Remembering the Master
I had always thought of writing about my cricket idol on my blog but whenever I tried , I ran out of thoughts. What to write of a man about whom so much has been written in such extensive volumes by renowned and eminent personalities. Just the sheer weight of his achievements would be enough to fill my hard disc, although I confess I have a 250 GB one. So any article that boasted of his statistics would be trite and meaningless. But today , when he just scored his 50th test century at Centurion against South Africa, I could no longer hold back myself. I decided to write something on him for which I knew I would not have to refer to the statistical records , because this one would just be straight from the heart.
I remember watching a video of Harsha Bhogle at IIM A speaking about him. That small eulogy by the greatest commentator was , I felt the closest any one had ever got to understanding the man , myth or a machine of our times, Sachin Tendulkar. He narrated an incident where the genius of SRT stood out. It was the world cup final 2003 , India vs Australia. Australia had posted a mammoth total of 359 and the match was being considered over by many cricketing pundits as well as players. The problem was complex…. And many had given up hope. But in cricket as well as in life , it’s how you approach a problem that determines whether you are going to find its solution or not. Sometimes these solutions work and sometimes they don’t. Perhaps this was one of those times. What we saw as a result probably gave a false impression of a player giving up but it was actually the genius of SRT finding his own way. Because sometimes genius thinks in a way other people can’t. In the team meetings, SRT decided that if they could get one boundary of each over, it meant 200 runs of 50 balls. They just had to get the remaining 160 in 250 balls. It was the reason why he hit Mcgrath for a boundary the very second ball. The reson why he went to hit Mcgrath again was that he had decided someone would have to knock Mcgrath off before he settled in and chipped in a few good overs. It , unfortunately didn’t work as we all remember. But what I wanted to point out was that genius must find his own way, because sometimes genius thinks in a way other people can’t.
Time is cruel and again and again it reminds us that Sachin is aging but the man himself has defied age. Post world Cup , he has had a new lease of life and I sincerely hope he ends his career with what he truly deserves….. a part of a World Cup winning team. I think that would perhaps be a fitting end to an insanely incredible career.
