himself" he said to the media as reported by Cricinfo. "He is a balanced guy, is always on his toes all the time. Before he was made the captain, standing in the slips I interacted with him, and (he) picked up a lot of things which clearly indicated that he has a sharp brain, his approach was pretty clear and not complicated," the man with the most number of runs and centuries in both forms of the game added.

Somebody who made his India debut at the age of 16 and has gone on to be the mainstay of Indian batting over the years, he still remains the most loved sporting hero in the country. So, it was not at all surprising that the Madame Tussads museum in London thought it apt to add his wax figure into the list of illustrious personalities whose statues are already there. In a country where cricket is nothing short of religion and cricketers are hero-worshipped like the Almighty, it is also not surprising to see Tendulkar’s wax figure being brought to India, a first of its kind. And this is where the real credit of Tendulkar’s popularity lies. As Liz Edwards, official spokesperson for the museum in London says, "It is the first time we have ever launched a figure overseas but we really wanted Sachin to see his likeness before it "meets" the public in the attraction. The Master Blaster has become the first Indian sports personality to be featured in the famed Madam Tussauds museum in London. Till now, only Indian politicians and actors had that 
privilege.

"I am missing my father a lot today. He would have been very happy to see this day," says the icon to The Day After. Yes, he does miss his father. We were all witness to him getting emotional after scoring a century against Kenya in the 1999 World Cup. He came back to India mid-way during the tournament after receiving the news of his father’s demise only to return for National duties. And a brilliant ton against Kenya was his tribute to his daddy dearest. And the man with 29,457 international runs attributes his success to his wife and mother. But, isn’t it too late to make it to the museum especially when he has so won almost every award possible under the sun? To this his reply was categorical, "I don’t play cricket for records. I play cricket for my country. That gives me the highest satisfaction."

At the venue in Mumbai, the frenzy was understandable. In fact, it did not stop at photographing the cricketing genius with his wax model, but also went into interviews of the people who created the wax model and how they went about taking measurements of Sachin’s vital organs to arrive at the perfect end result! But as they say in our country, everything is fair in war, love and cricket.

Despite the stature he has attained, Sachin prefers to remain as down-to-earth as ever. "The museum authorities had been after me for quite some But, I was not being able to give them time. And modeling for a Madam Tussaud figure requires a lot of dedicated time. Finally I managed to give them time a few months back," says the former Indian skipper.

Sachin attended the function with his wife Anjali and kids and was visibly awestruck at the similarities between himself and the model. "I am very impressed with the figure and delighted to be honoured by Madame Tussauds. I am so glad that the figure does not breathe!" is all he could murmur after seeing his wax model.

Yes he did get emotional during the Kenya match in the 1999 World Cup, but as a whole, he has always been known to be able to hide his emotions – be it scoring a ton in the most difficult situations or losing a crucial match. But even he could not hide his emotions after seeing the perfect replica. "I am not a person who normally reacts easily to anything. But even I could not control my reactions when I and my family saw it for the first time. I have never reacted like this before. But this was so real, it was fantastic. My son (Arjun) wanted to take down the bat and start playing but I told him not to get very close," says Sachin when asked about how he felt on seeing the figure.

Making the figure was not that easy a task though. To get to such high levels of perfection, it required more than three months of hard work at Madam Tussauds studios in West London to create the model. The master blaster had to undergo several rounds of measurements of almost every inch of his body including ear lobes, length of neck, nose, eyes and so on. Apparently more than 500 measurements of different parts of your body are taken to create the perfect figure. Famous for his patience to select the right ball for hitting a sixer, it was no surprise when the sculptors were all praise for his eye for detail and patience during the three-month long process. Creating Sachin’s replica in wax cost the museum around GBP 150000 (around Rs 1.2 crore).

The first step, as the authorities explained during the function, is to craft a perfect clay sculpture from which the moulds are made to make a life-like wax figure. Then a team of skilled hair and colour artists take over and insert the hair by hand and build up life like skin tones using layer upon layer of oil paint. This helps them in accurately reproducing every freckle, mole, dimple and wrinkle. But the dress that the figure wears is real and was donated by Tendulkar himself.

The figure has Sachin lifting his bat and helmet and acknowledging the cheers from the crowd. "When we were debating on which expression to select for the figure, I came across this photo and selected it. This was the way I celebrated when I surpassed Brian Lara’s record of highest test runs," explains the Indian idol. Tendulkar achieved this feat against Australia at Mohali in 2008.

Interestingly, Sachin has never visited a Madam Tussauds museum before. "I plan to do that after the IPL games are over. I wish we also have a similar museum in India where we can have statues of all our freedom fighters who have given us so much," says the cricketer whose figure is placed in museum between that of former Australian cricketer Shane Warne and soccer icon David Beckham. Carry on Tendla!