Adios Sachin!!

Longevity at the highest level can only be achieved by a culmination of several different factors and work ethics always tops them all. I was always impressed by Sachin's work ethics and what surprised me the most was, for a guy who is considered naturally gifted by many greats of the game, he never took anything for granted and was always working on improving his game. He inspired almost an entire generation and he had an lasting impact on most kids who grew up in post liberalization period. As a matter of fact, most of his contemporary Indian cricketers were inspirational both on and off the field(Dravid, Kumble, Srinath & Laxman). As any other kid from my generation, I too started watching cricket from the 1996 World Cup in Asia. The quarter finals against Pakistan was where it all started and one must thank Ajay Jadeja for the sparkling innings. Australia's tour to India and how he methodically took on Shane Warne is still fresh in memory. The consequent desert storm innings in Sharjah 1998 had made me an ardent fan of Sachin and during India's tour to Australia he was the last man standing and gave the Aussies a run for their money(though India had horrible tour). It's a loss to the game that Sachin couldn't shine as a captain as his tactical nous about the game is second to none. Apart from the minor glitch during 2007 world cup, his performance was above par to excellent in almost all global tournaments. Another thing that amazes me is Sachin Tendulkar volunteered to open the innings in ODI cricket at the age of 20(somewhere around March 1994). He was able to analyze ODI cricket and foresee where the limited overs cricket is heading and made sure that he was in the best position to capitalize.I had always enjoyed the way in which he took over the bowlers who had an upper hand earlier(Shane Warne, Shoaib Akhtar, Ajantha Mendis to name a few).

Post the 2007 CWC debacle, when there were many calls for his head, I am glad that he stuck around and firmly believe that the world cup victory in 2011 would not be possible without his contributions/experience. He was ready to grind it out for the team and the semi-final against Pakistan was for me the most ugly innings he had played till that point in time. The flamboyance we generally see oozing out of him was nowhere to be seen and he was dropped 4-5 times before eventually being dismissed. He really took one for the team and gutted it out. Also, a year before that, he scored a scintillating double hundred(200*)  when the world was predicting the Sehwags and Gayles to reach there.

The most important trait that I can attribute for the success of Sachin is his adaptability. The raw aggression with which he played in his early twenty's was replaced with a shrewd risk-assessment of the the game and playing a risk free game as much as possible. He not only changed  his game to how cricket evolved over the last 23-24 years but he still is hungry for more.  Such insatiable hunger should see him scale great heights in test cricket too.

For a man known for timing his shots, I think he might he missed a beat when it came to retiring. Personally, for a man of his stature I think he should have retired from limited overs cricket post  CWC 2011(a month or so after the win) instead of the limp exit we witnessed. I really hope he goes out on an high from test cricket.

PS: This post was a long due one and I always wanted to write about Sachin ever since CWC 2011. I had enough impetus in the last one week or so to get me back into writing and hopefully more posts should follow suit in 2013.

Photo Credits:

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