Sachin Tendulkar: Unexplored Angles

In the past few days, a lot of opinions have been floating around on whether Sachin Tendulkar’s 100^th ton is harming Team India? Whether he has become more of a personal milestone man? And on top of all, whether the time has come for him to hang his boots? Let’s try & analyse the phenomenon that Sachin Tendulkar has been in cricket before making an attempt at answering the above questions.

1989, India’s tour of Pakistan, Sialkot Test, a Waqar Younis bouncer hits a 16 yr old kid in the face & the kid starts bleeding profusely. Stretchers arrive but the kid says, “Main khelega” and Waqar is hit for four consecutive fours in the very next over. 1990, India tours England, Old Trafford Test, a clear loss is looming as India loose six wickets with almost nothing on the board by tea. Post tea, the same boy, now 17, hits 119 n.o. & saves the match for India. 1994, ODI vs Australia, Singer Cup, India are about to be knocked out if they don’t win with a good margin. Sachin hits 110, his first century in ODIs & India enter finals eventually beating Sri Lanka there to lift the Singer Cup. 1996, Wills World Cup, the 23 yr old hits 523 in the tournament & sees India till the Semis. In the Semis, he fails. Indian Team fails. 2003, ICC World Cup, Pak post a mammoth 273 on a fast track. Sachn hits 98 in 75 balls and the match becomes a mismatch. And more recently, 2011 World Cup Semis, again Pakistan, Sehwag explodes initially but the little master keeps his cool and sees India till the 37^th over with an 85, playing a support role with all the young dashers. India collapse once he falls but still wins.

Now that we have talked history, let’s also look at some areas of the Saccha-Sachin phenomenon, because that’s what I call him, that have surprisingly remained unexplored till date.

One, the man made his debut in 1989- an era with batting greats like Sunny Gavaskar (recently retired), Javed Miandad, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge and Salim Malik- when an ODI strike rate in the early 60s was the norm. He maintained a strike rate in the high 80s without the fierce aggression and giant build of somebody like Vivian Richards. As the cricketing world transformed and came to T20s, Sachin remained one of the most dominating run-machines. No one else has matched his ability to adapt with the changes in cricket. Ponting came late, Lara went before the T20 era. In a way, he has been the only link between two vastly different cricketing generations of the classy late 80s- early 90s and the fiercely competitive 2010s-11s.

Two, many say he failed as a Captain. Accepted if you go by the record-book only. But, has there been anyone who has seen more phases of India’s “debacle & rebuilding” than Sachin? 1994, Kapil paaji retired, we started loosing, Azhar-Sachin-Sidhu built up a team and we started winning again. 2000, Match fixing scandal broke loose, Azhar-Jadeja-Mongia went out, Saurav-Sachin built up a team and we started beating the mighty Aussies in their land. 2005, Saurav was dropped & Chappel quit abruptly, Mahi-Sachin built up a team and we became World Champions. And for that matter, isn’t the same debacle happening again with Team India? Do we still have to look for reasons as to why he isn’t quitting?

Three, people are turning to be of the opinion that Sachin is more of a record-man. Consider this, Ind-Pak World Cup 2003 match, Sehwag & Sachin both blasted violently in the beginning. Sehwag threw off his wicket in that rage but Sachin calmed down and took India to complete safety. Isn’t the liberty of being “Sehwag” different from the billion headcount responsibility of being “Sachin”? Or from the fearless aggression of being “Viv Richards”? The 1983 World Cup Final was about to be sealed for West Indies when the immensely gifted Viv Richards played that skier & West Indies lost. How many times have we seen Sachin giving in to such temptations at critical junctures? Point in context, greatness lies not only in the beauty of the shots you play but also in the discipline with which you hold yourself back in the larger interest of the team.

And last but definitely not the least, if we analyse the pattern with which the Mumbaikar has carved his game over the last two decades, we’ll see that these changes have only been driven by team requirements. In the early 90s when India was a 2 runs-per-over test team, he became the aggressive Indian face & India became a 3.5 runs-per-over team. In 2000s, when we started having natural strokemakers like Sehwag & Yuvraj, he became the steady run maker and India became a “320 in 50 overs” ODI team from a “250 in 50 overs” version of it. If you want a “Sehwag” to play a “Dravid”, he can’t. If you want a “Laxman” to play a “Yusuf Pathan”, he too can’t. It is Sachin who can play a “Sehwag” as well as a “Dravid” and still remain “The” Sachin.

As they say, greatness exists all the time but is on display only on a few chosen occasions. Sachin has displayed that greatness on many occasions. Let’s not rush with the recommendation for him to retire; less because he still wants to make India the Windies of the 1980s or the Australia of early 2000s, but more because he knows better than us if he still will be able to do that or not.