Theres Something About Sachin
Theres Something About Sachin
The Tendulkar saga is about genius,dedication and an unquenchable love of the game
Ayaz Memon
When Miranda sees Fernando for the first time in Shakespeares Tempest,she is drawn to say: I might call him a thing divine;for nothing natural i ever saw so noble.At a fanciful stretch,the cricket lover might say that about Sachin Tendulkar.
The milestone of 100 international centuries does not add substantially to the game or indeed Tendulkars greatness as a batsman.But it does reiterate the talent,longevity and appeal of a player who has transcended nationality and his sport in terms of reach and adulation.
It is almost impossible to explain the lure of cricket to the non-believer;so it is with the hold which Tendulkar has had on cricket fans since he burst onto our consciousness.There have been great cricketers before him and undoubtedly more will follow,but Tendulkar stands alone as both driving force and glue in the contemporary game,especially in India.
A country that can divide itself all too easily on issues of language,religion,caste and class has been held together,so to speak,by his charisma and his exploits for over two decades.His appeal has cut across age and gender groups.People have bunked work to see him bat or suspended their household chores.Sometimes,the entire nation has come to a standstill.
Cricket is a potent idiom of Indian life and cricketers have traditionally been heroes.But nobody has inspired so much sentiment.Tendulkar has been gladiator,saviour and loveable boy next door making him a mythical character,which is obviously flawed.As his travails of the past year have shown,he is all too human in his desires,self-doubts and in coping with an ageing body.
In his anthology,It Takes All Sorts,Peter Roebuck the late cricketer and writer,captures the Tendulkar mania with the sharp objectivity of an outsider: `` For 15 of his 30 years (he wrote this a few years earlier) Tendulkar has lived with the
The Tendulkar saga is about genius,dedication and an unquenchable love of the game
Ayaz Memon
When Miranda sees Fernando for the first time in Shakespeares Tempest,she is drawn to say: I might call him a thing divine;for nothing natural i ever saw so noble.At a fanciful stretch,the cricket lover might say that about Sachin Tendulkar.
The milestone of 100 international centuries does not add substantially to the game or indeed Tendulkars greatness as a batsman.But it does reiterate the talent,longevity and appeal of a player who has transcended nationality and his sport in terms of reach and adulation.
It is almost impossible to explain the lure of cricket to the non-believer;so it is with the hold which Tendulkar has had on cricket fans since he burst onto our consciousness.There have been great cricketers before him and undoubtedly more will follow,but Tendulkar stands alone as both driving force and glue in the contemporary game,especially in India.
A country that can divide itself all too easily on issues of language,religion,caste and class has been held together,so to speak,by his charisma and his exploits for over two decades.His appeal has cut across age and gender groups.People have bunked work to see him bat or suspended their household chores.Sometimes,the entire nation has come to a standstill.
Cricket is a potent idiom of Indian life and cricketers have traditionally been heroes.But nobody has inspired so much sentiment.Tendulkar has been gladiator,saviour and loveable boy next door making him a mythical character,which is obviously flawed.As his travails of the past year have shown,he is all too human in his desires,self-doubts and in coping with an ageing body.
In his anthology,It Takes All Sorts,Peter Roebuck the late cricketer and writer,captures the Tendulkar mania with the sharp objectivity of an outsider: `` For 15 of his 30 years (he wrote this a few years earlier) Tendulkar has lived with the