Aah yes. 23 years . Out of which I remember most of what happened in the last 20 years.
My first glimpse of sachin was , it may also be my imagination, in a videocon tv that we had at my grandfathers house . A straight drive over the top of the bowler's head is what I remember. The year was 1993.
There was a lot of talk about this so called Sachin. I had no interest whatsoever in these matters because I was 3 years old and my main interest lay in...err..well... eating dirt, throwing tantrums and god knows what. The infancy stages are always a blur. By the time we moved to Delhi, there was no TV . There was radio though, but I cant remember playing cricket or even hearing about cricket in those days. But I do remember the first time I played cricket. I believe it was in the year 1996 . There is a small bit of open space in front of every 4 blocks of quarters in Sarojini Nagar where the big kids play. The small kids play in a part of the road, with the stumps ...err.. sticks kept right at the place where the steps end, so that the wicket keeper can stand on the first step. I was made the wicket keeper. Third ball of the first match of my lifetime, the batsman swung his bat, i was standing too close and voila , a hit to the head. This incident may be the reason, I turned out the way I am. Tears gushing through my eyes, yes i admit - i was a crybaby, i ran into my house, vowing never to play with these children again.
The next week , I played an entire game of cricket. Not really enjoying because this time it was mostly fielding.
Meanwhile Sachin was playing dream knocks, hitting hundreds and fifties at will. I dont remember watching the '96 world cup but I heard stories about it in school. These stories always had a mention for Sachin. By the time cable tv came to my home, I was already collecting cards mostly of Sachin. Then watching him play on the telly, hitting shane warne in the famous sharjah endeavours, hitting wasim akram through the line, coming up to the pitch of the ball to hit muralidharan because if you let his ball spin, you are in trouble. Heath streak, Henry Olonga, shawn pollock, waqar younis, Ashley Giles, courtney walsh, ambrose nobody stood a chance. Every single part of the ground was covered. Through the air, driven through the line, cut, hook, pull, bham bham pow kabooom!! Sachin would always walk off the pitch unscathed whereas the bowlers looked more tired than the soldiers fighting in the Kargil war.
By this time,I had joined 4th standard and Sachin had crossed Desmond Haynes record of 18 ODI centuries. World Cup 1999, I was in Kerala for the summer vacations and remember watching India vs Kenya match . Sachin came out to bat, two down and along with Dravid scored a century. He scored the century and he looked up to the skies. Three days prior, his father had died and he had come to play for the country, smashing a bowler named Angara all over the ground. Till then, I was an ardent fan. Afterwards, I became a devotee.
I used to own a four square bat. This was the same company of bats that the likes of Sidhu, Dravid and Ganguly used. I used to stick a paper over it and write MRF in my squiggly handwriting. I liked to ball leg spin not because of Shane Warne, because Sachin bowled that way. Every single thing about Cricket was taught to me by Sachin.
I was a bad student in the beginning but picked up the trade as time went on.
I came back to Kerala in the year 2000 and brought my Sachinism with me. Every single Essay, article , speech was about Sachin. Role model- Sachin, hero- Sachin, My dream- To meet Sachin, favourite person- Sachin. Every single thing could be mapped to Sachin. I even wrote stories about Sachin. Naturally, there were a group of people who would always rebel against this devotion. I didn't know it then , but I later formed my theory of being a Sachin hater. There is nothing called as a Sachin hater. The people who say they don't like Sachin analyse his game so well in a way that even Sachin fans could not. They tell themselves , they don't like Sachin but are mesmerised by his performance and to hide this , they start telling the finer points.
During the years 2001-02 , Sachin was severely hit by injuries and I was constantly taunted at school for Sachin missing these many matches. Then came the 2003 world cup. With Ganguly leading the side and John Wright in the coaching position India was a strong team but not the best. Australia, Pakistan, South Africa were the ones who were in the position to be crowned champions. But then the analysts never took into account the trump card that was overlooked. Every dog has a day. I knew I was not a dog because after every match India took home the victory , the hero in majority of the cases would be Sachin. I had many days to call my own when I would walk in the class and ask them who the man of the match was yesterday. Nobody would dare answer.
The best innings I have ever seen of Sachin is not a hundred. On March 1 , 2003 Pakistan gave a daunting target of 274 to India to hit in 50 overs. Sachin and Sehwag opened up the batting. I saw every single ball of that innings. Sachin smashed Shoiab Akhthar again and again and again and I have never seen a bowler's face so deplorable and with so less confidence that if I was the bowler , I would have retired the next day. Sachin hit 98 off 75 balls in a ruthless answer to Shoaib Akhthars comments that Sachin was afraid of his pace.
On March 23 , the world's most incapable astrologer had set the date for the marriage of my mother's close cousin sister and the function was to be attended mandatorily. Right after the ceremony, I took an auto to my grandfathers house and put on the TV. Zaheer Khan was being pummeled. After a few more overs , I fell asleep. Woke up to find out that Australia had put 359 as a score to chase down . Sachin had already got the news that he was the man of the series for his 669runs he had scored . First three balls of Mcgrath , he was unable to decipher. The fourth ball was pulled from outside off stump for a four which I still believe was the best shot of the tournament. The fifth ball , however , was given straight into McGrath's hands. Despair loomed inside me. The reception was going on and I was in the grooms house attending it. I watched the entire second innings feeling really stupid as the only one in the entire house watching the game whereas everyone else was celebrating . By the time I had to go for dinner, 7 wickets had fallen and so had my confidence and pride.
Afterwards, Sachin kept on making centuries, players retired. Once Sachin was compared with Lara, then with Ponting, and almost always with Bradman. The speculation was that these people were better than Sachin. The points were quite clear. Ponting had 3 world cups. Lara had a quadruple century and Bradman had an average of 99.94. Sachin had none of these. Sachin had no world cups to his name, his highest score was a meagre 236 at that time and average was nearing 53 at that time. But still , these comparisons were made. The prediction by the super awesome analysts was that Ponting would surpass Sachin in the number of centuries, Lara would be the highest run getter in tests and Bradman was the greatest ever. Ponting miserably failed to come close , Lara's record was surpassed in a matter of months and Bradman, well that one has been going on for a long time.
2007 , with Dravid as captain, India failed miserably, including Sachin. We did hit the highest runs in a world cup mathc against Bermuda. But failed to win against Bangladesh. After that, Dravid quit as captain and the selectors turned to Sachin. Sachin said, give it to Dhoni. That was how the most successful captain in Indian Cricket history became what he is today. Dhoni , who had the artillery formed and developed by Ganguly , valiantly led and defeated the troops from every other country in the 2011 world cup when Sachin finally got what he wanted.
2012 December, I went to Bangalore. After 15 days of stay provided by the company, we moved into a pg. The first weekend at that god damned place, I switched in the TV and found out that Sachin was retiring from One days. In 2013 October, during my training for SBI in Lucknow, I get a message from my friend that SAchin is retiring from tests as well.
But there are no complaints. No regrets. I have watched him play at his best and play at his worst. As he gets ready for the last match of his career tomorrow, I am also ready to accept his resignation. The time is right. Sachin can go. From a shoddy little team led by Azharuddin, to the strongest ever Indian team in 2012 , Sachin has inspired a billion Indians to do what they like. To pursue something and finally achieve it. To be a part of a team , to win, to lose , without any problems, any issues , to be liked all over the world. To be gifted Ferrraris, to be praised by leaders of nations, to be a God.
To be my hero. A part of my conscience. MY Sachin.
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