“Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives.” – BBC Sports
At 14, he was a ball boy for the India versus Zimbabwe game during the 1987 World Cup. Around 24 years and 5 world cups later, he is the poster boy of International Cricket!
The subdued 16-year-old boy facing the most ferocious bowlers is now one of the most “Respected” and “Feared” batsman in the history of world cricket!
Such is his stature that he has been adduced as the “God of Cricket”! Words are sporadic, and sentences too scanty, to define our very own “Little Master”.
The “Tendulkar” can stop time in India, his nervous nineties symbolize an apprehension across the nation. There’s a nerve-wrecking silence, and everything stands still! Eyes glued to the TV sets, and lips synchronizing a pledge to the “Respective Gods“!
The anticipation bypasses any caste, creed and color, only one religion prevails “Sachinism”! A century at this moment, reinvents the “Proud Indian” with heads soaring high. He’s not just a Cricketer, he’s the dream of a common man! He is what “hope” means to us, and cricket means to me.
This post is dedicated to SIR Sachin’s “World Cup Dream”
I bow to the mastery of this legend, and his superb run in the world cup 2011! I won’t be doing any scratchoscopic analysis, as being a mere mortal i don’t have the right to!
The Flashback!
I started watching cricket when I first saw “Sachin” bat! It’s almost 13 years now, I watch the game “ONLY and ONLY” when the “Master Blaster” is at the crease! It was 1998 Sharjah Cup, India V/S Australia, I still remember how “Tendulkar” bundled the aussies with his fluent “Lofted” sixes of Kasprowicz, Gillespie, Warne, and the likes. He literally smothered the Australian attack to the dismal corners, cajoling India to the emphatic “Qualifiers”!
They say “history repeats itself”! And the one special innings in World Cup quarterfinals from the “Little Master” sent Kangaroos back in their pouch yet again! 😀
The rise of a Phoenix – Lyrically
Tendulkar’s exploits are phenomenal, he’s faced the lethal swingers of Wasim-Waqar, the rippers of Pollock-McGrath, the fireballs of Lee-Akhtar, and the spiralling torpedoes of Warne-Murali with an unbiased and imbibed ease.
His supernova form in the 90’s was just euphoric, and it returns to haunt the bowlers whenever critics pull up their socks against the “Run Machine”. The atheists get their answers when the lethal willow attunes the song of “Leather meets The Heavy Wood”.
To the Bowler:
He’ll walk through the pitch
and send it out of the stadium…
He’ll pull across that heavy bat
and dismantle your poise…
He’ll stand and deliver
the echelons of swashbucklers…
The fielders are gonna run,
In a merry-go-round
And the pitch turns
Into a battleground
Everything’s gonna fall apart,
And the crowd will go berserk
“When Leather meets The Heavy Wood”
P.S – These lyrics are my cherished possession, please DO NOT COPY 🙂
The finesse of a Literary
His stroke play symbolize literature! A mixture of silkened stanza cover drive, a whispering dialect of back foot punch, the colloquial paddle sweep, the synecdoche of a straight drive, and the catharsis of a belligerent pull. He adorns the climaxotic late cut, the hyperbole of a lofted shot, and the euphemism of the upper cut!
I am a writer, can’t help it! 😀
The Humanitarian
A gentleman that he is, “Tendulkar” sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annabel Mehta. A request from Sachin on twitter raised 10.25 million through his crusade against cancer for a Cancer foundation. (Source: Wikipedia)
The Superman
With a stature that he enjoys in the cricket crazy nation, humility is almost impossible. But that’s what makes this man so special, Impossible ain’t a word for him! He’s been playing for more than two decades now, and has been a true cavalier throughout. Controversies are a rare artifact in his unbelievably long career.
- The Superman
I won’t talk about his records, for that’s what every Indian boasts of! 😀 Again I am falling short of words, so I’ll borrow Navjot Singh Sidhu’s ,“Hindustan mein aap Prime Minister pe ungli utha sakte ho, lekin Sachin Tendukar pe nahin” (In India you can question a Prime Minister, but not Sachin Tendulkar) 🙂
A Magnum Opus!
With the ballpark figure of almost every single Indian dedicating this world cup to “SRT”, fellow teammates were equally ecstatic to devote this memorabilia.
If only i was able to express how i felt when “Sachin” was riding on the team chariot through the Wankhede Stadium, with hazy and moist eyes!
I can still fortify the exuberance of a “Little Boy” cuddling his dream, with those jeweled eyes. I could sense those romantic vibes surrounding a young romeo saying “Hey Sweety, you took a long time, but you’re finally mine!!” 😀
An Ode to the Master!
This may be his “last World Cup”, or maybe NOT 🙂 ( i want SIR “Sachin” to enlighten our souls forever!) Critics and pessimists may argue over his supremacy, but there’s one thing i am pretty sure of “There is only one SACHIN, and will always be”!
“People say they saw Christ walk water…People say they saw Gandhiji win us freedom…People say they walked alongside Buddha ‘The Enlightened One’. I will always say ~~ I SAW SACHIN BAT ~~” 🙂
