A 16 year old young kid walked into the cricket ground to take guard and play his first test innings against arch rivals in their own den, little did we know that this young tiger would grow and attain HIMALAYAN stature in the hearts of billions of people.
I started seeing cricket from the Hero Cup in India but very vaguely remember any of it, my real interest in cricket started with the 1996 World Cup in India and thats when I fell in love with cricket for one man Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. There are many reasons why cricket attained so much popularity in India but I strongly believe only one man started making people hysteric with his performances and that is Sachin.
1998 is the peak year of his career when he had just given up his captaincy and his captaincy didnt bear the fruits as he had the worst players in the team (he was the highest wicket taker in the team for few series then)and none of the team members could raise the skill level to understand the genius. That year India won 6 tournaments and Sachin scored centuries in all finals. He scored 1900+ runs in that year and scored 9 centuries which most good batsmen havent scored in their lifetime. I went berserk watching the genius unwoven his masterclass in Sharjah and it was epitome of master batsmanship, the desert storm innings and I was so happy to watch the innings and at the same time not satisfied to see the team win after the GOD left the stage but GOD returned with even tougher resolute to win the finals with another great century.
In his 20 years of his cricketing life, the GOD had been burdened with the sole responsibility to win the matches for India during the league matches, important matches like qualifying for quarter finals, semi finals, and then again have to play well to win the finals. I am not surprised it is still the case. There have been small phases or instances when few others in the team put their hands up when the great man couldnt succeed and but no one has been able to consistantly be at their top to assist the great man in few innings when he really required some help from the other end to complete things successfully. When he performed he alone performed as the others I believe are a tad careless as they think the GOD will see the team through and he does see it through but a few times couldnt see it through. The rest of team members through out the late 90's and through this decade are convenient with the GOD in their side and the fans expect everything from GOD and nothing from others so the others didnt have to feel the pressure at all mostly.
Sachin is a symbol of hope for millions in India. In an era when our Indian economy was in doldrums and just when it started to get better, the people of India had only one person to relate to greatness and hope. In no other walk of life was there a person who was the greatest amongst the world and we had only Sachin and he was most easy and best choice. He was not only the hope in the cricket field but even outside. He showed us that we can be world class and be the best in the world. He taught us to hopeful and confident. There is so much more to the lives of millions because of his achievements than just the wins in cricket matches and that is the reason HE HIS GOD for GOD provides hope.
Sachin is the greatest cricketing icon the world has seen. Michael Jordan is Sachin of Basket ball, Michael Schumacher is Sachin of Formula One, Mohammed Ali is Sachin of Boxing, Pele n Maradona are Sachins of Football, Tiger Woods is Sachin of Golf, Lance Amstrong is Sachin of cycling, Roger Federer and Pete Sampras are Sachins of Tennis. He stands tall amongst the best men of all sports. No other sportsman has ever had to deal with the pressure of a billion hopes and if at all any of the above mentioned sporting greats had to bear the burden I doubt they could have done the same deeds they had done and thats the reason Sachin is of a completely different and higher class than these other sporting greats. So he can be undisputedly and conveniently classified as the greatest sporting icon of the world ever as he inspired billions with his performances.
LONG LIVE THE LEGEND...THE GOD...WORLD CUP IS THE ONLY MISSING PIECE...PLEASE GOD RESERVE YOUR BEST EVER TO WIN THE WORLD CUP 2011 FOR YOUR CRICKET MANIAC DEVOTEES...I WANT YOU TO SCORE A BIG HUNDRED AND LIFT THE WORLD CUP IN MUMBAI AND BE THE MAN OF FINALS AND THE MAN OF THE TOURNAMENT...IT CAN BE ONLY BEST POSSIBLE WAY TO SAY GOODBYE TO ONE DAY CRICKET(PLEASE CONTINUE TEST CRICKET)...HOPEFULLY BY THEN YOU WOULD HAVE COMPLETED 50 ODI CENTURIES!!!
WE LOVE YOU...WE ADORE YOU...WE PRAY FOR YOUR HEALTH...WE JUST LOVE YOU TOO MUCH!!!
