Tendulkar: the legend keeps growing

Sachin Tendulkar raising his bat and helmet to celebrate scoring his century against Sri Lanka during the final day of their first test cricket match in Ahmedabad on Friday

The fact that Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman in cricket’s history to cross 30,000 international runs has not come as a surprise. It was destined to happen, because while many in the modern era may have had the talent, there was none who could match his commitment towards his country or his passion for the game of cricket.

Strangely enough, cricket was only his second favourite sport when he was a child. Tendulkar wanted to be a tennis star like John McEnroe, his favourite player, but when he found out he was simply not cut out for it, he shifted his focus to cricket. But again — can’t blame the young kid for “thinking big” — he wanted to be a fast bowler!

Now, as everyone knows, fast bowlers can’t be  5ft five inches tall. They have to be at least 6ft to start with and have the natural ability to intimidate batsmen with furious stares and ferocious bouncers. If nothing works, a bit of trash talk can sometimes do the trick, a la McGrath.

But given the fact that we have known Tendulkar for over 20 years now, it would have been difficult for him to do some of the things mentioned above. Even if he were 6ft five inches tall, wore size 15 boots and had become a fast bowler, he would probably have been so polite that he would be giving batsmen advance notice of when the next bouncer was coming!

Ironically, it was someone from Australia, the team that have suffered most at his hands,  who told him to forget about fast bowling. The man who perhaps did India and the larger world of sport a great favour was none other than fast bowling legend Dennis Lillee, who rejected Tendulkar at the MRF fast bowling academy in Chennai. The rest, as they say, is history.

Soon, as a 13-year-old, Tendulkar was setting Mumbai’s school cricket scene on fire with the result that the word “prodigy” was being bandied about with increasing regularity by cricket writers with a generally self-estimated ability to spot talent. They have to thank Tendulkar  for not letting them down.

Barely 15, he had made his first class debut with an expected century and a year later, in 1989, he was facing the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis in the noisy cauldron of Karachi’s National Stadium. Adding more drama to the occasion was the fact that he was hit on the mouth by Younis, but in the manner of a pugnacious boxer spat out the blood and went on with his business. He is still doing that today which is a staggering testimony to the way he has conducted himself despite the demands of the modern game and the countless career-threatening injuries he has suffered over the years.

On Friday, he scored exactly 100 not out to help India out of a tricky situation and draw the first Test against Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad. That took his Test match tally to 12,877 runs in 160 matches at an average of 54.79 with 43 centuries. Add to this the jaw-dropping numbers he has accummlated in One-Day-Internationals  —  17,178 runs in 436 matches with 45 centuries at an average of 44.50 — and you know you are dealing with a once-in-a-century kind of talent.

But what is more important is the manner in which he scored these runs. As Peter Roebuck waxed lyrical in a recent piece on the maestro: “Tendulkar might lose his wicket cheaply but he is incapable of playing an ugly stroke. His defence might have been designed by Christopher Wren. And alongside these muscular orthodoxies could be found ornate flicks through the on-side, glides off his bulky pads that sent tight deliveries dashing on unexpected journeys into the back and beyond. Viv Richards could terrorise an attack with pitiless brutality, Lara could dissect bowlers with surgical and magical strokes, Tendulkar can take an attack apart with towering simplicity.”

Tendulkar now has a whopping 88 international centuries to his credit, and having already declared his intention to carry on for at least two more years, is poised to hit a magical new hundred which would perhaps put him in a league that would perhaps be never overtaken.

Over the years cricket writers and former players have tried to deal with the issue of who is the greatest batsman in history, but none has managed a convincing answer.

The majority considers the one and only Don Bradman as the best and some have batted for Tendulkar, Richards, Ponting or Lara, but the fact remains that it is a futile exercise as there cannot be a fool-proof yardstick to measure a batsman’s greatness.

True, Bradman scored his runs in an era where pitches were left exposed to the elements and helmets and arm guards were not in use. But he didn’t play One-Day-Internationals and no one can tell if he would have survived the harsh spotlight of the media in these times, the constant travel, the jam-packed calendar and not to speak of the pressure of expectation from a billion plus people.

In that respect Tendulkar is unique. The most complete batsman of his era. That’s the key word: “era”. The Don belonged to his era, Tendulkar belongs to his. Comparing them is a waste of time and in many ways insulting to both.