Wake me up when November comes

I will never forget November 16, 2013. For it is the day that I was dreading the most ever since India won the World Cup in April 2011 - the day Sachin Tendulkar retired from cricket. He had already called time on his ODI career in December 2012 and from IPL in May 2013... retirement from Test match cricket was imminent. And on 10 Oct 2013 when he announced his retirement, the time for debate was well and truly over.

 The dreaded announcement

"Forgive them, for they do not know what they do"

But I just didn't want to say goodbye. Perhaps that's why I have not been able to get myself to read a since article amidst the unprecedented media deluge. (The American media even compared Sachin's retirement to Mahatma Gandhi's death! Read the articles from Wall Street Journal and NY Times)

I didn't bother trying to get a ticket to Wankhade. Neither could I get myself to see a single ball during the farewell series.

I missed the swansong innings of 74. It was as if I wanted to be in a time capsule. The broken set-top box was my best friend. Today once the news broke that Md. Shami uprooted Gabriel's middle stump to give India the series 2-0 - it finally struck me. It was all over. The flag-bearer of Indian cricket had waved a final goodbye.

Waving our flag.

At about 6 pm when I finally gathered enough courage to switch on the TV. The time capsule burst. I saw a couple of vintage shots of his last innings of 74. The final battle where he brought Tino Best to his knees like so many before him. I heard the deafening silence of the crowd when he got out. I stood up with the crowd to give him one last standing ovation as he walked back after his final innings.

 His final bow.

I saw the guard of honour that Team India gave him as Sachin walked off barely able to hold back the tears. I wept. I heard snatches of the stirring goodbye speech. I wept some more. A part of me died today.

   

Legends don't retire.


***

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was cricket for my generation. Why? Because he gave us hope when there was none. And in doing so, he has cemented his place in history as one of the greatest sportsmen and holds almost every batting record in the game. His last Test match against West Indies was his 200th. He has scored nearly16,000 Test runs, 18,000-plus one-day international runs, 51 Test centuries and 100 international centuries. Sadly the triple century never came - maybe he's mortal after all... sigh!

"Those figures will almost certainly never be surpassed, simply because of the sheer unlikelihood of a player breaking into an international side aged 16, staying in it until the age of 40, and spending almost all of the intervening period at the very top of his game," the WSJ article said. Well, here are the staggering numbers of the best cricketer that the world has ever seen:

Sachin bowed out of international cricket after his 200th Test match - 24 years and one day after his first. He played in 664 international matches, scoring 34,357 runs and making 100 centuries. He scored almost 2,500 more Test runs than the second-placed batsman, Ricky Ponting:
. 

SRT: First amongst equals

Here are some of Sachin's mind boggling records:

1. In 24 years, Tendulkar has played in 90 different venues which is a record. Tendulkar has played with and against 989 international cricketers. That includes 141 Indian cricketers and 848 opponents. 
   
2. Tendulkar remains the only cricketer to take more than 150 wickets (154) and score more than 15,000 runs (18,426) in ODIs. 
3.  1,894 ODI Runs in 1998: These are most runs scored by a batsman in any season in ODI cricket. Tendulkar scored 9 centuries that year. 
4.  In the six World Cup appearances (1992 to 2011), Tendulkar has amassed 2,560 runs at an average of 56.95 – the most by any player in the history of the event. The best moment of his career came on 2 April 2011 when he won the World Cup.
5. Tendulkar leads the list of most Man-of-the-match awards in ODI cricket with 62. Sanath Jayasuriya with 48 is second. The third on the list is South Africa’s Jacques Kallis with 32 awards. He also has 15 Man-of-the-series awards - another record.
6. Sachin Tendulkar has scored 51 Test centuries in his 24-year Test career. He hit his first century against England at Manchester in August 1990 and his last ton was against South Africa at Cape Town in January 2011. 
7. Sachin Tendulkar took five years to score his first ODI hundred. The moment he got his first ton against Australia at Colombo in 1994, the little master’s career took off and he never looked back. His last ODI ton was his hundredth international hundred scored against Bangladesh at Dhaka in 2012. He was also the first man to score a double century in ODIs.

