Destiny's Child - Sachin Tendulkar

Ricky Ponting: The number of innings of his I have been able to sit back and watch, I think he is an amazing player.

Look at his stats and records and it's quite incredible for someone to have stayed in the game for 20 years. He has set benchmarks for guys like me to chase him and get as close as we can.

If I had to last 20 years, I would probably be batting in a wheelchair.

Yuvraj Singh: We call him grandfather. Someone who has played the game for so long and is a legend and still wants to improve; it is just amazing.

He still wants to bowl in the nets, he still wants to improve. He always says that whatever level you reach, getting better never stops. He has played for 20 years and that is just amazing, because I don't think anyone will play cricket for 20 years. It is going to be tough but hats off to Sachin.

Sunil Gavaskar: For all Bradman's achievements, Tendulkar is the closest thing to batting perfection I've seen - in terms of technique and temperament.

If you have a look at some of the films of Bradman, you see his bat came from third man. Because Bradman was Bradman, he could see the ball incredibly early and score at a phenomenal rate. Tendulkar's bat comes down very straight, he is perfectly balanced off either foot, and there is not a shot he cannot play.

He is probably the most complete batsman the game has seen.

I would back him to become the first man to score a hundred international hundreds - that's 50 in Tests and 50 in One-dayers. Bowlers of the world beware.

Shane Warne: I will be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don't think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player.

When it comes to judging the best among this fabulous band of batsmen, my vote goes to Tendulkar.

He has an uncanny ability to come out on top under different circumstances and under different conditions, whether it is Test cricket or One-Day Internationals. And, more importantly, he has done this so young.

Viv Richards: He is 99.5 per cent perfect. I would pay to see him.

I think he is marvellous. I think he will fit in whatever category of cricket that has been played or will be played, from the first ball that has ever been bowled to the last ball that's going to be. He can play in any era and at any level.

Mathew Hayden: I have seen god, he bats at number four for India in Tests.

His life seems to be stillness in a frantic world... [When he goes out to bat], it is beyond chaos - it is a frantic appeal by a nation to one man. The people see him as a god.

Anil Kumble: I am fortunate that I have to bowl at him only in the nets.

I am very privileged to have played with him and seen most of the runs that he has scored.

I am also extremely happy to have shared the same dressing room.

Sourav Ganguly: The thing I like most about Sachin is his intensity.

After being in the game for so long, he still has the same desire to do well for India in any international match.

I tell you what, this man is a legend.

Rahul Dravid: Playing in the same team as Sachin is a huge honour. His balance of mind, shrewd judgment, and modesty and, above all, his technical brilliance make him my all-time hero.

You can't get a more complete cricketer than Sachin. He has everything that a cricketer needs to have.

Ravi Shastri: He is someone sent from up there to play cricket and go back.

I can't think of anybody who has batted more authoritatively in One-Day cricket for India, or even in the world except for Vivian Richards.

Brett Lee: You might pitch a ball on the off stump and think you have bowled a good ball and he walks across and hits it for two behind mid-wicket.

His bat looks so heavy but he just waves it around like it's a toothpick.

Martina Navratilova (after watching Tendulkar bat at Sydney on Feb 2, 2004): Sachin was so focused. He never looked like getting out. He was batting with single-minded devotion. It was truly remarkable. It was a lesson.

Ian Healy: Tendulkar is the most complete batsman I have stood behind.

I saw the hundred in Perth on a bouncy pitch with Hughes, McDermott and Whitney gunning for him -- he only had 60-odd when No 11 came in. I've seen him against Warne too.

Abdul Qadir: I was fielding in the covers when Tendulkar came out to bat in his debut Test at Karachi.

I still remember Waqar Younis was at his peak form at that time. Tendulkar tried to drive Waqar through the covers off his very first ball in Test cricket and was beaten all ends up. But I walked to captain Imran Khan and told him 'this kid looks very good' and Imran agreed with me.'

