India’s star batsman is as happy piling up runs in Cuttack as scoring a century at Lord’s

One of the advantages of having a partner who isn’t especially interested in sport comes in the form of observations that are stripped bare of the fake patinas that we aficionados love to add on. Soon after Sachin Tendulkar’s unbeaten 96 had guided India to the easiest of victories in Cuttack, I was thinking out loud: “How does he still motivate himself to go to such venues and score runs?” She looked perplexed for a moment. “Don’t people go to watch the games there?” she asked. “Do they pay less money to get in?”

Touché. When you follow a sport like cricket, steeped in tradition, it’s easy to succumb to what I call the Houses-of-the-Holy syndrome. When a batsman makes a century or a bowler bowls a game-changing spell at a venue like Lord’s, the MCG, Eden Gardens, the Wanderers or the Kensington Oval, there’s a tendency to imbue it with mythical qualities. A hundred made at the Barabati Stadium or the Arbab Niaz in Peshawar isn’t viewed in quite the same rose-tinted way.

Tendulkar, though, scoffs at this particular form of snobbery. For years now, he has been a disciple of the first commandment that the great Bill Shankly preached; that it’s “their [the players'] privilege to play for you [the fans]“. Unlike the big-time Charlies who came to English football and became mice among men during trips to the wintry wastes of Wearside and north Lancashire, he has made it his business to score runs wherever he goes.

His 45 one-day hundreds have been distributed across 31 different venues, with Colombo’s Premadasa Stadium having been witness to four, including his first way back in 1994. The 43 Test centuries have been spread across 30 venues. Apart from the absence of a Test hundred in Zimbabwe and a limited-overs one in the Caribbean, there are no gaps in the résumé.

In 2009, despite India’s threadbare Test schedule and being absent from a few one-day games, he has already amassed 1,505 runs, 964 of them in coloured clothes. Each of the three one-day centuries has been memorable. The 163 not out in Christchurch lit the touchpaper Read more…

Administrator Indian Cricket Australia, Blogs.CMDN.com, Chennai, Christchurch, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Cuttack, Eden Gardens, Kensington Oval, Lord's, Premadasa, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, Tendulkar, the MCG, the Wanderers, World Cup, Zimbabwe

An Opus is a mammoth work and a mammoth work can only come without mammoth content and inspiration. The latest work - the Sachin Tendulkar Opus.

An international career spanning 20 years, and counting…innumerable memories and images that no cricket fan will forget. Those images have now found their way into a mammoth coffee table book. It’s called the Tendulkar Opus.

The London’s Opus Store houses opuses, or what the company calls luxurious publications, on the biggest and best-known personalities of the world, from Michael Jackson and Walt Disney to Manchester United and Ferrari, and very soon the Sachin Tendulkar Opus will be a part of it.

“First picture of mine in a newspaper was out when I was 12 or 13 and I had scored 100 for my school. I saw picture and said it was exciting and I want more of this,”

said Sachin Tendulkar.

Well Sachin has now certainly got plenty more! 30 kg, close to 800 pages and more than 30,000 photographs to be precise. The Tendulkar Opus took almost three years to complete and it’s got a little something else that sets it apart.

“One of the key differences is that every copy will have small little drop of Sachin’s blood in the signature page, it’s never been done before,” said Karl Fowler, CEO, Opus.

But this isn’t a bloodthirsty exercise in publicity. Sachin’s DNA profile is actually meant to help trace his genealogy. It’s just on the first ten copies though, each of which is expected to Read more…

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WHEN one thinks of the branding of athletes in India, all roads go through cricket with the superstar cricketers all boasting multi-brand endorsements. The sports industry is growing with regard to branding and leveraging of a person’s on-field success toward building his or her ‘Brand’ so to speak. This is a relatively new development in the Indian sports context, and for all intents and purposes, the exponentially larger scale and broader scope of this multi-branding can all be traced to one man. The human batting juggernaut we know as Sachin, has created Brand Tendulkar in a manner that defines him: professionally, classily, quietly, methodically, precisely, in a well-paced manner, and over time, modified and metamorphosed for the greater good of all the stakeholders.

In what is the latest milestone on the road that Sachin built, the greatest cricketer that India has produced recently crossed two decades in international cricketer.