***

 

 

1973 Born 24 April, Mumbai

1988 Scores 100 not out in his first first-class match for Bombay against Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy – becoming the youngest cricketer to score a century on his first-class debut, aged 15 years and 232 days

1989 Makes Test debut for India against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of 16.

December: makes ODI debut against Pakistan but is dismissed by Waqar Younis without scoring a run

1990 Scores maiden Test century against England at Old Trafford

1992 At the age of 19 he becomes the first overseas-born player to represent Yorkshire

1994 September: hits his first ODI century against Sri Lanka in Colombo after 79 one-day matches

1996 Leading run-scorer at World Cup played in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, with a total of 523 runs

August: takes on the India captaincy, although suffers two relatively unsuccessful stints during a four-year period, winning only four Tests and 23 ODIs

1997 Named Wisden Cricketer of the Year

1998 Scores his first double century for Mumbai against Australia in the Brabourne Stadium

1999 November: involved in India's highest run-scoring ODI partnership with Rahul Dravid as the pair put on 339 against New Zealand. In the same match, he records the highest individual ODI score in Indian history, with an unbeaten 186

2000 Gives up the captaincy of India after the two-Test series with South Africa

2001 Given a suspended ban of one game in light of alleged ball tampering during a match against South Africa at St George's Park, Port Elizabeth. The ban is later lifted by the International Cricket Council after an investigation

2003 Named Player of the Tournament at the 2003 Cricket World Cup and scores 673 runs, the highest by any player in the tournament

2005 Overtakes Sunil Gavaskar's record of the highest number of Test centuries by clinching his 35th against Sri Lanka in Delhi

2006 Overtakes Kapil Dev by securing the record for the highest amount of Test appearances for India, with 135

2007 January 3: edges past Brian Lara's world record of runs scored in Tests away from home, with 5,751 runs.

June: becomes the first player to score more than 15,000 ODI runs during a match against South Africa in Belfast

2008 March: plays a record-breaking 417th ODI match against Australia

August: becomes only the third player in Test match history, and the first from India, to play 150 matches when he is selected in the third Test against Sri Lanka

June: nominated as the "Icon Player" of IPL franchise Mumbai Indians, signing a deal worth $1,121,250 per season

October 17: becomes the highest run-scorer in Test cricket, passing Lara's previous mark of 11,953, when he reaches 16 in the first innings of the second Test against Australia

2010 February 24: Scores the first double-century in one-day international history, hitting an unbeaten 200 against South Africa

April: named player of IPL3 after finishing as the tournament's top run-scorer

3 August: becomes most-capped player in Test history, making his 169th Test appearance in the third Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo to overtake former Australia captain Steve Waugh

19 December: becomes first batsman to hit 50 Test centuries, achieving the feat against South Africa in Centurion

2011 March: hits two tournament centuries as co-hosts India win the World Cup.

Read "The Age of Tendulkar" by Shashi Tharoor for Wisden India

November: becomes the first man to score 15,000 Test runs during series against West Indies

2012 March: scores his 100th international century in an Asia Cup match against Bangladesh, the first player to do so

2013 October: announces impending Test retirement

23 December: announces retirement from one-day international cricket

2013 10 October: announces he will retire from Test cricket after playing in his 200th Test against the West Indies in November

16 December: plays last and 200th Test match for India.

***

It's easy to see why the WSJ article further described Tendulkar as "more or less" cricket itself given that he has been the game's "most recognisable figure for two decades, its biggest star and very frequently its finest batsman. His retirement removes a constant from cricket - the game's purest source of technically perfect batting pleasure, a source none of us really believed in our heart of hearts would ever go away."

The NYT op-ed said it would be "entirely accurate" to describe Tendulkar as the most revered contemporary Indian, "or even, with only a pinch of hyperbole, the most revered Indian since Mahatma Gandhi held the nation in thrall. Suspend your disbelief and think of him as a cross between Babe Ruth and Martin Luther King."

