A cynic's reasons for a nation falling in love with Sachin Tendulkar

Unlike Rahul Dravid, who had hoards of women lining up to snatch at his hand given the opportunity, Sachin’s connection to the ordinary Indian has been more familial. To women, Sachin would be the younger brother. Wives and husbands would see him as a favourite nephew. Boys his age would imagine him as a brother or close friend. And he would be the older sibling to children younger than him.

And even though Sachin grew in age, the relations remained unchanged. Housewives would not stop their chores because they appreciated the technical brilliance of his cover-drive. Barbers did not stop the process of shaving because they felt that Sachin played the pull better than most. Ten-year-olds did not stop their gulli-cricket matches to watch him bat so that they could pick up batting tips.

The nation, as it has been often said, did not stop breathing to watch his cricketing excellence. The nation stopped because here was someone they felt they knew more than others, someone they had grown up with. It didn’t matter if Sachin was going through the worst form of his life. His fans would be there to watch him, not because there might be a chance of him making a hundred, but because he was like family. And there is nothing more important than family.

The face that launched a thousand fans: Sachin Tendulkar in Lahore, Pakistan.

Sachin began his career as the quintessential underdog, standing up to fearsome fast bowlers while he was still not eligible to vote. Through the years, his progress led him to the other extreme of the spectrum: a titan of the game. Should any bowler get his wicket, he would treasure it like his own offspring, cuddled up with him in his bed. But despite his larger-than-the-game persona, the public’s love for him did not diminish. Everyone was now celebrating his successes, just as a family would when the youngest cleared an entrance examination and enrolled into a prestigious school.

Sachin’s greatness does not lie in his ability with the willow. While that may seem as an extremely controversial statement, the difficulty to detach oneself from one’s feelings while evaluating Sachin is the true obstacle. One does not, and cannot, say Sachin is inferior to another batsman. No, not in India.

There have been very few things in Sachin’s career which can be held against him. He has lived a rather clean and subdued life outside the game even in today’s privacy-free times. And maybe that has helped his standing in our minds. There is nothing like a brilliant performer who behaves with class and dignity. Virat Kohli may achieve more than Sachin in cricketing terms by the time his career ends, but he will never be loved in the same way. If Sachin was a champion, he was a good champion. And as Michael Sheen would have said-like he did in The Dammed United as Brian Clough-Kohli is not a ‘good’ champion.

However, there remains a rather strange anomaly. Sachin has always maintained that he would play as long as there is some love for the game still in him. He did give up playing international 20-20s so that younger players got an opportunity, and retired from ODIs after the 2011 World Cup triumph for the same reason-apart from the fact that he had achieved everything in the 50-over form of the game.

His extended stay in the Test format has been confounding, then. Is his love for the game running out just as his 200^th Test nears? If that is the case, it is one incredible coincident. Unfortunately, there is no place for a coincident in statistics. For someone who owns pretty much every statistic in cricket-while maintaining that he has no place for them in his mind-a certain amount of curiosity remains over his Test retirement.

In India’s tour of Australia in 2003-04, a spectator held up a banner praising Sachin at Sydney: “Commit all your crimes while Sachin is batting. They will all go unnoticed as even God is watching.”

God may not be watching Sachin’s batting for his technique or the timing. If anything, He’ll be watching Tendulkar bat as a father would watch his son: with pride.