Sachin Tendulkar, a Cricket Legend

Sachin Tendulkar was born in Mumbai, India to a Brahmin couple on 24th April 1973. Generally Hindus, especially Brahmins encourage their children for academic excellence. They believe that those who fail in brain go in for sports! This is one of the reasons that India, second populous country in the world does not shine in Olympics. Ramesh, his father defied this logic. Also encouraged by his elder brother Ajit, Sachin Tendulkar started playing cricket in his young age. Though he is one of the richest sports man in the world, endorsing many famous brands and icon of the Mumbai Indian team of the Indian Premier League, still he keeps 13 one rupee coins as treasures which he won from the challenges posed by his coach Achrekar.

Initially Sachin Tendulkar aspired to become a fast bowler. He joined the MRF Pace Foundation to get training under Dennis Lillee, an Australian pace bowler. He could not impress Dennis with his bowling performance. Dennis advised him to concentrate on batting. This is the turning point and the cricket world got a legend.

Short by stature, Sachin Tendulkar is just 5’4″ tall. Less than 2 times the height of a cricket bat, the top of the handle of his bat should have reached the top of his thigh! This is one of the key drivers for a successful batsman. Nature blessed him this way. Kris Srikant, an innovative Indian captain gave him the test debut to play against Pakistan in 1989. He was just a 16 year old lad then. He slowly built up his reputation and became the opening batsman for India. In One Day International (ODI) matches, he desired to open the innings and was very successful in taking advantage of the fielding limitations of the first 10 over to give a solid foundation in early innings to win many matches for India. Being a contemporary cricketer, his fans expect new techniques from him in the Indian Premier League matches.

Handling various kinds of bowling at different kinds of situations are important factors for a successful batsman. He played in 90 different pitches in the world. Obviously he had the trick to defend and attack any kind of bowlers at any point of time – be it in-swinger, out-swinger, reverse-swinger, fast or spin – both in Test Matches and in ODIs. Without such a technique in hand, perfect concentration, physical fitness and good mind set to handle pressures, it would not be possible for him to break and make records – 60+ in all.

His records include highest run scorer in Test Matches and ODIs, most number of man of the match awards and man of the series awards, most test centuries in test matches and ODIs etc. The number of runs he scored so far (11th Feb 2009) in Test Matches, ODIs and First Class Cricket are equal to a distance of 1450 Kms. We should remember that the length of the pitch between the wickets is just 22 yards! No wonder, Shane Warne, the best bowler world had seen so far paid encomiums to this little master. Cricket fans all over the world will be very happy that their legendaries will continue to occupy the cricket ground and entertain them, thanks to the Indian Premier League.

On an average, Sachin Tendulkar scored 54 and 44 runs before he was given out in test matches and ODIs respectively. In terms of his bowling performance, since he is not a specialist bowler, he conceded 54 and 44 runs for every wicket he has taken in test matches and ODIs respectively. Indian captains, watch out such statistics!

From the time cricket started in late 15th century, the game has evolved and transformed in various ways. The current format of the Twenty 20 match is popularized by the Indian Premier League. It has 8 teams. Sachin Tendulkar is the captain of the team, Mumbai Indians. His price tag was US$ 1.1+ Mio in the last 2008 season. Even though he has played for 20 years and is now 36 years of age, he gets overwhelming support and cheer from the crowd for this format also. Though he could not play in the first few matches and his performance was not that exciting in rest of the matches, still the expectations from him for 2009 season of the Indian Premier League is very high.

His passion and dedication will be inscribed in golden words in the history of world cricket.

Posted in: sachin tendulkar