Sachin Tendulkar : The humble human being

Sachin after being dismissed for the final time

As the curtain falls on an illustrious and legendary career, where almost all hurdles have been crossed, numerous feats achieved, and most importantly where the respect and love of a billion people has been gained, Sachin Tendulkar will be etched in the memory of each and every cricket fan for at least a generation or two. Now, the achievements and accolades that Sachin has received throughout his career is well known and documented. The 34,000 odd runs he has scored, the highly revered 100 hundreds, having played in a staggering 200 test matches, becoming the first batsmen to score a double century in ODIs, the list can go on and on.

Let us look at the “mortal” Tendulkar and how the reticent young boy grew up to become the messiah of Indian Cricket and above all a wonderful human being.

Sachin was born on April 24, 1973 in Bombay, to a middle-class family where he was the youngest of four children. His father was a professor while his mother worked for a life insurance company. Incidentally Sachin was named after his family’s favorite music director, Sachin Dev Burman. Young Sachin first desired to be a fast bowler, which made him undertake trials at Chennai based MRF pace academy, but was rejected by the head of the Academy, Australian fast bowling legend Dennis Lillee. Dennis Lillee thought Sachin’s small stature would prove to be a major hindrance and rejected him straight away! Thank heavens Dennis thought so! When one hears of such instances, they will be compelled to believe in something called Destiny. But the desire of bowing fast remained deep inside Sachin. Sourav Ganguly in one of the post match analysis during Sachin’s 200^th match, commented that whenever Sachin was asked to bowl, he would instantly think of bowling seam up, while the team and Sourav wanted him to bowl the leg spinners!

Thankfully Sachin put behind his desire for fast bowling and pursued batting instead. As he himself said in his momentous farewell speech, his sister presented him with a Cricket bat at the age of 11. But, Sachin’s ability with the bat wasn’t recognized straight away. When Sachin’s brother Ajit Tendulkar spotted the zest and zeal within Sachin, he decided to take him to Mr. R. Achrekar, a renowned Cricket coach to nurture his talent. But as fate would have it Sachin failed to perform in the first go and Mr. Achrekar sent him back saying he wasn’t good enough. Apparently Sachin was very nervous on that day, which hindered his performance. But his brother Ajit wasn’t giving up so easily. He persuaded Mr. Achrekar to give Sachin another chance, to which Mr. Achrekar agreed. And the rest as they say is history.

It was also during this crucial phase, that Sachin’s father told him to freely pursue his dream. But, with it, he put a word of caution too. He told him to work hard and put in his sincere effort day in day out and to never take short cuts in life. It has to be said that Sachin’s family played a huge role in him being the person he is today. The values and principles instilled by his father stays with him even today. And as he said in his farewell speech, he is going to continue following these values and principles throughout his life. An example for this could be seen when Sachin bowed down in respect to the pitch at the Wankhede to pay his respects to the 22 yards that has shaped his life and made him what he is today.

Another example is when Robin Uthappa shared his experience when he was playing for Mumbai Indians in the first edition of the IPL. Apparently Uthappa was batting without his helmet on during the final over’s of the game (he was sporting his new hairdo at that time) and when he came back to the dressing room, Sachin had some harsh words for him, Uthappa revealed that Sachin told him to never take chances where he could get hurt seriously, which could jeopardize his career and ultimately it would be disrespectful for the game. Not sure if anybody has observed it, but Sachin always wore his helmet at all times irrespective of whether he was facing a fast bowler or a spinner, contrary to today’s batsmen who switch into their hats when spinners come onto bowl. What more can one say about Sachin’s ethics towards the game.

Another quality that is striking in Sachin is his humility. When Sachin came onto the grand stage and when his prominence among the Cricket fans rose, India was going through a tough phase economically. During this period, Sachin was seen as a symbol of hope by many Indians that better times lay ahead. His style of play which was aggressive and inventive resonated with the sport’s fans. His unassuming nature off the field is what made him seem humble and down to earth. Even with his increasing wealth, Sachin showed humility and refused to flaunt his money. As he himself mentioned in his farewell speech, he had clearly informed his manager that Cricket always comes first for him. It can also be observed that Sachin never endorsed any Alcohol or Tobacco brands or for that matter any product or service that posed a bad precedence to the population at large.

Another quality that is worth mentioning is Sachin’s calm demeanour during the course of a match. No matter how much the opposition tried to get on his nerves, he wouldn’t forget what his job was and promptly replied them with his superb Cricketing skills. Another aspect that needs to be highlighted about Sachin is that he never misses a chance to play for his Ranji team, Mumbai. When he officially announced his retirement from Test Cricket, he could have just concentrated on the two test series against the West Indies, but before that he chose to play for Mumbai against Haryana in their Ranji trophy tie. And to top it all up, he scored a brilliant 79 in the second innings and won the game for Mumbai. Most Crickets don’t usually think about playing one last domestic game before they retire from all forms of Cricket, but this is Sachin!

In the end, when the whole of India stood idle and listened to what may well become the most popular and revered farewell speeches of all time, when people couldn’t contain their heartfelt emotion and let the tears fall from their eyes, it was not just because of the records that Sachin holds, not because of the number of runs he has scored, not because of his 100 hundreds, but because of who Sachin was as a human being, the values that he stood for, his work ethics which will be remembered for years to come.

We the cricket fans are going to really miss the humble human being known as “Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar”.