The World Cup - A Sachin Tendulkar Story

I'd never been this nervous while watching cricket. At some point during the quarter finals against Australia, I understood why. When Tendulkar nicked one off Shaun Tait and walked back - images of the man with small eyes staring upwards and walking back dejected beamed on the TV screen. Is that it? Will I ever see him again in a WC ODI?

Anyone who has followed Tendulkar's career closely, and many have, would remember the pain of 1996, 1999 and 2003 (didn't/couldn't follow 1992 for obvious reasons). His very first batting line-up, I learn from Baba and other sources included Shastri, Srikkanth, Azhar, Tendulkar, Kambli, Manjrekar, Kapil and Kiran More. India never really got going that tournament. The only matches we won in that entire world cup (against Pakistan and Zimbabwe) Tendulkar was the MoM - and a superb 81 against NZ going to waste because of Greatbatch's heroics. No Indian fan really expected India to win the world cup. The team had 3 ex-captains and were generally screwed even before the cup began. But that was the beginning of new India. As the oft-repeated cliche goes. A new economic India was born, The cable TV era began with Star TV coming to India. Liberating us from License Raj and DD. Sachin Tendulkar and A.R. Rahman were introduced to the new India. My generation began to dream.

1996: was to me was the ultimate Tendulkar's World Cup. It was a world cup where we had a real chance. And Tendulkar represented that chance. Anybody who was in school/college during the time - became part of the Tendulkar generation. He became the reason for watching cricket. And how! From what I've read about SRT, New Zealand was the place where thanks to N.S. Sidhu - who went on to be the worst T.V. commentator ever - we had discovered that Sachin could open and do a Mark Greatbatch. Here was one man who could challenge anybody. The rest were humans. But Sachin was a cricketing god who could tame any team. Even Ambrose and McGrath went for an economy rate of over 5 an over. Every single game barring the Pakistan game became a Tendulkar show. He was the highest scorer in the tournament scoring an amazing 523 runs. It was the one man batting line-up with Sidhu, Manjrekar, Azhar, Kambli, Jadeja, Mongia merely acting as props. Unsurprisingly no other Indian was in the top 20 highest scorers list. To put it simply, if Tendulkar failed, Game over. Also, the stumping of a wide ball against M. Waugh was stuff of Greek tragedy. In that context - that we reached the semi finals was a super human effort. It showed the distance that one man could carry an average team. Tendulkar tragically got stumped in the most freakish way possible in the all-important Semi against Sri Lanka though. Game over. It was probably the saddest moment then. No one in my age-group knew how 1983 felt like. We wanted another one. And we had to wait.

1999: Turned on the TV to find out Tendulkar not in the team. Why? It took a while for the commentators to mention his personal tragedy. The only match he wasn't with the team - we managed to lose to Zimbabwe. Damn! That was the reason we didn't make the semi finals. This was a world cup where we actually had a batting line-up. It was the new generation batting line-up that had the core 3 batsman. This core would go on to redefine the country's cricketing future. Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid were that core nucleus who were teamed with S. Ramesh, Azhar, Jadeja, Robin Singh. It seemed like a decent line-up on paper but the batting machine took a while to start given Sachin's absence and our fate was sealed by the time the first two matches of the world cup were over.

2003: was the world cup of the awesome Tendulkar. The difference between 1996 and 2003 was that it was no more Tendulkar vs India. It was more of Tendulkar vs the other team with Indians finally learning how to close matches without choking after their best batsman got out. There was finally some value to the 4th, 5th and 6th batsman. Sachin started with a 80 against Zimbabwe, went on to hand back Caddick a new a**, and hit some incredible 90s against Pak (one innings which I won't forget in a long time), SL. 673 runs. A level of maniacal scoring that surpasses any other sporting achievement I have seen. That we reached the finals in spite of Sehwag and Ganguly underperforming beyond belief is a testament to the superhuman efforts of 1 man. And then the finals became Tendulkar vs India. Again. To a few others we lost the match after Zaheer's  first over. To most the match was beyond over by lunch. Some even wondered the need to walk out to bat second. Might as well have completed the presentation ceremony at lunch. Only a few retarded morons thought the match was over after Tendulkar got out in the first over! To see him answer questions asked of him the post-match interview after winning the MVP/MoS award was heart-wrenching. It was the most painful thing. More painful than Ian Chappell sadistically torturing Lance Klusner when he won the 1999 MVP award.

2007: We deserved to lose. If there is a captain or a coach who thought that Sehwag or Ganguly (or anyone else) are better ODI openers than Sachin Tendulkar - neither of them deserve anything better than a first round exit. I cannot think of a cricketing strategy that has statistically failed more times, more reliably and more painfully than Tendulkar at #4. This suggestion alone is a high confidence indicator that the person suggesting it has no cricketing brains. I was glad that our exit was as shameful as it turned out to be.

