Seems Sachin’s been at it again. After what I wrote yesterday, it might seem that an experienced Indian batsman making a century would be the last thing I’d expect. But the Little Master deserves different treatment from Dravid or Ganguly, in my eyes at least.
In much the same way that I was keen for Brian Lara to play on for as long as possible in all forms of the game, I would hate to see Tendulkar retire. He is, almost literally, a talisman for Indian cricket, much as Lara was for the West Indies. His mere presence is enough to strike fear into the hearts of any bowling attack – even Australia’s. If an old head is needed in Indian cricket, I would much rather it was Tendulkar’s than Dravid’s or especially Sourav “Prince of Wales” Ganguly’s.
And as for Dravid and Ganguly, those fine batsmen who any team would be mad to get rid of? They got 25 runs between them in the first innings.
Hello,
Ooh, this blog is brand new.
It’s not just for Indians that he’s talismanic. I know already that I’m going to get incredibly emotional when he retires. Some of my earliest cricketing memories involve Sachin on the England tour in 1990, which was when I first really got into cricket – in particular a catch that he took after running what seemed like halfway round the field, and the match-saving 100 at age 17 at Old Trafford. I was not many years younger than him then, and he’s such a link to my childhood and my discovery of cricket, he’s been around in cricket for as long as I can remember. I don’t know what I would have thought then if you’d said to me that he would still be playing 17 years later at the highest level when I was a proper grown-up. Even then, from the commentary that I can still remember as clear as day, I knew that everyone thought he was something special, and I feel lucky and privileged to have been around to see him. I can’t imagine how exciting it must be for, for example, the young Indian quicks, who must have grown up worshipping him, to be playing alongside him.
The thing is, he knows that he means this to billions of people, this has been his life since a teenager, and yet he deals with it. What a guy.
Sorry, I think this might be longer than the original post.
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