3 reasons why Sachin Tendulkar is India's greatest cricketer ever

2. Burden Of Expectations

The whole of India got to know more about the human anatomy when Tendulkar got the tennis elbow injury

“When Tendulkar plays well, India sleeps well.” –Harsha Bhogle

Whenever Sachin Tendulkar strode out to bat for India, he bore the expectations of more than 1.2 billion cricket crazy Indians. No Indian cricketer, or for that matter, no cricketer in history (with the exception of Don Bradman) has been under more scrutiny than Tendulkar.

A failure from any other player was accepted, but a failure from Tendulkar stung the average cricket fan. Think of the 1999 Test against Pakistan in Chennai. Tendulkar scored 136 out of India’s target of 272, but yet, when India lost, fans viewed it as a personal betrayal from Tendulkar.

Just think of that pin drop which you experience in an Indian stadium when the master got out. Just think of that period from his 99th to 100th hundred. Sachin had scored of 94,91,81,80,76 and 73 during this period. But every time Tendulkar failed to get to the three-figure mark, he was deemed to have failed. Fans were even counting his scored backwards from 100. No Indian cricketer has experienced this before, and it is highly unlikely that any Indian cricketer will experience it again.

Think of those years between 2004 and early 2005 when the whole of India got to know little more about the human anatomy just because Sachin got the tennis elbow injury.