Sachin Tendulkar: Cricket's glory, India's jewel

WANKHEDE STADIUM: In a fitting finale to what has been a glorious career, batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour on Saturday. This makes Sachin the first sportsperson to be bestowed with the honour.

Tendulkar joins the list of 41 eminent personalities to get the award given in recognition of exceptional service of the highest order since it was instituted in 1954.

Tendulkar, a former India Captain, was chosen for the prestigious award, as he bid adieu to international cricket after his farewell Test against the West Indies ended in Mumbai. The announcement was made by Rashtrapati Bhavan within hours of Tendulkar playing his 200th Test.

An official statement said Tendulkar has been a true Ambassador of India in the world of sports and his achievements in cricket are unparalleled, the records set by him unmatched, and the spirit of sportsmanship displayed by him exemplary.

“That he has been honoured with several awards is testimony to his extraordinary brilliance as a sportsman,” it said, noting that Tendulkar has played cricket across the world and won laurels for the country during the last 24 years since a young age of 16.

Earlier in the day, exactly 24 years after wiping the blood off his torn face on debut, Sachin Tendulkar finally wiped a tear or two away from his cheek on his retirement day.

It was monumental longevity of holding monumental emotions at bay —24 long years of not breaking down in any sphere of life — be it cricket, family, nation, team, injury or personal loss and despair.

“Goodbye”, he said simply after a 20-minute speech thanking everyone who accompanied him on his journey of more than two decades.

Over 25,000 people in the stadium, and a billion outside of it, cried along. His wife Anjali, his best partnership through life, sobbed uncontrollably. His children Arjun and Sara looked bemused but happy. Daddy had just promised them that he wouldn’t be missing any of their special moments from now on.

“Your chant of ‘Sachin, Sachin’ will be ringing in my ears till I am breathing,” he told his fans who had waited patiently as he took time in the dressing room to gather himself after India’s resounding innings victory against the Windies. Ecstatic chants followed instantly, and they just wouldn’t die down. But this time, he didn’t ask them to, like he had done while taking the microphone. It would be their last time, it would also be his last time - an unthinkable thought even when Sachin is 40 and moving on in age.

Cruel, isn’t it? How helpless you are against age and how helpless age is against time and time against an inevitable end.

Anjali would know best. She may be able to imagine cricket without Sachin, but can’t imagine Sachin without cricket. She says she has no idea what the family will do with Tendulkar pottering around the house - the same way as cricket lovers have no idea how they’ll deal with not having him in the middle, ever.

To call this prospect disconcerting would be an understatement, but today onwards it will be tested on Sachin the moment he wakes up in the mornings. Because starting today, he will never wear the Indian whites, he will never be in the Indian dressing room. Starting today, the greatest man to have graced the 22 yards after Don Bradman, has retired - despite the continuing ardour for and commitment to a game which breathed life into him, and he life into the game.

Rohit Sharma, like many others, is dreading the vacuum. “Now that we finally know he will not be with the team any more, we need to get over this very quickly, but I don’t know how we’re going to do it. It’s never going to be easy. Just an hour back you saw what happened at the ground, that shows what sort of a man he was, what he brought to Indian cricket,” he says.

“I kept looking at him my mind blank (when Sachin was giving his speech). I just wanted to get enough of Sachin Tendulkar,” Rohit gushed. Indeed, Rohit - just like Sachin Tendulkar would want to get enough of cricket.

Rohit was adjudged Man of the Series and Man of the Match in his inaugural Test series. But it was Sachin who remained the Man of the Moment - a deserving Bharat Ratna - a singularly impeccable cricketer and human being India ever had.

Ask the setting sun over the Wankhede pitch which he kissed goodbye, the receding sea outside it, ask the mother who fed him when he was tired and sleepy after practice, wife who bore his absence with grace, children who have grown up responsibly, sister who fasted for his success, Dhoni and mates who did a lap with him on their shoulders, supporters who never left him alone, the game which made him and the internal reserve that defined him. Farewell Sachin, you will never be an ex for us. 

Source: The Pioneer, November 17, 2013