Superman or God. That's the only debate.

We simply love Sachin! Why - read this article by Ramchandra Guha for BBC

It's only fitting that he has been awarded the Bharat Ratna today (another record - SRT is the youngest ever recipient and the first sportsman to get India's highest civilian award). And about time too if you see the parallels between Sachin's career and the Indian economy - read this Business Today article!

It has been a shade of 24 years since he first captured the imagination of everyone on 15 Nov 1989 at Karachi. The win over the Windies at Wankhade completes the full set - he has now won each one of his farewell matches: Test, ODI, T20, Ranji Trophy, IPL and CLT20!

Sachin immortalised by Paul Trevillion

After two decades of glory and a lifetime of memories, all I can say is that it has been a privilege to have seen Sachin bat. Thank you Sachin!

The morning after

***

On the day Sachin played his 200 Test match, this is also the 200th and the last post on this blog. That's all folks! Wake me up when November comes.

That's all folks!

Sachin Facebook Covers

These are yours to share. Enjoy!

The God of 50 Overs

 

The Moment

Letter from Sunil Gavaskar

In August 1987 Sunil Gavaskar was on the way to airport for international flight with his journalist friend. He happened to hear about a 14 year old budding talent who was playing very well in Bombay but had not the Best Junior Cricketer award from Bombay Cricket Association. Hearing that Gavaskar wrote a letter to that kid:

Gavaskar wrote

Dear Sachin,

I wanted to write earlier but something or the other came in the way. Then I thought it better to write at the beginning of the new season rather than at the end of the last season.

Congratulations on your performance last season. What was most impressive was the way you batted alone when the others around you were not contributing much. Keep it up.

Also please do not neglect your studies. My experience is that education helps you through bad patches in whichever career you choose.

So go ahead and God bless.

Regards,

Sunil Gavaskar. 

PS: Don't be disappointed at not getting the Best Junior Cricketer award from BCA. If you look at the past award winners, you will find one name missing and that person has not done badly in Test cricket!!""


That kid was Sachin Tendulkar. It little over two years before Sachin made his international debut. This letter written by Sunil Gavaskar to a 14-year-old budding cricketer is one of SRT's prized souveniors. Tendulkar, who has completed two decades in international cricket, still can't thank his idol enough for personally writing in to him.

Remembering the letter, Sachin said: "I remember when I didn't get the best junior cricketer award, he sent me a hand-written letter," Tendulkar said during a function to felicitate Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath on the completion of their 60 years. A hand-written letter by someone who I worshipped, that too at that age helped me get over the disappointment of not winning the award. It's important to get right advice at the proper age."

In the letter, Gavaskar cited his own example of missing out on the best junior cricketer award in the 1960s. Tendulkar was hugely inspired by the feats of his fellow Mumbaikar. And Gavaskar time and again has indicated that he is a huge Tendulkar admirer. Gavaskar says: "He is from another planet. I won’t go into the comparison business of who is greater or the greatest. He and Lata Mangeshkar are the only Indians who have never had bad patches. May that continue. Forever."

"When I scored the 34th Test ton, I think Sir (Gavaskar) was in Nepal. In the evening, he called to wish me. When someone who has been your hero, whom you've idolised, makes an effort to wish on your achievement, nothing else can be bigger and better. When I scored the 35th (ton) [Photo above], Sir told me: "Carry on from here on. Don't stop". I am trying to do just that."

Sachin Tendulkar has earlier said that he made a conscious effort to blend Sunil Gavaskar's defence with Viv Richards' ruthlessness to evolve a batting style of his own. Tendulkar revealed he modelled his batting style on Gavaskar and Richards, two players he idolised: "Sunil Gavaskar, needless to say, and Vivian Richards are the batsmen that really inspired me," said the champion batsman with more than 29,000 international runs under his belt. I wanted to be as solid as Sunil Gavaskar and as destructive as Vivian Richards, because that combination was always going to be lethal. I felt truly inspired by these two individuals on the field."