Purely as an athletic achievement, this is nothing short of spectacular, with virtually no other athlete in any other sport ever having displayed this kind of longevity, and more importantly, consistency and drive. Some can argue the case that he is the greatest athlete of all time across sports, and there will be numerous articles and books written about him that would try and prove this hypothesis. As a person he is above reproach, and he has handled himself with class and dignity. Ironically but somewhat fittingly, he has hit the pinnacle of his career with a mind-blowing innings against Australia, and also at a time when Agassi has sparked a debate for the ages, and Robert Enke succumbed to the depression and pressures that come with being a celebrity athlete. To deal with the adulation, pressure, expectation, and invasion of privacy that Tendulkar has had to face from the time he was a tenth grade student, and to do it with grace, humility, dignity, and unparalleled commitment and discipline make him an uber role model par compare. Above and beyond that however, Tendulkar the Brand is what makes this once in a lifetime person and athlete border on the ethereal.

Brand Tendulkar has changed the way Sports Marketing and Management were perceived in India. Sports Management as an industry was born on the golf course when Mark McCormack of IMG finalised a handshake deal with Arnold Palmer, the beloved and successful Read more…

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Great individuals need great contexts. Sachin Tendulkar got his only post-2001, writes Ashok Malik, when Indian cricket began to give him the team and work ethic he deserved

Sometimes the appraisal of the appraisal is more telling than the appraisal itself. In a sense, more than an assessment of Sachin Tendulkar’s 20-year career, the trajectory and design of the praise showered on him in the past fortnight is educative and revealing. It gives us an early glimpse of how history will see Sachin.

Most people who have applauded or written in honour of Sachin this month have referred to one or both of two sets of memories:

First, they have recalled his teenage years: the young schoolboy who was hit by Waqar Younis in his first series but heroically batted on; the imperious tyro who smashed Abdul Qadir for four sixes in an over; the dazzling 18-year-old who hit an epic century at Perth in 1992, on the world’s fastest pitch, against the world’s most lethal pace attack.

Second, they have been astonished by his consistency in, roughly, the 21st century and in the years after he turned 30 (in 2003). Far from slowing down, Sachin seems to have pressed the accelerator and has enjoyed astounding success in both test and limited overs cricket in the past few years.

What’s missing here? Frankly, almost all of the 1990s! Sachin scored thousands of runs in this decade but somehow his fans, thoughtful cricket chroniclers and perhaps even the historians of the future would not seem too interested. Aside from two magical centuries against Australia in Sharjah in 1998, nobody — none of those who wrote and spoke of his two-decade career — seemed to have time for even one innings between 1992 and the end of the millennium.

This was strange. In the 1996 world cup, for instance, Sachin was the highest run scorer. In the early 1990s, India won numerous test matches at home and Sachin hit lots of hundreds. So why is that aspect of Sachin’s career eclipsed?

The reason is simple: Indians aren’t awfully proud of what their cricket team achieved in the 1990s. The 1996 world cup, despite Sachin’s big scoring, led to a humiliating ouster Read more…

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Exactly 77 years ago to the day, in Melbourne, Harold Larwood instigated what eventually became known as bodyline when he struck Bill Woodfull, the opener, near the heart during a four-day match between MCC and an Australian XI. It was to herald the most rancorous series of all time.

Douglas Jardine was not playing in the match and it was his deputy, Bob Wyatt, who carried out the instructions to try “leg theory” as a precursor for what was to follow. Donald Bradman, whose gargantuan scoring the theory was intended to curb, failed twice in the match, falling to Larwood on each occasion for 36 and 13 — a sign of his troubles ahead.

This week Sachin Tendulkar celebrated 20 years as an international cricketer. There followed a slew of paeans to the India batsman’s longevity and greatness from some of the best writers on the game. The only discordant note came from Kapil Dev, who believes, oddly, that Tendulkar has failed to make full use of his talent. They should make Kapil a judge on Strictly Come Dancing.

If these two strands have little in common, bear with me for a moment. Images of Tendulkar have adorned newspapers and websites throughout the week. Images, mostly, of the “Little Master” at the crease, compact and balanced. So compact and balanced, in fact, that Bradman said Tendulkar was the modern player whose method most closely resembled his own.

There was, though, one crucial difference, which the image of Tendulkar on these pages on Monday highlighted. Perched on top of Tendulkar’s head, adorned with the tricolour of India, was a bright blue helmet and, for good measure, a grille to protect his features.

Wearing blue, Tendulkar was batting in a one-day game, but had the image been of him batting in whites, there is a good chance that, along with a helmet, Tendulkar would have Read more…

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Rahul Dravid got to 11,000 Test runs yesterday. I count myself fortunate that I saw the first 95 of them, when he almost made a hundred on Test debut at Lord’s in 1996. I also saw him advance to 5,335 runs when he made a double hundred at the Oval in 2002.

