The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : The exciting journey with Sachin Tendulkar

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Sunday, Dec 12, 2004

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The exciting journey with Sachin Tendulkar

By Nirmal Shekar

ONE of sport's greatest attractions lies in its unpredictability _ we don't know what is going to happen next. You are on a flight whose destination is not pre-determined. This is precisely why the journey is quite often as exciting as it turns out to be.

Who could have predicted the turn of events at the Eden Gardens in 2001? Who could have imagined that a lazy Hyderabadi stylist would conjure up the greatest ever Test match innings by an Indian against the best set of bowlers in the world? That Test match has a special place in our hearts and in the game's history simply because nobody expected it to play out the way it did.

Yet, ironically, surpassing greatness in sport is quite often achieved on predictable lines. From the moment a wiry teenager scored his first World Cup goal in Sweden in 1958, everybody who knew anything about football knew too that Brazil would achieve extraordinary success so long as Pele was around. And Brazil did.

From the moment Pete Sampras beat Jim Courier to win his first Wimbledon title on a warm summer afternoon in July 1993 it was clear to every critic and connoisseur alike that it was a question of time before the champion rewrote all records. This is precisely why it was not really a shock to tennis followers when the great man reinvented himself after a long slump to win the U.S. Open three years ago.

Pre-destined

Yet, these journeys, pre-destined as they might have seemed, have been no less exciting for the touch of predictability about them. And, in terms of history, the achievements of a Pele or Sampras are of a much higher order than the accomplishments of the authors of the unexpected coup.

For, it is so much tougher to go out and do something truly great when nothing less than that is expected of you. Imagine how you'd feel when at 17 or 18 you are marked as the person who'd conquer the tallest of peaks in your sport, something that may have eluded several great men in the past! Can you imagine the kind of pressure that these expectations would bring with them?

What does it take to deal with these unimaginable pressures day after day after day and still stay on course in the lonely journey towards the ultimate destination? It takes a Pele. It takes what he had as a champion. It takes a Sampras. It takes all the virtues he showcased as a winner.

And, yes, to come to the point at last, it takes a Sachin Tendulkar. It takes every single thing that the little big man of Indian sport has been armed with in his long journey to a known destination.

From the very moment that Tendulkar walked out to bat for the first time in Test cricket as a baby-faced boy-wonder in Pakistan 15 years ago, we had set our sights on a few summits _ Sunil Gavaskar's world record 34 centuries, world record Test aggregate runs....

Even as the curly haired teenager stood up bravely to a bombardment from Wasim Akram at the peak of his powers, not batting an eyelid, unflustered and hardly overawed, even as his classmates in school continued to play friendly matches with tennis balls at Shivaji Park in Mumbai, our script for the little hero was ready. He would do this, he would do that and he would do everything any mortal can possibly do with a bat in hand.

And, the wonder of wonders is, the little genius has done most of what we thought he would do when the journey began 15 years ago. This is precisely why Tendulkar is as great as he is, why he is in the company of Pele and Sampras and Gary Sobers and Michael Schumacher.

The big deal

So what's the big deal about a century against lowly Bangladesh, especially one that was completed after a few gift offerings from fielders who were perhaps a touch awed by the presence of the little man in the middle?

So what's the big deal about Sampras winning Wimbledon in 2000 after Pat Rafter, leading by a set and 5-2 in the second set tiebreak, gifted the set and the match to the American?

History, ladies and gentlemen; the big deal is history. Great men play for history where others play for pleasure or something equally trivial. At Wimbledon in 2000, history was made as Sampras pulled away from Roy Emerson to become the most successful Grand Slam champion in history.

And at the Bangabandhu stadium on Saturday, Tendulkar pulled alongside Sunil Gavaskar with his 34th hundred in Tests. As Gavaskar stood up in the commentary box to applaud the feat, you at once knew that it won't be long before the original little master would applaud again, when Tendulkar leaves him behind.

That's the nature of this great journey that a whole nation has been fascinated with for 15 years. It is a journey without an equal in Indian sport and, as we all know (wish?), it has only one ending. The best of batting records will have to be overhauled.

One will stand, about that there is no doubt. As long as this game is played no man will ever be good enough to play over 50 Tests and average a shade less than 100. Don Bradman's batting average is one cricket record that will never be surpassed.

But what Tendulkar can _ and, in time, will _ accomplish is no less awesome because he cannot match that solitary feat of the greatest of 'em all.

A struggle of late

Of course, the great man has been struggling a bit lately. The transcendental majesty of his batting in the second half of the 1990s continues to elude the master even in his best moments these days. But that is the way of sport. Even the Samprases and Tendulkars cannot recreate youth.

Sampras was indeed past his prime when he broke Emerson's record and so is Tendulkar now as he prepares to leave Gavaskar behind. That is how it works in sport. The greatest of records are generally broken by a champion past his prime. But, then, can we expect a Sampras or a Tendulkar to accomplish in their prime what Emerson and Gavaskar achieved in the twilight of their own careers?

We often hear these days that Tendulkar is labouring a bit. "You know, he is not the same.''

Of course he is not. How can anyone be the same through 16 years in a sport as demanding as modern cricket? The best of athletic gifts tend to diminish over time. With injuries and loss of confidence, even the greatest of champions look a little jaded in the fourth quarter of their careers, which is exactly where Tendulkar is right now.

But then, Edmund Hillary was a touch exhausted when he was a few steps away from the planet's tallest summit! But that is irrelevant detail when you consider the significance of the next few steps.

Keep climbing Sachin. You _ and all of us _ know the destination. It is but a few steps away.

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