Virender Sehwag: We both have come a long away and it is a great honour that Tendulkar thinks I come close to resembling him as a batsman. It is a great honour, like a dream come true.

If I die tomorrow I'll be the happiest man because I played this game because of Tendulkar, and Tendulkar himself saying that I resemble him - there is no bigger compliment than that.

Brian Lara: If cricket is a religion, then Sachin is the only god.

Steve Waugh: There is no shame being beaten by such a great player; Sachin is perhaps only next to the Don.

You take Don Bradman away and he is next up, I reckon.

2- Tendulkar serves notice

1- Tendulkar smacks Shoaib around
First came a six, then a four, then divine magic.

It was the 1st of March in Centurion, South Africa. ICC World Cup 2003

Sachin Tendulkar has never batted better than in the World Cup of 2003, and during it never better than for three famous deliveries against Shoaib Akhtar in Centurion.

This was a match Tendulkar said he was compelled to live a year in advance. Everywhere he went, people reminded him about the 1st of March, the fixture against Pakistan. Consequently he did not sleep properly for 12 nights leading up.

Facing a handsome target, Tendulkar shed his pent-up anxiety with three strokes in Shoaib's opening over to jumpstart a classic innings. The first of them - reaching out (were he not so pumped up, he would have surely let it pass for a wide), at once cutting and tipping, very high over the square third-man boundary - would become an icon, for cricketing merit; its sheer thrill, and nationalist symbolism, a sort of belated rebuff to the Miandad six.

The second stroke was his lovely trademark - back in the crease and with swirling wrists diverting a reasonable delivery to square leg. But the third shot - the third shot.

A little trot across to off stump, block, down the ground to the on, four. No back-lift, no follow-through: none needed. I have never seen such a concisely expressed cricket stroke. He simply met the ball and the entire execution began there and finished there. And by now the crowd, the most vividly alive of the tournament, had gone quite wild. Visually it was like a cinematic special effect: everything moved in a blur - flags, roars, horns, waves, the ball, Shoaib - and amid it Sachin and his pure stroke appeared magically frozen.

Sachin Tendulkar. He is not a sportsman anymore, he is a bloody phenomenon. Reams of newsprint have been filled with description, analyses and tributes to his genius. Websites have dedicated huge amounts of space and attention to every little thing he does. Everything that needs to be written about the man has already been written. Or has it?

A majority of us look to him to make us feel better. When he walks out to bat, the weight of the nation's inadequacies is on his shoulders. What we can't achieve in our day to day lives, we look for Tendulkar to make up for on the cricket field. If he slams a century and takes us to victory, all of a sudden the world looks a better place.

Tendulkar is excessively professional in his approach. He is one cricketer whose integrity has never ever been questioned. One look at the intensity with which he approaches the game makes it plain that no bookie would have the guts to approach the man. And yet he got together with Mark Mascarenhas and WorldTel long before cricket became the multi-crore industry it is today. The boy wonder signed a landmark deal that guaranteed crores of income from endorsements. To fulfil his contractual obligations, he turned up at various functions, endorsed a range of products from watches to car tyres to credit cards to toothpaste. Was he selling out? No one remotely suggested that. While a host of television advertisements based on cricketers has been taken off the air after the match fixing scandal broke, Tendulkar remains an eminently saleable commodity.

If an avid cricket lover finds an old lamp, shines it and a genie pops out offering him any one wish, there would be very little dilemma. "I wish I could spend 24 hours listening to what goes on in Sachin Tendulkar's mind" would be his knee jerk reaction. If such a thing could be done, it would provide priceless insights into modern sport. At the end of the day one has to admit that Tendulkar is a true product of his times.

The marketing, the hype, the drive. It is certainly a recent phenomenon. There was always a drive for excellence. But for someone to be such a public figure and influence the minds of millions is a phenomenon that has come about in the last few decades. He is no statesman, no politician, no religious leader. And yet he holds sway with as much power of as any one of the above. Whether he faces it or not, he is one of the few Indians who binds the whole of this country. Probably, no other person in the country is as uniformly admired as him. He is in a position of immense power. Did he choose to get to this position and work towards it? One reckons not. The price he has had to pay as an individual is incomparable to the rewards. Okay, so a majority of youngsters in this country would kill to be in his shoes. But what about the maestro himself? Fortunately or otherwise he doesn't have a choice.

