When he became the first
batsman to score 50 hundreds in international cricket, Sachin Tendulkar
established himself as the greatest of all Indian cricketers. Recognised
by Sir Donald Bradman as his modern incarnation, Tendulkar has a skill
- a genius - which only a handful have possessed. It was not a skill
that he was simply born with, but one which was developed by his intelligence
and an infinite capacity for taking pains. If there is a secret, it
is that Tendulkar has the keenest of cricket minds. At times in a Test
series he looks mortal. But he learns every lesson, picks up every cue,
dominates the opposing attack sooner or later, and nearly always makes
a hundred. His bravery was proved after he was hit on the head on his
Test debut in Pakistan, when he was only 16; and his commitment to the
Indian cause has never been in doubt. If captaincy - or rather the off-field
management of men less skilled than himself - was beyond him at his
first attempt, his reading of the game, and his manifold varieties of
bowling, have shown the same acute intelligence. His cricket has been
played in the right way too, always attacking, and because he knew that
was the right way rather than because he was a child of the one-day
age, as he himself modestly said. The awe of opponents was as great
as that of crowds. But the finest compliment must be that bookmakers
would not fix the odds - or a game - until Tendulkar was out.
When he became the first
batsman to score 50 hundreds in international cricket, Sachin Tendulkar
established himself as the greatest of all Indian cricketers. Recognised
by Sir Donald Bradman as his modern incarnation, Tendulkar has a skill
- a genius - which only a handful have possessed. It was not a skill
that he was simply born with, but one which was developed by his intelligence
and an infinite capacity for taking pains. If there is a secret, it
is that Tendulkar has the keenest of cricket minds. At times in a Test
series he looks mortal. But he learns every lesson, picks up every cue,
dominates the opposing attack sooner or later, and nearly always makes
a hundred. His bravery was proved after he was hit on the head on his
Test debut in Pakistan, when he was only 16; and his commitment to the
Indian cause has never been in doubt. If captaincy - or rather the off-field
management of men less skilled than himself - was beyond him at his
first attempt, his reading of the game, and his manifold varieties of
bowling, have shown the same acute intelligence. His cricket has been
played in the right way too, always attacking, and because he knew that
was the right way rather than because he was a child of the one-day
age, as he himself modestly said. The awe of opponents was as great
as that of crowds. But the finest compliment must be that bookmakers
would not fix the odds - or a game - until Tendulkar was out.