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, Pete Sampras had never
won a Grand Slam, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his
nappies and the Berlin Wall was still intact. Here is a tribute to a man who has
entertained all of us for more than two decades.

INTRODUCTION
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (stn tndulkr/; born 24 April 1973) is a
former Indian cricketer widely acknowledged as one of the greatest
batsmen of the modern generation, popularly holding the title "God
of Cricket" among his fans. Some commentators, such as former
West Indian batsman Brian Lara, have labeled Tendulkar the
greatest cricketer of all time. He took up cricket at the age of
eleven, made his Test debut against Pakistan at the age of sixteen,
and
went
on
to
represent Mumbai domestically
and India internationally for close to twenty-four years. He is the only
player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first
batsman to score a double century in a One Day International, the
only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international
cricket and the 16th player and first Indian to aggregate 50,000 runs
or more in all forms of domestic and international recognized cricket.
In 2002, Wisden Cricketers' Almanac ranked him the second greatest
Test batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman, and the second
greatest ODI batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards. Later in his
career, Tendulkar was a part of the Indian team that won the 2011
World Cup, his first win in six World Cup appearances for India. He
had previously been named "Player of the Tournament" at the 2003
edition of the tournament, held in South Africa. In 2013, he was the
only Indian cricketer included in an all-time Test World XI named to
mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanac.
In December 2012, Tendulkar announced his retirement from
ODIs. He retired from Twenty20 cricket in October 2013 and
subsequently announced his retirement from all forms of cricket,
retiring on 16 November 2013 after playing his 200th and final Test
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match, against West Indies in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.

Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in total, scoring
34,357 runs and making 101 centuries in total, highest by any
cricketer in the world.

~2~

RECORDS
Test Records

The third-youngest debutant (16 years 205 days) in test cricket.

Highest run-scorer in the history of Test cricket, with 15,837 Test
runs
His career average from 1989 to 2013 in 198 Tests is 53.86
He became the first Indian to surpass the 11,000 Test run mark
Sachin and Brian Lara are the fastest to score 10,000 runs in 195
innings
World record of 8,705 runs in Tests away from home
World record of 29 centuries in Tests away from home
First player to reach 12,000, 13,000, 14,000, 15,000 Test runs
Record for scoring most 1,000 Test runs in a calendar year (six
times)
Fourth-highest run-getter in a single calendar year in Test history
World record for aggregating most runs in the fourth innings
The only cricketer to score 100 centuries in international cricket
(test and ODI)
Highest number (51) of Test centuries
Highest number (20) of 150+ score in Test Cricket
When he scored his maiden century in 1990, he was the second
youngest to score a century.
His record of 5 centuries before he turned 20 is a current world
record
Has scored centuries against all Test playing nations

ODI Records

Played 463 matches and made 185 consecutive ODI

appearances
The second-youngest debutant in ODI cricket
Record for being the first batsman to score the most runs (200)
in an ODI Innings
Scored the most runs in ODI cricket (18426 runs in 463 innings)
The only player ever to cross the 14,000, 15,000, 16,000, 17,000
and 18,000 run marks
~3~

First player to reach 10,000, 11,000, 12,000, 13,000, 14,000,

15,000, 16,000, 17,000 and 18,000 ODI run marks
Scored the most centuries (49)
Sachin, Virender Sehwag and Rohit Sharma are the only
cricketers ever to score a double hundred in ODI
Most ODI runs in a calendar year (1,894 runs in 1998)
Most centuries in a calendar year (9 in 1998)
Sachin, along with Sourav Ganguly, holds the world record for
the maximum number of runs scored for an opening
partnership
Sachin, along with Rahul Dravid, holds the world record for the
highest partnership in ODI matches
Has been involved in six 200-run partnerships in ODI matches
Most runs (2,278) in World Cup Cricket
Player Of The World Cup Tournament in the 2003 Cricket World
Cup
Opened the innings 340 times in ODI cricket
Most overall runs in international cricket (ODIs + Tests +
Twenty20)
Record of getting out the maximum number of times in the 90s
in international matches

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HONOURS
Tendulkar received the Arjuna Award in 1994 for his outstanding
sporting achievement, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1997,
India's highest sporting honour, and the Padma Shri and Padma
Vibhushan awards in 1999 and 2008, respectively, India's fourth and
second highest civilian awards. After a few hours of his final match
on 16 November 2013, the Prime Minister's Office announced the
decision to award him the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian
award. He is the youngest recipient to date and the first ever
sportsperson to receive the award. He also won the 2010 Sir Garfield
Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards. In 2012,
Tendulkar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of
the Parliament of India. He was also the first sportsperson and the first
person without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary
rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force. In 2012, he was
named an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia. In 2013,
Indian Postal Service released a stamp of Tendulkar and he became
the second Indian after Mother Teresa to have such stamp released
in their lifetime.