...

2011: And there we were. In the Quarter finals of the world cup 2011 against Australia. India was still undecided about Sachin vs India. In the two matches against Englands and South Africa - India successfully pulled off a strong resistance to Sachin's efforts to win us the match. This Indian team had the best batting line-up I have ever seen in any team in any world cup. Every single person was capable of changing the match in their own right. So when Sachin was walking back towards the pavilion after getting caught behind to Tait - I was thinking - is this the end? Has all the pain come to naught? Will the greatest batsman of my generation not win the world cup. Then Gautam Gambhir stepped up his act. Then Yuvraj and then Raina. Finally it looked like this was India vs the other team (way better than just Sachin vs the other team). The icing on the cake was him winning the 3rd MoM award in a total of 5 WC clashes against Pakistan (though the one he least deserved, I feel). To me beating Pakistan was high up the priority list. Pakistan stand comprehensively defeated by India for the past 15 years. That Javed Miandad Six is buried somewhere in Chetan Sharma's retirement fund.

There were several points in the QF, Semis and Finals where I just couldn't bear the tension. This is arguably the best world cup I have seen and featured some of the best matches involving India. Every single match against a test playing nation was closely contested, could have gone either way and was tense as hell. I am glad we won it the way we did. Ironically, his world cup campaign started in 1992 with a caught behind to Stewart (I'm told) and ended with a caught behind to Sangakkara. 

Virat Kohli summed up the entire history of Tendulkar at the post-match interviews with one powerful line. And I can't believe he was this articulate so naturally. No one could have come up with that line even if they were given a day to prepare. And he said it causally - "Sachin has carried the nation on his shoulders for 21 years, it is time we carried him on our shoulders!" They did that literally and metaphorically through their performances. It was the one of the most memorable days of my life; and after almost a decade of cynicism I truly became a believer. The Master finally has what he deserved all this while!

A Cricketing Metaphor

Since the time Cricket broadcasters and Indian advertisers deemed it fit to push L-shaped ads, Pop-up ads, Exploding ads, Crawly ads in the middle of a delivery of all things during the recent India – South Africa cricket series, heralding a new low for even the greedy broadcasters and the even greedier BCCI, reducing the cricket telecast to interspersing cricket between unending intrusive advertising rather than the other way round, I’ve come to dislike brands who intruded into my viewing pleasure so blatantly and put me off all things cricket in print and on TV.

I steer clear of the clutter now, and am apprehensive of switching on the TV for fear of running into yet another segment of Dev’s Devils from 1983. I’d want India to win this year’s World Cup if for nothing than at least so we’d be spared of the aging narrative of the 1983 team repeated ad nauseam each time the World Cup swings into view. I’d rather have Dhoni’s Dhulaiwaley given the bar stools four years hence, not that they’d offer any more insight and drama on the studio camera, but at least the faces would be different.

Fortunately, the streets are relatively free of cricket advertising heading into the World Cup unless you’d consider the India Today cover plastered on a Telephone Box at the corner of Goodluck Chowk (ironically) in Pune a part of it.

Even so I’m delighting in the snatches I overhear on my way about the city. And none more so than the exchange between two youths I overheard recently on my way up the crowded stairs of a multiplex just before a show - 

On reaching out to steady his friend who stumbled on a step behind me, nearly falling in the crush of bodies, the smiling saviour could not resist quipping in jest:

Rough Wicket Hai,
Gir Jaogey.
Simple Delivery Bhi,
Googly Hai.

And the magic was back on. Show me the remote. GO INDIA!

SWOT Analysis

I bet you must’ve heard/read enough of SWOT during the recently concluded T20 Cricket World Cup or for that matter, any Sport. Here's giving it an altogether different meaning…in a lighter vein of course! (I'd read this somewhere) What is SWOT? Strength is your wife; Weakness is neighbour's wife; Opportunity is when your neighbour is away; Threat is when you are away! ;-)

