Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar - A well deserved accolade for the Little Master

Sachin off the field

Sachin Tendulkar – a social champion

Sachin has been an icon off the cricket field as well. He has been working with an NGO called Apnalaya for quite some time now, and he sponsors the education of more than 200 kids every year. Apart from that, he is even part of social initiatives like the ‘Support My School’ campaign by Coca-Cola and NDTV, which envisions better and healthier schools in India in the future, and MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination), a social campaign started by Farhan Akhtar to raise a voice against the atrocities committed against women.

Sachin has never endorsed a liquor or tobacco brand, despite many lucrative offers that were given to him. All this speaks volumes about the kind of person he is and how responsible he has been as a citizen of this country, not forgetting to give back to the society even after he has done so much to lighten up our lives with his play. One cannot help but be in awe of how multi-faceted his personality is, and how he continues to amaze us in every way possible.

The inspiration that he is

Sachin Tendulkar’s final bow on a cricket field

He has been nothing short of an inspiration, to put it simply. He was deeply in love with his profession, and that is what he teaches us. Do what you love, and love what you do more than anyone else. Fellow cricketers have felt honoured to have played with him. He has been a guide to loads of youngster, actually generations of youngsters, who have been so lucky as to have shared the dressing room with him.

He was one of most revered gentlemen of the game too. You could never see him as a part of any brawl, and neither did anyone see him sledge (save for once when it was part of the team strategy). After a point in his career, respect would flow automatically for him. He was known to be one of the very hard workers in between games as well. He would practice tirelessly in the nets, and never took his game for granted.

This was a perfect example to all those who played alongside him, especially those who were new to the game. So many youngsters have said that they sought advice from him on how to handle pressure or even the sudden attention that they got from everywhere once they had settled in the team and started playing good cricket.

Other than that, he is an inspiration to sportspersons around the world as an epitome of dedication for his game. For us Indians, he is someone who has served our country for so long that we automatically feel like following in his steps. Not to forget the uncountable kids in the country who dream of becoming Sachin one day.

The Sachin moments

Sachin enjoys God-like status in India

We are all thankful for them, aren’t we? The feeling of pride that filled our hearts when he walked out on anywhere in the world, be it Centurion or Trent Bridge or the SCG, and the entire multitude in the stadium stood up for an ovation – it’s not often that we feel that. Barring us, very few people have actually felt that. We Indians had probably got habituated to it, without realising the enormity of this honour that very few sportspersons in the world get, let alone cricketers.

It is a dream come true to see him bat, or walk out to bat, or bowl, or just field near the stand in which you are sitting. I personally have had the privilege of seeing a Sachin hundred live (against West Indies at the Eden Gardens, 2002), and it is a moment that will be etched in my heart forever. It is for these special moments that India and the world can’t thank him enough. No wonder #ThankYouSachin sounded so apt.

Almost all of us, be it Indians or not, have scorned the bowler who has got him out in the nineties. Almost all of us have prayed the while he has batted from the figure of 90 to the magical mark of three figures. Our prayers have been broken a lot as well (he has been dismissed in the nineties the most number of times), but they have been answered a lot more times than that.

At times, even his googlies with the ball that foxed the batsmen seemed more magical than the time specialist bowlers took wickets. His commitment while fielding, running like a kid along the boundary line with his hat on, just seemed perfect – just the way it was supposed to be.

Someone has rightly observed that time stopped when he batted. Obama claims to having watched him to figure out how his economy slowed down for the period of time he was on the crease. These times will be cherished for life, and we can be definitely sure that nobody else will gift us so much bliss.