~5~

WHY INDIA ADORES SACHIN TENDULKAR?

Sachin was more than a cricketer... he was the embodiment of a
nation coming to life
But is he really that good?
I have lost count of the number of times I have seen this question
being asked one or the other time. Sure, they all know Sachin
Tendulkar is good. Extremely good, in fact. Most would also
acknowledge him as great, not just of his age but of all time.
What they cant quite comprehend, however, is why Indian fans
venerate Tendulkar so highly. Why is he worshipped as a god when
he is no more than a man, and a rather short and stocky one at
that?
Why do we speak of him as though he were a latter-day Don
Bradman he of the fabled batting average close to 100 - when his
own statistics (a Test average that never crossed above 60) only
place him among the very best batsmen of his time?
It is true that no other sportsman in history has inspired such complete
devotion among so many people. India is a land of many strange
and wondrous sights, but one of the more peculiar is how cricket
grounds suddenly swell with thousands more spectators every time
the second wicket falls in Test matches, ushering the Little Masters
arrival at the crease. The seats empty just as swiftly when he is out.
How can they have come to see only him, and not the team? Well it
is fair to say that in the earlier, more aggressive, phase of his career,
Tendulkar dominated bowling attacks like no other of his time could
do. Not even Brian Lara.
In his later years he became a more patient and mature
accumulator of runs, a little less thrilling perhaps but no less effective
as a match-winner. It seems barely conceivable that anyone will
ever surpass his century of international centuries.
~6~

The full explanation for his extraordinary veneration actually lies

away from cricket. It is more to do with history, culture and
economics.
In simple terms, Sachin Tendulkar was the right man, in the right
place, at the right time. More than any other individual or
organization, he has embodied the rise of India from an
impoverished and irrelevant ex-colony to the emerging global
power it is today.
The story of Tendulkars 24 years in international cricket is also the
story of how us Indians shed our inferiority complex and began
facing the world with confidence once more.
It is, of course, entirely coincidental that the two happened at the
same time. But, in the land where they believe in karma, it will have
seemed like fate.
It was Tendulkar who provided a focus and figurehead for the
broader re-emergence of the Indian nation.
If that sounds like a grandiose or rather fanciful claim, then we need
only take a look back to how it felt to be an Indian in 1989, when a
curly-haired 16-year-old from Bombay made his Test debut.
Indian cricketers, polite and mild-mannered to a fault, mirrored the
wider nation in their diffidence and deference.
Even several decades after independence had arrived in 1947, the
humiliating shadow of imperialism loomed large. Indians still felt
inferior to westerners, even us children of emigrants who were born
abroad.
But we knew we had a great past. We knew we were an ancient
civilization, with a proud legacy of literature, music and architecture.
Two centuries of being ruled by Europeans hadnt eliminated this
memory altogether.
~7~

And then along came Sachin. The son of a poet, wielding a chunk of
willow. A teenager yes a mere teenager who was already
among the best in the world at the only sport Indians care about. He
played with flair and without fear.
The boy genius grew into a man until, on his day, even the most
skilled bowling attacks just gave up on his wicket and focused on
getting out the batsmen at the other end. Shane Warne, no less, had
little answer to Tendulkars talent and spoke of lying in bed suffering
nightmares of being hit over his head for six.
But in the early days it was Tendulkar who led the way into the bright
new dawn. He showed that an Indian could not only compete with
the best, but actually be the very best on the planet as he was for
much of his career. Even if Indian people didnt know what he
meant to them, they felt it.
And while at first it sometimes seemed like it was just him on his own,
in time he was joined by other bold and gifted characters out in the
middle the likes of Ganguly, Dravid, Sehwag and Dhoni. Together
they propelled the country to No 1 in the Test rankings for the first
time and won another World Cup, where the final image was the 37year-old Tendulkar carried around Mumbais stadium on the
shoulders of adoring teammates.
One day someone might even overtake Tendulkars tally of 34,000
international runs and 100 centuries. But that will not in any way
diminish his significance.
No cricketer since Bradman has so embodied the aspirations not
merely in the realm of sport - of an entire nation at a key juncture in
its history.
Tendulkar is India. Not some tiny island, but a vast country of over a
billion people reawakening to memories of historical greatness.
And that is the measure of his own greatness.
~8~

BHARAT RATNA
Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India or Gem of
the Republic of India's highest civilian award.

