Sachin Tendulkar: the little man who hit the big fellow for six

Sachin Tendulkar of India plays the ball to fine leg during the fifth One Day International match between India and Australia at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on November 5, 2009 in Hyderabad, India. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

People would argue that the Aussies, even without their legends, are never ever easy. Rightly so. On the other side, it was Sachin, almost 37, the time-defying legend. The guy with too much class for age to matter. It was evenly matched, some would say. The rest is history. I can never forget that night. Wickets tumbling at the other end, Sachin trying to bind any partnership possible while being on a single-handed quest to achieve the impossible.

It was like he was possessed. The lofty odds never bothered him. Nor did the conditions or the lack of proper support. He had just two decent partnerships and with those he took the game to the Aussies and turned their world upside down. I had never seen anything like it. Even I had lost hope. Even the most optimistic of fans had lost hope. Yet, like a little man dragging a sinking ship back to the surface all on his own, he kept on raging war. Goosebumps. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Some people still feel that heart-break when we talk of the game, but I had seen something much more than that to be bothered by or be sad about something that was the result of the ineptness of his fellow batsmen. I had seen the innings of my life-time. One man versus an army. Some would say the Desert Storm was better, others would say the Nairobi knock, or the 200. To each his own. The little man has a vault full of invaluable knocks that he has left to us to guard in our memories. It’s a massive task to just select one knock over the other.

“Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives.” - BBC

We all know how technically gifted he was. He has all the shots in the book and he was good enough to add some more to the book. Some would pick one shot of his over the other. Even my seven-year-old self did that. But as I grew older, I began to appreciate all his shots. And right now, although some shots would look better to the eye than the other, I’d say every shot of his is special. He has toned it down to perfection. He’s the absolute master of his craft.

For those who are more familiar with the football lingo, I’ll explain Sachin for you.

Imagine the legendary impact of an Eric Cantona fused with the legendary accomplishments of a Lionel Messi and you have your Sachin Tendulkar. He’s to India what Cantona was to Manchester United. He’s to India and cricket what Lionel Messi is to Barcelona and football. And he’s just one tiny little guy.

15 odd years have gone by and they still sing songs of Cantona at Old Trafford every week. They’ll never stop singing about him. He put the belief in the club, the team, that they can win. He led the way. By the time he left, the land of Premier League was red. He had forged an empire that is still going strong, 15 years later.

Messi will be a timeless legend, the stories of whose exploits will be passed on from generation to generation. He has often done the unthinkable and surpassed the unsurpassed, and he does it with elegance, with ease. There is no controversy, no drama, no desperate measure to seek attention from him. He has the footballing world at his feet.