~~~~~~~~ S A C H I N ~ R A M E S H ~ T E N D U L K A R ~~~~~~~~~

[Francis_Underwood]

 

Tendulkar is mobbed by a group of kids in Mumbai © ESPNcricinfo Ltd

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PLAYERS/OFFICIALSSachin Tendulkar

TEAMSIndia

It was January 2010. We were in Pune and I had helped organise an event where about 50 blind kids could meet Sachin Tendulkar. They had no idea he was coming. To introduce him, I asked Sachin to knock a ball on a bat. As the noise resonated around the walls of the school, I asked the students: "Who is the emperor of cricket?" In unison, they screamed "Sachinnn!" As soon as they were told he was standing among them, they went manic.

During the interaction one kid asked Sachin to talk about his assault against Shane Warne in the late 1990s in Sharjah. The kid pointed out that Warne, recollecting the match, had said Tendulkar had become a nightmare and used to haunt his dreams. Drawing the kid closer to him, Sachin said: "After being hit so much, how did Warne sleep in the first place?" All the kids just jumped up laughing.

The first time I met Sachin was in the 1988-89 season, during a Ranji Trophy match in Hyderabad. I was then working for a popular Marathi fortnightly called Shatkar. Despite the difference in our ages, of ten years, we have grown into dear friends. With time, the trust has grown deeper, and I have always spoken my mind to him. In this period I have managed to cross the fence that separates a player and a journalist. So I can say I know a little bit of the other side of Sachin.

One of Sachin's favourite pastimes is to switch on music, put on his earphones, and sit with a bat in his hand, fiddling with its grip or knocking on it with a mallet. He carries his own toolkit and if he is on his own in a room, he is bound to be working on his bat like it is some piece of art.

 

“It is true that Sachin is very private. But if you treat him like a normal person, he will be at ease immediately

 

Interestingly he does not like to keep his match bat in his kit bag (which is usually downstairs, along with the rest of the team's kit). He will always have the match bat in his room, close to him. It is the bat dearest to him and his devotion makes me wonder if he worships it. I have seen him apply glue to various parts of a worn-out bat and hand-press it below the bed or under a table to help the adhesive stick well.

A few years ago he played with a bat with which he had scored more than ten centuries. It was the bat he used when he scored a ton against England during the 2011 World Cup. I could not believe he was able to even play, let alone make runs, with a bat where the wood appeared to have chipped off at various places.

When I asked him about it, he took the bat in both hands, drew it close to his face, and looking at it with admiration said: "I am not sure if the ball will travel the distance but with this bat in my hand, not many have got me out."

That bat usually sits next to an idol of Lord Ganesha in his room, next to a picture of a young Sachin lying in the laps of his parents, with an incense stick lit in front of it. The simplicity and neatness of his room is striking. Tendulkar is a very organised person. I have been the rooms of some of the younger lot and they live like they are in a hostel, with everything scattered and untidy.

Away from cricket, one of Sachin's favourite pastimes is enjoying good food - especially seafood. He can peel a tiger prawn with his tweezer-like fingers even as we mere mortals struggle endlessly at the other end of the table.

As much as he likes eating at his favourite restaurants around the world, Sachin is equally at ease enjoying a simple home-cooked meal. In the best hotels around the cricketing world, I have cooked for him in my own room, where Sachin would come after a gym session.

During the 2008 tour to Sri Lanka I was staying in the same hotel as the Indian team. One night, as I cooked, he happily watched Roger Federer playing in the US Open. Sachin said he enjoyed how Federer went ahead and played a stroke that he thought would put him on top, regardless of the match situation.

That evening I had cooked dal, a chicken dish, salad, and orderedrotis from the hotel's kitchen. The dessert was a fruit platter (without sugar), which got over in minutes as Zaheer Khan too joined us. Sachin wanted more fruit and agreed to make another platter himself. As he was busy doing it, Zak tried to pick a few pieces of fruit, but he was rapped on his knuckles, because Sachin wanted to decorate the platter nicely. He did exactly that, and took a picture as we enjoyed the dessert and Federer.

It is true that Sachin is very private, but if you treat him like a normal person, he will be at ease immediately. Some former greats like people to be in an awe of them; Sachin is the opposite: if he comes to your room and you treat him informally, he will spend more time in your company. If you go to his house that same courtesy will be extended to you. He will treat you as an equal. He will even make you a drink.

Many of you might be curious about whether Sachin the parent is as disciplined as Sachin the player. Just like he never had a liking for books, his son Arjun is equally disinclined. But Sachin has made it clear to his kids that there is no shortcut when it comes doing the basic stuff, like homework. He cares a lot for his two children, but he has made it clear to them there is no excuse for indiscipline.

 

Tendulkar and Fateh in 2008© Sunandan Lele

 

 

In the mid-2000s, when a tennis elbow problem threatened to curtail Sachin's career, his entire family were worried. For years Anjali has been visiting a neighbourhood church near their Mumbai residence once a week. As Tendulkar was working hard to recover from his injury, Sarah, his daughter accompanied her mother to the church one day. Unknown to anyone she had made a replica candle shaped like an elbow and lit it, wishing her dad a fast recovery. When Sachin was told about this he was speechless.

Since he is such a popular public figure, requests gather at Sachin's doorstep like devotees at a shrine. So it is embarrassing at times to ask him to lend a hand to a charitable cause.

On the eve of the Mohali Test during England's tour of India in 2008-09, I got a request from Fateh, an 11-year-old handicapped kid from Chandigarh, who wanted to meet Sachin. Fateh had lost his dad, an army major, in an anti-insurgency operation in Jammu & Kashmir. But more painful was the fact that Fateh's spinal cord was affected by a degenerative condition. He could sit straight only while wearing a jacket, made of a special fibrous material, which supported his back.

