Why I Love Sachin Tendulkar !!!

I  still remember those days when sachin was competing with Brian Lara , Mark Waugh , Saeed Anwar, Sanath jayasurya for that crown-The record of who will  be the first one to break  Desmond Haynes Record of 17 ODI’s hundred . I still remember that ecstasy when he was the first one to break that record. I clearly remember when the first time that thought occurred -  "Can he ever get a hundredth hundred" , But just like love stories seldomly have happy endings , the next moment I started to ‘Doubt’ . My mind was winning over my heart.  I rationalized that just like all my weird dreams ,Its also one of them. But there is a more weird thing with ‘Weird Dreams’ …..They stay with you….. I was growing and so was Sachin...Everytime  I used to hear about tennis Elbow, Shoulder injury, Toe injury, hamstring injury, Out of Form….My mind used to nail down my heart ….. But , I don’t know why ‘Hearts’ are the synonyms of ‘Hope’ , Like a phoenix , it got buried somewhere deep inside only to reborn again from ashes. And than a hope came , He had crossed the barrier of 34 Test hundreds in Tests and Ricky Ponting was nowhere near . Now, suddenly Heart had started to tease my mind .

And , here I was, watching Sachin  dismissal at 94 against West Indies …when everybody thought was' that Glorious ton' . He did it again, as he always do- teasing his 1 billion fans…Such is the magic of his wand that even his biggest critics watch him in an awe!!   From Sir Don Bradman to Shane Warne , From Steve Waugh to Brian Lara ,He has been the pride of the nation . I don’t consider him ‘God’  But than I consider him as ‘Godmen’ , I have no doubt that he has given me some of the most treasured moments of my life after my papa. Time and again he has proved that he is no ‘God’ but he has also proved that he cannot be ‘Human’ too. Batting against Kenya and scoring a hundred the next day his father died was synonym of that only and If you think that Kenya was an easy battle , my dear friends , the battle was not outside , that day , the battle was from within.Sachin has been the most integral part of my childhood and I am priveledged that I have watched him Bat ‘LIVE’ unlike the future generations who will watch his highlights. I like sachin not because of his runs but because of his contribution . He has been a sole ‘Indian Idol’…In between all those Rajas and Kalmadis ,The Azharuddins and Harshad Mehtas , He has been as pure as church’s mouse.  People debate with me that Brian Lara was a better batsman   but than being a batsman was not everything , His contribution transcends boundaries,  Its  because of him  that Sehwag started playing, Dhoni and Yuvraj began their tryst with destiny called ‘Cricket’ and this is no less contribution . If today Rohit Sharmas,Kohlis and Uthappas sit on bench ,Its because Sachin ensured a supply that exceeded demand. Something that Lara failed to replicate in West Indies . For 1 billion people Cricket became Religion and there is only one God . When people say that he has been dismissed 28 times in his 90’s , I wonder whether someone with a total of 28 hundreds can dismiss 28times in nineties . Only the one who has 99 hundreds can do that and by the way even 28 nineties are a privilege .

There has been this hue and cry for sachin being awarded ‘Bharat Ratna’….. I don’t know about the Indian Government but yes , Indian Public has conferred him with ‘Bharat Ratna’ long back….

At last I would like to sum it with my favourite all time quotation on Sachin, "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."