Sachin Tendulkar, One of India’s Greatest Countrymen Ever

I have not heard much about 14^th August, 1948 when Sir Don Bradman played his last test innings at the Oval. But belonging to this generation I can proudly recap what we saw at the Old Trafford 22 years ago on that very day. A 17 year old boy announced his arrival into the game very strongly as he had the chance for the first time in his international career to raise his willow in an Indian shirt which he has done 99 more times so far since then. It is really needless to say that later on the boy grew up and grew up to be whom we call the God of Cricket today.

But after 2012 the memories for this particular day would become a little more tasteful to him as yet another feather gets added to his ever colourful crown. Just a day before the 66^th Independence Day of his country his name has been put to shortlist for the “Greatest Indian” by Reliance. To be honest whatever the way we choose in order to honour him, it won’t be sufficient as compared to what he has given us. Many of us won’t be surprised and will go on to say that he deserves this place more than anyone. But the one of the greatest qualities that has really made him a real national hero still stands out. Even after this kind of an achievement he says that he does not know whether he really deserves to be there in this list or not although it would be a dream for every Indian to be there in this list. And that kind of a person has been Sachin Tendulkar, who has remained as calm and as gentle as ever even after climbing mountains after mountains of success and glory.

 Since his arrival he has really made everything look possible starting from his shots to his achievements. Whether one talks about his new inventions of shots which hardly were found in the cricketing book before he started playing those, the shots like paddle sweep and the upper cut; or his unbelievable achievements – they all just looked too easy for the maestro.

Once it was thought to be literally impossible to break the record of 34 test centuries. But eventually it proved to be wrong as he went over that, and now has made that margin a very fair one. One could not have ever imagined of somebody will ever go on to score a century of his international centuries. But again he is the only man in the planet to register this rarest landmark, and why not? When you look at him on the field and off the field, the utmost desire, passion and dedication that he has shown to the game is what separates him from the other players. Even now he always seems to concentrate every time as he walks in, looks at every ball closely and ready to learn new lessons everyday. With all these you can easily identify the Lord of the game who has controlled the game ever since he appeared for the first time, yet has not put himself over the game.  Whenever he is asked about his most precious moment in his entire international career he does not say about his 35^th test hundred or the 100^th international hundred, but speaks about India’s victory in the world cup.

There are as many things as one can learn from the great man. His philosophy towards not only the game, but also life is something to learn about. Sometimes we people tend to get nervous when we think about that we have to carry out the expectations of our parents and our family to us and we think whether we will be able to fulfil them or not resulting nervousness. But Sachin gives us a newer point of view on this affair letting us to decide where we can look from. He says that it’s good that people have expectations on you. These expectations have grown because he has been able to bring the smile on our faces. So it’s a bless that when one have billions of people cheering every time as he walks in to the field. And when having such a huge battalion with him doesn’t make him nervous but makes him feel better, allows him to enjoy his game. And everyone is at his very best when he enjoys what he does. That is also one of the reasons why he has been so successful and the favourite of the crowd for more than 22 years. So India, what are you thinking about? Just keep cheering for your greatest son.