Sachin agreed to meet the kid. Fateh arrived with his mother, but Sachin was delayed due to a team meeting. He arranged for some tea and biscuits for the visitors, but Fateh just wanted his hero's autograph.

When he finally met Sachin, Fateh told him, "There are two lifelines in my life: one is this jacket I am wearing and the other is Sachin Tendulkar. I want to connect the two. Can you please sign on this jacket?"

Sachin's left hand trembled as he autographed the jacket.

 

[Francis_Underwood]

Clyne Valladares - 'Aala re aala' - A song for Sachin

http://youtu.be/4zFrpx5NVQ8

[Katam_Rayudu]

Sorry if its a repost..

Time magazine's quote on Sachin Tendulkar in 2011: "When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam. When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to "open" the Nehruvian economy. It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will."

[Francis_Underwood]

A Zen master

Tendulkar seems to have the ability to remain untouched by the circumstances of the match or the personality of the bowler

Simon BarnesNovember 1, 2013

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"He doesn't really do situations at all: he just bats" © Associated Press

RELATED LINKS

PLAYERS/OFFICIALSSachin Tendulkar

TEAMSIndia

Many of Tendulkar's batting records may be broken in the future but one that may stand the test of time is his feat of achieving a 100 hundreds. In Sachin: Cricketer of the Century, Network18 journalist Vimal Kumar spoke to team-mates, opponents, coaches, and journalists to chronicle Tendulkar's journey. The following extract is a piece by Simon Barnes.

The most important thing about Sachin's batting is that there is no single important thing to say about it. He doesn't really have a style. In a sense he doesn't even have a personality: or, to be more accurate, personality is something he seems to be able to set aside at will. He seems to have the ability to remain untouched by the circumstances of the match or the personality of the bowler. Poor bowling doesn't get him excited at the chance to cash in; very good bowling in helpful conditions doesn't make him worry. He doesn't really do situations at all: he just bats.

More than any cricketer I have ever watched, he has the gift of playing only the ball. He's never surprised by a bad ball from a great bowler nor by a dangerous ball from a poor bowler. He somehow keeps the bowler out of the equation: the ball is all. He meets it all with the same bland eye. You can't tell whether it all matters hugely to him or whether it doesn't matter at all. He has the very rare gift of playing in the moment. Some players love drama, confrontation, imposing their own personality on a great match, a great occasion. Sachin just hits the damn ball.

There is something Zen-like about this. I am reminded more than anybody else of Pete Sampras, the tennis player. Sampras's first serve was brilliant, but his second serve was better, in that he was almost equally dangerous and very, very rarely missed. In the great Wimbledon final of 1999 against Andre Agassi at his very best, Sampras won in three sets that went far beyond brilliance. He won on a second-serve ace. Someone asked him afterwards: 'What was going through your mind at the time, Pete?' Sampras answered after a puzzled pause: 'There was absolutely nothing going through my mind.'

Perfect.

I wrote at the time that this was pure Zen, and I received a letter from a real Zen master, who totally agreed. Sachin has something of the same ability: to not get distracted by conscious thought, by ambition, by hope, by despair. He just plays the ball. Whether he hits it for four, whether he plays or misses, it's all one to him. He takes guard and faces the next ball and plays it, leaving it or smiting it, as the ball demands. The only time I have seen him affected by a situation was when he was close to that hundredth 100 and was out for, I think, 94 at the Oval. I think for once he was entitled to feel the pressure. After all, he's the first person ever to have felt it.

There are some big things to be written on Sachin as a living symbol of India's headlong charge into the modern world. He is a validation, a living emblem of the truth that an Indian can be the best in the world, the best ever, if you like, and can do so without appearing to break a sweat and without needing to ask anybody for any favours. In this respect, he is rightly compared to Don Bradman. Other cricketers who had national importance include Denis Compton, who was a symbol of optimism and elegance as Britain sought to rebound after World War II, and Sir Frank Worrell, who stood for regional and racial independence, freedom and pride.

[chegu]

http://youtu.be/Y8e0m3yLcco

[Maximus]

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BACKFOOT PUNCH: He is on his toes, and you are on your feet. It is a rising delivery, and the champion needs that extra height, as he places the weight on the back foot. Ooh la la. Bat goes under the ball, to meet its destiny. Four runs to the bowler. Take it. It’s a gift.

[Maximus]

 

STRAIGHT DRIVE: The heavy bat is handled like a feather. Foot out to the pitch of the delivery, Tendulkar steps forward, to meet the ball at just the right time. The full face of the bat is presented, with the man’s short forearms, featuring prominently. One essential feature is the head- that remains still at all times. Watching the bat move from the back lift to the follow through, the high elbow, and the man’s pose with poise, post the shot, is something that will be missed.

[Maximus]

SQUARE CUT: Mr.Tendulkar has understood that the ball has been sent in short, and that there is room outside the off-stump. He bends his knees, moves onto the back foot, getting on top of the ball, to send the cherry to the point boundary. Why can’t we hear the applause?

[Maximus]

 

DOWN THE TRACK: You remember the leg spinner who came from around the wicket. Sachin Tendulkar dances down the track, and goes inside out. Only to smash it over the long on boundary. With a follow through to accompany the look of disbelief on the bowler’s face. He has done it against Glenn McGrath as well. Kya bat hai!

[Maximus]

 

 

COVER DRIVE: The transfer of weight is excellent. The ball is pitched outside the off stump, and once Mr.Tendulkar understands the length, he executes the stroke. Lovely balance. Shoulders moving diagonally, front foot forward, pointing at one o’clock, back foot parallel to the crease. Ball says hello to the bat, goodbye to the bowler, before kissing the cover boundary. Don’t you just love the follow through?