India in

English)

is

Until 2011, the official criteria for awarding the Bharat Ratna
stipulated it was to be conferred "for the highest degrees of national
service. This service includes artistic, literary, and scientific
achievements, as well as "recognition of public service of the highest
order." In December 2011, the Government of India modified the
criteria to allow sportspersons to receive the award; since then, the
award may be conferred "for performance of highest order in any
field of human Endeavour."
Any person without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex is
eligible for the award. The recommendations for an award of the
"Bharat Ratna" are made by the Prime Minister of India to
the President of India; a maximum of three awards may be made in
a given year. The holders of the Bharat Ratna rank 7th in the Indian
order of precedence; however, the honour does not carry a
monetary grant. The honour does not confer any pre- or postnominal titles or letters; recipients are constitutionally prohibited from
using the award name as a title or post-nominal. However, if they
desire, recipients may state they are Bharat Ratna awardees in their
curriculum vitae, on letterheads or on business cards. Total number of
Bharat Ratna recipients is 43 including a tally of 11 posthumous.

~9~

WHY DID SACHIN GET BHARAT RATNA BEFORE?

Sachin Tendulkar is no doubt a Bharat Ratna, every 65 inch of his
stature. The government's timing was perfect in officially
acknowledging on his D-Day what the nation long felt about the
cricketer. But is he the only diamond in India's small but dazzling
collection of champions?
Many would argue that Tendulkar's sterling sporting achievements
are more than matched by one Viswanathan Anand. More would
agree that even his superhuman exploits donning the tricolor on the
helmet do not quite add up to the many miracles worked on the
Davis Cup turf by one Leander Paes. But they are contemporaries
who do not mind waiting for their turn.
Not the memory of Major Dhyan Chand though. The hockey wizard
retired in 1948. He died before Tendulkar even picked up his bat at
11. It is impossible to compare generations or different sports. All of 5
feet 7 inches, Dhyan Chand won India three Olympic gold medals.
But statistics count for nothing when one considers his influence on
the game that he picked up only after joining the Army at 16. Had
the wizard played cricket, his aura would have been no less than Sir
Don's.
Indeed, in 1935, Bradman watched Dhyan Chand in action in
Adelaide. He scores goals like runs in cricket, was his enchanted
reaction. The next year, the German press went into a tizzy watching
the wizard at Berlin. The Olympic complex now has a magic show
too, screamed a headline. Legend has it that a charmed Hitler
offered the major the post of colonel in his army. Residents of Vienna
built a statue of him with four hands holding four hockey sticks,
underlining the wizardry.

~ 10 ~

Now doesnt it seem odd that India officially acknowledged

Tendulkar, every bit a Bharat Ratna, before honoring the country's
first modern sporting genius and superstar? The sliding fortunes of
hockey may have a lot to do with it. Long back in 1956, Dhyan
Chand was honored with the Padma Bhushan. Of course,
sportspersons were not eligible for Bharat Ratna till the rules were
amended in November 2011.
That very December, 82 MPs, a number of UPA ministers among
them, together wrote to the Prime Minister's Office, recommending
Bharat Ratna for Dhyan Chand. The same month, the PMO also
received 64 nominations, including one from Maharashtra chief
minister Prithviraj Chavan, backing Tendulkar for the highest honor.
Since 2012, the union sports ministry has twice recommended Dhyan
Chand for Bharat Ratna. As recently as this August, the ministry
reiterated that he was the logical choice. "We had to name just one
sportsperson for the Bharat Ratna. With all due respect to Tendulkar,
Dhyan Chand is a legend in Indian sports. And it was logical to
recommend Dhyan Chand for the Bharat Ratna since we have
named every other trophy after him," Pradip Deb, secretary sports,
was quoted as saying.
The UPA government dithered for two years since amending the
rules before picking Tendulkar as a ''popular choice'' on the day of
his retirement. Few grudge him the honor. But his selection even as
the first among the illustrious contemporary equals only underlines
the unmistakable clout of cricket.
Anand has won the world championship five times (and the Chess
Oscar six times) in a sport many times more competitive than cricket.
Three years senior to Tendulkar, He became India's first grandmaster
even before the boy wonder made his international debut. The only
player to have won the world championships in all formats
~ 11 ~