The Great Gambler

= MS Dhoni. No doubt he's one of the best to lead India with his astute mind for the game, but Midas, as a nick-name, just seems perfect when things are going your way; not otherwise. Leading by instincts, his enviable calmness on the field and heaps of aggression, were the prime reasons for Team India doing this well ever since he assumed the reigns. Of late though, especially at the on-going T20 WC, I believe he depended a lot more on gambling rather than common sense – Changing the batting order in every match without any acceptable reason - His strategy to move Ravindra Jadeja up the order before Yuvraj and himself (in yesterday’s crucial match against England) was baffling to say the least. The one reason everybody thought he did that was perhaps to ‘shield’ Yuvraj from the barrage of short-pitch stuff from the English. But isn’t Yuvraj your best card? Isn’t he by far the best player of the PULL or the HOOK shot in the current Indian line-up? Wasn’t Yuvraj the man who achieved that breathtaking 36 in 6 against the same team at a similar stage two years back? How can a man, who has always believed in aggression, succumb to a defensive ploy? And obviously that cost the defending champions the match and an premature unexpected exit from the T20 WC '09. Even his team selection in the T20 WC was a bit of a surprise – dropping RP Singh, the most successful T20 bowler for India, arguably! Sorry to say this, but even his own batting has gone for a toss – what with the 'helicopter shot'!? He just can’t seem to hit the ball over the fence (and isn’t he known for that?) I or rather we all expected a '07 encore from Team India, after all weren’t they the ones with the most T20 match-experience under their belt? The "Midas touch" is not the best thing always – didn't we learn that?! Resort back to the winning ways guys…Go TEAM INDIA!

Sachin, Tendlya, Master-Blaster...GOD!

- When Sachin plays - big-city roads are easy and trains and buses ply empty at rush hour and the markets take a beating...  

- When Sachin plays - busy, ambitious executives ignore their calls and cancel their appointments and avoid their clients and miss their deadlines...  

- When Sachin plays - college Common Rooms are dense and tense and hushed as an entire generation sits on pins and needles...  

- When Sachin plays - school-yards are silent and playgrounds are deserted because those who normally make such a racket imitating their hero are all too busy watching him make batting look so ridiculously easy...  

- When Sachin plays - fathers who want the NEWS channel and daughters and mothers who always want soft stuff and brothers who fight for action, for once all agree on what to watch...

 - When Sachin plays - India forgets its differences and divisions and teeters between tensions and exhilaration and breaths and laughs and cries as one, as its heart fills with pride and joy...

 - When Sachin plays - all else is irrelevant...

I'd read these in Sportstar a long time back, but it is something that holds true for eternity. 

Just last week when I saw him come to bat against Rajasthan Royals for the inaugural match of the IPL 2, sacrificing my afternoon siesta seemed all worth it. He was once again greeted to a standing ovation. The respect the man draws all over the world is truly astounding.  

He has come a long way since making his debut against Pakistan in November, 1989, breaking like a zillion records. But what has been more satisfying is the way he has achieved them. Australia too has broken records but we all know how much they have lost on the way; they have lost the respect of the people. They might be a cricketing powerhouse but they no longer have role models. Sachin on the other hand has been an ideal ambassador for the gentleman's game and the perfect role model for millions of budding youngsters the world over.

There have been many legendary cricketers who have done wonders on the pitch; Shane Warne for instance. But if a boy walked up to his dear dad and told him that he wanted to be like Warney, the father would have to impart some wisdom on what-to-dos and what-SO-not-to-dos of Warney's life. And there would be quite a few things on the not-to-dos list!  

Sachin has not only been a great cricketer, but more importantly, the greater person. A champion on the field, and also off the field. When I try to recollect moments from the past, a couple of them vividly come to my mind...

• The 2003 World Cup clash against arch rivals Pakistan

The stage was set. And he decided to make it his own. Not only did he play an electrifying innings, but he gave us one of the most memorable moments in history - sending the ball sailing into the crowd over backward point. It was one of those 'I was there' moments. I was there...I was there when the Mumbai cha Mulga smacked the man they call the 'Rawalpindi Express'!

• The one that flashes across the mind is the Sharjah blitzkrieg (1998)

The back-to-back hundreds against Australia. Oh, and the look on Warne's face. The utter shock out of sheer helplessness. I distinctly remember the instance when Tony Greig was on commentary and Sachin had just hit another six. And all he said was "What a player" (pity I can't imitate his typical style, with all the excitement in the voice here). A wish: Before he decides to call it a day, I'd love to see the no-holds-barred vintage Tendulkar once again. To see the helplessness in the bowlers, to see him come charging down to the fastest of bowlers and mercilessly pull them through mid-wicket, to stand tall and effortlessly play the upper cuts over the keeper, to have the audacity to slog sweep spinners against the turn, to have the class to hit them inside out over the covers, and all the while innovating with his blade the way one can't imagine.




When Sachin plays, the world watches in awe...India comes to a standstill... Go commit whatever crime you want.. It will go unnoticed.. Because, even the Lord is watching!!! (courtesy: Sportstar again)  

The 'boy' turns 36 today...Happy Birthday Sachin!  

PS: An IPL hundred against the Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad) tomorrow would be a fitting Birthday gift and a chance for me to go "Saaachinnnnn...Sachin, Saaachinnnnn...Sachin" all over again!