Sachin was also given a pair of pads by his cricket hero Sunil Gavaskar when he was a schoolboy - and he made his Test debut for India against Pakistan aged just 16-years old in 1989 wearing those very pads. But during a camp after that one fellow camp mate mistook those for his own and Sachin lost those pads. Recently after his 20 years in cricket Sachin in the media told this story of lost pads.

As for SMG, here's what he had to say on the eve of SRT's 21st season in International cricket: "I think, apart from Sir Garfield Sobers nobody else has played 20 years in international cricket and 20 years playing at the very highest level and to the very highest standard is an achievement beyond compare," Gavaskar said of the 36-year-old, who completed his two decades in international cricket today. No place can be too high for this young man and he is young because as far as his enthusiasm for the game is concerned, he is almost childlike. That is what is keeping him going on and on."

Gavaskar, himself a celebrated batsman of his era, said he started understanding cricket only post 1960 and is yet to see a batsman as complete as Tendulkar. "Since 1960, from when I started to understand a little bit of cricket, he has been the greatest batsman that the game has seen," he said.

Part of the select few to whom Tendulkar turns to advice for batting, Gavaskar said he likes to set challenges for the Little Master. "I prod him a little all the time. I ask him to get to that next double hundred, that next century or those next thousand runs. I always challenge him a little bit," he said. "The immediate target that I have set for him is the 2011 World Cup. I want him to win that for India," he added.

Looks like the bonhomie between the two Little Masters is pivotal to India's cricketing success - with 51 Test tons and an overall 99 international centuries, methinks SRT has SMG's words imprinted on his mind and heart forever. And he has achieved SMG's latest target - he just won the World Cup!

Sachin scores Madien T20 Century

Two weeks ago, the crowd at the Wankhede was delirious though a fervently anticipated Sachin Tendulkar century didn't materialise. On Friday, the crowd at the Wankhede was dejected despite Tendulkar crafting a century, as Kochi Kerala Tuskers busted their party with one of the most memorable chases in IPL history.

Sachin Tendulkar checked off another item on his ever-shrinking to-do list with his first century in Twenty20s. Tendulkar had combined power and placement to reach a memorable century. It, however, came after a nervy start: Tendulkar was nearly run out on 0, umpire Paul Reiffel turned down two lbw appeals from Vinay Kumar which should have been given. There was also a close call for caught behind, and an outside edge off Thisara Perera that just beat the keeper. These scares apart, Tendulkar never looked in trouble and wasn't put under any pressure by Kochi Tuskers' bowlers, and he even pulled out a helicopter shot towards the end of Mumbai Indians' innings - perhaps now KP's switch hit and the Dilscoop are left!
 

Tendulkar took 43 balls to reach 50 and the final five overs turned into a Tendulkar show as he plundered 45 runs. Tendulkar showed how he could finesse the ball or force it depending on his mood: in the 16th over, a short ball on legstump was helped over fine leg for six, and a length ball outside off was pummelled over long-on for six more as 20 came off the over. A helicopter shot for four (eat your heart out MSD!) and a slugged six over midwicket took him to 90 after 19 overs. 

Tendulkar proceeded to paddle a four past short fine leg, and bludgeon another past long-on before reaching his ton with a push to cover off the final delivery of the innings. Tendulkar reached his century off the last ball of Mumbai Indians' innings to remain unbeaten on 100 (66 balls, 12x4, 3x6). Tendulkar, who has now scored 201 runs in IPL-4 without being dismissed once also wrested away the Orange Cap from Kolkata Knight Riders' Jacques Kallis (187 runs). 

The decibel level shot up in the Wankhede but it was a muted celebration from Tendulkar on reaching the milestone. Unfortunately, neither he nor the crowd were celebrating at the end of the game.

So, first a Poila Boishak gift to Bongs by KKR and now a Vishu gift by KTK to Mallus - quite a festive evening of crickentertainment indeed! Not often that Sachincredible batting is in vain... never mind, another item ticked off the list. Now centuries in all forms of the game!