tournament, match, knockout and rapid he is acknowledged as

the most versatile world champion in the history of the game.
Paes is a few weeks younger to Tendulkar. He made his debut for
India a year after Tendulkar and has an overall record of 86-31 in
Davis cup. He took India to the World Group during 1991-1998 and
beat Switzerland and France on way to the semifinals in 1993.
Routinely magical exploits in the doubles game apart, Paes
defeated the likes of Henri Leconte (1993), Goran Ivanievi (1995),
Wayne Ferreira (1994), Ji Novk (1997) and Jan Siemerink (1995)
playing solo for India.
In 1996, Paes needed a wild card to enter the Atlanta Olympics and
went on to win a Bronze for the country. His dream run was halted by
none other than Andre Agassi who described the inspired Indian as
a "flying jumping bean, a bundle of hyperkinetic energy, with the
tour's quickest hands". Now in his forties, Paes is also the oldest ever
grandslam winner.
Both Anand (1985) and Paes (1990) won the Arjuna award before
Tendulkar (1994). Anand was the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi
Khel Ratna Award in 199192, India's highest sporting honour. Even
Peas became a Khel Ratna (1996-96) before Tendulkar (1997-98).
While Paes remains a Padmashree (2001), Anand became India's first
sportsperson in 2007 to be awarded the Padma Vibhushan ahead of
Tendulkar. Tennis fans may feel a little impatient but chess
aficionados should not mind if the cricketer takes the lead this time.
But what about the wizard? The hockey fraternity is understandably
bitter. But the Major probably would have none of it. The first
sentence of his autobiography reads: You are doubtless aware that
I am a common man. The wizard scored 61 goals in his last
international series and India won all 22 matches in East Africa in
1947-48. Then he called it a day.
~ 12 ~

But of course, this is not cricket.

FIVE LIFE LESSONS SACHIN HAS GIVEN TO THE WORLD

For me, a lot of my own life lessons have come from watching Sachin
both on and off the field. But since you already might be overdosing
on Sachin-mania, am going to restrict myself to just five. Here they
go:
1) Being successful in life or being filthy rich has got nothing to do
with studying hard at school or which educational institution you go
to. Its okay to even flunk exams. Just make sure you have a burning
hunger to excel in a field of your choice. If, however, you are unable
to show any promise to others chasing your dream, then do at least
maintain a good attendance record and revise last three years'
question papers!
2) You dont need an animated demeanor or a baritone voice to
make yourself heard. Actions speak louder than words. And the best
way to communicate is to show people what you can do, rather
than just talk about it. If however all you can do is just talk, then do
choose a job as a news television anchor. If you become a guest
commentator or a panelist, it does not count.
3) Being the best in a team or a group does not mean that you can
lead others successfully. Be open to the fact that sometimes the
most you can do for a team is simply by doing your part efficiently.
Not everybody can be a captain in life. Some have to be star team
members. It really is time you realized that you are better than your
boss and management. Stop drinking now.
4) You are never too young or too old to do anything. If you think
you are ready to contribute and if you are enjoying playing the
game (whatever that is) then do not pay any attention to what
others might say about your inclusion or retirement. You can make as
~ 13 ~

much impact as a gawky teenager as you can as being the old wise
one. Do remember however that its always way too early in
anyones life to accept a Rajya Sabha nomination.
5) Lastly, it does not matter how you look, how tall you are or even
how silly your hairstyle really is. If you do the task at hand well
enough, your face will adorn a million posters and you can even
endorse rival cola brands. If you are extremely good looking but
otherwise incompetent, then a career in films is where you should be
headed. However if you are ugly and also incompetent, then politics
is where you will truly flourish.

I would like to conclude my topic by quoting Sachin,

Don't stop chasing your dreams, because dreams do
come true.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"How Sachin Tendulkar turned into 'God'". CNN-IBN. Retrieved 19
November 2013.
Bal, Sambit. "Sachin TendulkarCricinfo Profile". ESPNcricinfo.
Retrieved 14 December 2007.
"Sachin Tendulkar: the most popular athlete you've never heard
of". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
"Is Sachin Tendulkar the greatest batsman of all time?".The Daily
Telegraph. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
"Tendulkar second-best ever: Wisden". Rediff.com. Retrieved 27
November 2008.

~ 14 ~

"Sachin first sportsperson to win country's highest civilian honour

Bharat Ratna". Hindustan Times. New Delhi. 16 November 2013.
Retrieved 16 November 2013.
www.wikipedia.org
www.google.co.in
www.espncricinfo.com
www.firstpost.com
www.dailymail.co.uk
www.deccanchronicle.com

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