It is tragic however that a man who has given so much to the country and touched us all in some way or the other cannot enjoy a moment of peace when he wants it. If he wants to take his wife Anjali and kids out to dinner there would be such a mob at the restaurant it would be claustrophobic.

And what of his kids? Can they ever have a normal upbringing? Will their friends treat them as just any other kids? That is hardly possible given the fact that Tendulkar is not any other man. He is special. Very special. And trapped by that.

When his back injury threatened to ruin his career, the speculation was immense. Major newspapers and magazines carried detailed medical diagnosis and plainly asked whether his career was over. There was even a case of a teenager committing suicide on merely hearing that Tendulkar might not be able to play again. God forbid, but if something like that were to happen, where would that leave Sachin Tendulkar? Sure, he's made enough money to live luxuriously for the next few generations. But would he be able to live with the fact that he was ordinary once more?

The media, the sponsors, the people of India have in the last few years made it extremely difficult for Tendulkar to live with himself if he was ordinary. A classic product of our times, Tendulkar's life goes parallel to the likes of Pete Sampras and more distinctly Tiger Woods. When modern society sees an outrageous talent that is coupled with the drive to be successful, it seizes upon it like never before. Even if Tendulkar were content with his achievements and decided to call it a day, he would not be allowed to without a hue and cry. Let's face it. He runs the cricket industry in India. Who can see a headline that has the word Tendulkar in it and ignore it?

If Sachin Tendulkar has a breakdown of sorts at any time, we all will have blood on our hands. That's a fine way to thank someone who has given us so much, isn't it?

Many have thought it has been the case for years, but Sachin Tendulkar has been turned into a Hindu god by fans.


The Daily Express in London reports that supporters in Delhi commissioned artists to create icons of Tendulkar as the monkey god Hanuman. The works show him holding a bat instead of the more traditional mace.

“He is truly a god to millions of people who worship this sport,” explained artist Gautam Bhatia.

The events of the last few weeks are freaking me out. Anil Kumble has gone, Sourav Ganguly has gone, and the other three may not be far behind. I assume there is a large group of cricket fans in their mid-to-late 20s, like me, who are grappling with the implications. This transition is messing with our minds.

Let me explain. For many of us cricket began in November 1989. Pictures of what went before are too hazy.

Sachin Tendulkar spoilt us. He commanded that we sit in front of the television sets. He ensured we got late with homework, he took care of our lunch-break discussions. He was not all that much older, so some of us naive schoolboys thought we would achieve similar feats when we were 16. We got to 16 and continued to struggle with homework.

Then came Kumble and the two undertook a teenager-pampering mission not seen in India before. Tendlya walked on water, Jumbo parted seas. Our mothers were happy that we had nice heroes - down-to-earth prodigy and studious, brilliant bespectacled engineer. They were honest, industrious sportsmen, embodying the middle class.

Now, after close to 20 years, my generation needs to brace itself for this exodus. Some of my friends, crazy as this sounds, have been talking of needing to revaluate their own careers. Others are realising they need to recalibrate their childhood definitions of cricket. "Part of me just died," said a college friend who was the kind of extreme cricket buff who memorised scorecards. "No Dada, no Jumbo. I'm positive I'll stop watching after Sachin retires."

These players were not only outstanding cricketers but also great statesmen. However hard they competed, they were always exceptional role models. Now we dread the next wave of brashness and impetuosity. Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth are talented cricketers, but there's no way anyone would want a young kid to emulate either. The younger crop seems worse - a visit to some of their Orkut and Facebook pages tells you enough - and things may only get cruder in a cricket world when you can make a million dollars in a little over three hours.

