Happy Birthday Sachin Tendulkar

It will be very hard for the current generation to understand the importance of Sachin in India. Anyone who would have started watching cricket after 1998 may not understand the fact that why we used to switch off the TV after Sachin’s wicket. Indian team was a one many army before arrival of Ganguly & David. Basically Indian team of 90s was similar to Argentina football team of 1980s. Everything depended on one person – Human God. I remember the Sachin’s stumping in 96 WC semi-final in Eden gardens. Sachin was stumped after scoring 65 runs and India’s score at that time was 98. From 98/1, India slumped to 120/8. Suddenly the ball was turning square after Sachin’s wicket. The pitch war behaving perfectly fine till Sachin was batting.

Why we rate Sachin as the God of Cricket? After all he was a cricketer whose team became world number 1 team & ICC world cup champions very late in his carrier. Yes, Sachin’s records are unmatched. He scored staggering 100 centuries (including 1^st one day double century) and 34000 runs in 24 years. He played most number of test & one day matches. He was the best batsmen in 1990s and one the best batsmen in 2000s. He had his own phase of struggles when many renowned experts like Ian Chapel advised him to retire and Sanjay Manjraker saw fear in Sachin’s eye. His records are certainly a proof that he was the best player of his generation and it would be extremely difficult for any cricketer to even match those records.

But I don’t think we idolize Sachin just for his records. His contribution is far above the number of runs or number of wickets he has taken. He is an Icon for India. He was the lone hero in 90s for millions of Indians. He was the only source of joy for us. India was still shocked by numerous riots and our economy went down in early 90s. In short the condition of our country was not good. We needed a hero who can lift the mood of nation. As India is a weak sporting nations, we didn’t had a sporting hero. Then a teenager boy came to become a Pan Indian hero and he was no other than Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. We used to switch off radio and TV after Sachin’s wicket. He was a lone warrior fighting for pride of 900 million Indians. We used to be happy even if India had lost the match but Sachin has scored a century. Sachin has scored 9 ODI centuries in 1998 (which is still a record) and India just won 60% of their ODI matches. Even Virat Kholi or AB DeViliers have not scored more than 5 ODI centuries in a calendar year.

It is very hard to survive 3-4 years in international cricket but Sachin played staggering 24 years of international cricket and 6 ODI world cups. For me there was only one Sachin. Even if Kohli breaks some or many record of Sachin Tendulkar, I will always rate Sachin higher as a batsmen. I also hope that Bharat Ratna Sachin will also fulfill his duty as a Parliament member.

Happy Birthday Sachin Tendulkar !!!