There was deserved fuss about Sachin Tendulkar marking 20 years in Test cricket last weekend. Assuming he carries on playing into next year, he will have played cricket for India in four different decades, which in longevity terms is as notable an achievement as Gary Player winning majors in golf in three decades and Cliff Richard having a No 1 in five decades.

But while Dravid has notched a mere 13 years in the game, he sits only 1,777 runs behind Tendulkar. If Sachin were to stop playing tomorrow and Dravid carried on scoring runs at his career average, he would need another 17 Tests to become cricket’s leading run-scorer (he’d need Ricky Ponting, on 11,345 runs, to stop as well, but let’s overlook that) and would have overtaken Tendulkar in eight fewer Tests.

That Dravid has scored so many runs in about 60 per cent of the time that it took Tendulkar is testament in part to the increased amount of Test cricket played these days. But it is even more due to Dravid’s astounding fitness.

From June 20, 1996, to the present Test with Sri Lanka, India have had 135 matches. Dravid has played in 134 of them. He missed one game in 2005 with a fever (thanks to Ranja and Praveen in comments) but otherwise has had no tweaked thingies, no sprained whatsits, no snuffles and coughs, no selectorial whims, no missing the bus, no disciplinary breaches, no excuses. Tendulkar, by contrast, has played in only 121 of those games. Even gods can have mortal moments.

Dravid’s record of 93 straight games since his Test debut is remarkable, beaten only by Adam Gilchrist. His near-perfect 13-year streak compares with Cal Ripken, the baseball player, who went 17 seasons (and more than 2,500 games) without missing a match for the Baltimore Orioles. Allan Border is another one to note: he went 15 years without missing a game, although Read more…

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Such has been the Indian media’s response to the 20th anniversary of Sachin Tendulkar’s international debut that someone is soon bound to make the suggestion that November 15 be celebrated as a national holiday. About the only person who doesn’t seem to be going overboard is Tendulkar himself – he manages to bring to his repeated answers to the same overdone questions a freshness that is amazing. The greatest batsman in the game is also its greatest actor.

I mean, how often can you keep saying, “I love cricket, playing for India is motivation enough,” and confirm or deny the same stories over and over again?

It is probably the same temperament that keeps him going as a batsman, this ability to come to the wicket with a fresh mind day in and day out over two decades.

The young man (at 36 he is elderly only by the standards of sport) deserves everything of course – the adulation, the fame and fortune, the mythification. He has worked hard at his game. The clean image too is something he has worked hard at. In any case, the slightest suggestion of imperfection is airbrushed away by editors who don’t want to be in Tendulkar’s bad books or the marketing folk who don’t want to be cut out by his agents.

Tendulkar’s greatness is beyond question, his character is indeed squeaky clean and India can be proud of such an icon who is a hero both on and off the field. But the uncritical assessments mean that when those looking for clay feet attempt revisionism, then every small drawback is bound to get exaggerated. The ‘ball tampering’ incident in South Africa , for instance. It was a minor, technical infraction which saw the match referee overreact. But that was nothing compared to the overreaction in India. I wrote then, “It is this unintelligent acceptance of our heroes Read more…

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I have no doubts whatsoever about his performances. His record over 20 years is impeccable. I feel that since I know his ability as a cricketer I can say that for all his wonderful talent and his fantastic ability, Sachin Tendulkar is an under-achiever.

When I bowled to him 20 years ago I knew at once here was a cricketer of extraordinary ability, and he was only 16 years old then. In modern day cricket, according to me, no one can be compared to Tendulkar – not Viv Richards, not Ricky Ponting, not Brian Lara. I can only say that, sadly, Sachin has given an opportunity for people to compare others to him.

There has been no greater breaker of records, no bigger ambassador for India and for the game. For over 20 years he has been a champion, He has kept his mouth shut and shown what his bat is capable of. The cherry on the cake is that there have been no controversies surrounding him. His behaviour is impeccable. I know he broke every imaginable record. I am aware people will criticise me for saying this on such a happy occasion. He made records, but he is not a ruthless cricketer. In fact, he started as a destroyer but somewhere along the way he became a record breaker.

To my mind there are only a few ODI innings in which he played to his full potential. I remember a 138 against Sri Lanka (at Colombo, Compaq Cup final, September 2009) and the175 he made in Hyderabad last fortnight. There are a few other innings that come to mind, but I can confidently assert that, for a major part of his career, Tendulkar has played well below his potential.