"Our childhood is ending," said a friend from college, and in some way he was probably spot on. Tendulkar's retirement may mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but for a generation of 25- to 30-year-olds it will mark the end of the first part of their lives. Switching on the television the day after will be a serious challenge.

It was Australia v India,2008, 4th Test, Adelaide, 1st day

Don't try to interview passionate India fans (as if there's any other kind) when Sachin Tendulkar is batting. For one, they've barely got half an ear on the questions, while you have more stop-starts with the tape than a nervous sprint-race starter.

You simply can't hear anything other than a roar of "Sachin! Sachin! Sachin!" when he so much as touches the ball if you're sitting anywhere near the three main 30-strong clumps of India fans at the Cathedral End, which should be renamed the Sachin Stand.

All are based in Adelaide, most studying potentially lucrative IT, engineering or business. Even the majority of the Bharat Army, one of the three groups, have made Adelaide their semi-permanent home as students here, although these loyal followers have travelled throughout Australia following India since Boxing Day.

"No-one else matches his class," murmurs Gill, a Bharat Army member, over three takes of the tape. "I want to watch him just get a century." Does Tendulkar love the support? "Definitely he does, he looks back over here when he gets a half-century," he smiles proudly. "Keep a close eye."

Two overs later Gill's proven right: Tendulkar clips a single through midwicket off Stuart Clark to bring up his half-century and immediately turns and points his bat to acknowledge the Bharat Army before anyone else, even his team-mates.

Rajeed, another Army member, is not surprised. "He is a good man, very polite, and he has not changed," he said, echoing everyone canvassed. "That's why he's so popular in India. He is like a God and he's treated just next to the prime minister. I'm sure that if he participated in the prime ministerial elections he is going to be the next prime minister."

It's not just that he's the best in his field - "He is legend!" smiles Harish, "Legend is ultimate word," adds Vamshi - it's that he's the best in cricket, too. "Cricket has murdered other sports in India," says Lovepreet, yet another student, who also thinks Tendulkar's appearance accounts for 25% of the Indian fans here. "He has done a lot for India, even his record doesn't tell the full story. He's been consistent."

Has Tendulkar unwittingly, albeit beautifully, massacred anyone else's chances to be held so reverently in the future? "There will be no-one like him," reckons Vamshi, but Lovepreet is not so sure. "People used to say when Sunil Gavaskar retired, 'Who will bat for India now?' but time goes on, people come and go, it's not going to stop. I will still go on India tours when he's gone."

Tendulkar has to retire one day and this could be his last Test in Australia. Most people are expecting this, but not Rajeed. "I think he is planning for a long time. He is saying that 'I can play at least for four or five years'. The people are saying, he is not saying 'I am retiring after this series'. I think he will play the next World Cup in 2011."

Regardless, while the Army has had t-shirts made to spell out one word if they line up properly, it's not the word 'Sachin' emblazoned. It's that of their country. And in among the joyous "Sachin! Sachin! Sachin!", an equally infectious "India! India. India! India." starts up and it's impossible not to join in.

Not everyone is in raptures over the man who has scored more than 11,000 Test runs. While most of the home fans undoubtedly respect Tendulkar - Australians loves a champion - some are indifferent. "I don't rate him very highly," says 26-year-old Andy. "He's not really a phenomenon here. We just feel the ripple effects from India and through other Indians and expats here in Australia."

But when he hears that while Tendulkar was coming into bat, among the resounding cheers were jeers and boos and someone even shouted: "You suck, Tendulkar", Andy is quick in response. "That's disrespectful and offensive. You wouldn't do it to anyone."

Later, Tendulkar brings up his century cover-driving Michael Clarke and the whole ground stands as one, Australian fans leading the bowing in fact. Tendulkar, it seems, has won yet another set of fans over.

If this is his last Test here then he has picked his moment well, particularly as he came averaging 20.33 here, way down on his in-Australia average of 55.50. He more than surpassed it though, with an innings that will live long in the memory.