Sunil Gavaskar had the ability and the patience to work a bowler till he was tired and then kill him. Sachin had the talent to kill a bowler in his first over. To my mind, Sachin played like Gavaskar. Taking in the totality of his cricket, Sachin had greater talent than what he performed.

Records he would have made anyway. His approach has been ideal to the passing of landmarks, to the setting of new peaks. I must confess that I felt bad about his 194 on the day he was left stranded when the captain (Dravid) declared the Indian innings. But I was not sad that he did not make his double hundred. You will know what I mean if you replay the innings on Read more…

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After living in the hearts of over a billion people since his teenage days, can he yearn for anything else? Can there still be a void in his life, really, something more to be accomplished in this ephemeral world?

Well, Sachin Tendulkar is a man of possibilities, of the unthinkable: in his quest for perfection, if not greatness, he has shattered stereotypes and smothered barriers; indeed, he has dignified so many records that even history books rise in ovation.

Yet, Sachin might feel he is still an incomplete epic, an unfinished masterpiece: he cannot, and won’t, rest on his laurels until the World Cup too snuggles into his teeming trophy chest. For that, of course, he has to wait two more years; and yet, cruelly, there’s no guarantee that the dream will be fulfilled.

Today, he will complete 20 years at the pinnacle of the sport. One has seen many Sachin gems during his voyage, right from Old Trafford in Manchester to Newlands in Cape Town, to SCG in Sydney to Basin Reserve in Wellington; one has seen many more dangerous-looking deliveries too disintegrate from his presence, bedazzled by his sparkling strokeplay.

The personal favourite, however, is from lower climes, from the Ranji stratosphere: the 1991 final against Kapil Dev’s Haryana. It’s not for sentimental reasons though: it was the first time one saw him bat in flesh, blood and with gay abandon; it was love at first sight, of course.

Chasing an impossible 355 on the last day, Mumbai were quickly reduced to 34 for three. And then Sachin arrived. The script, as it would happen many times later, immediately changed on its head: it was an innings of pure genius, almost blasphemous to even think possible from a lanky lad’s seemingly too-heavy willow.

That is when one first witnessed the Sachin Tendulkar phenomenon too: with each boundary, the monstrous Wankhede seemed to get smaller and smaller, and noisier and noisier; by the evening, it was nearly full, and the ambience inside had turned electric. Amazingly though, his Read more...

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Somewhere, far removed from his public face, frolics the real Sachin Tendulkar. Perhaps that man is not reserved, modest or always in control. Under the glare of the arc lights it seems to peek through once in a while — in the form of a blazing silver belt buckle that’s almost as wide as his hand, or the shiny black crocodile skin shoes that match the buckle twinkle to shine. The flashy Tendulkar inhabits a private world; facing his nth press conference, he is decidedly bland.

There’s an underlying restlessness to the man sitting in the chair. His neck bobs all the time — back and forth and sideways with a distinctive tendency to flop towards the right shoulder. Then, it’s all stretched out when responding to a question that has him more animated than most. Its all very bird-like. Sometimes hawk, largely dove.

The left hand’s steady with the microphone grasped. The right is whirring about with fingers splayed when he gropes for the correct words and lies limp when the query refuses to excite him. The shiny-shoes-clad feet begin to move as an answer drags out. In the hour plus that he faced a volley of questions, they have done a full tap dance circum-ambulating the space under the table. They, after all, are free from scrutiny under the wood. There, they can frolic a bit.

The man who terrorises bowlers with temerity, refuses to hold eye contact with a questioner for the length of a retort. After all, those eyes are the most naked bit in the shell that he cocoons within. The warmth is there, the vibe is positive but the armour is always up. Just, the eyes are a giveaway. They glaze over at a controversial poser, sparkle with boyish humour at questions that amuse and come alive when he is talking pure cricket.

The focus of a mind that spells 175 even at the age of 36 is clear in the way he streams out all the background commotion. It is white noise. He does not ask for long questions, which are actually a series of them woven into one, to be repeated. He reels off the answers. Just that the answers have been accumulating over 20 years. It’s the same stuff over and over again.

“Every individual should respect another… whatever you say or do you have to think twice,” he says to a query on why he has never lashed out with angry words. That attitude doesn’t make great copy but perhaps that’s exactly why he makes a great cricketer. “Cricket lies in Read more…

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