The star of Indian Cricket, more like a GOD in India, Sachin Tendulkar, is the Best Batsman in the World Today, and perhaps the finest ever. He possesses all the strokes in the book, and is probably the best cutter and straight driver of the ball today. He is very deft on his feet, even to the best of pace bowlers, and the deceptive flight of Shane Warne and Saqlain Mushtaq. He has scored 28 centuries, in ODIs  and 26 in Test Matches, which happens to be the best in the history of the game and his ever-growing aggregate of 100s in both forms of the game [50+] is also a world record. Only 27 yrs. of age, Tendulkar has to once again shoulder the responsibility of being the mantle of Indian team as he simply able to dominates any fearsome attcks of bowling . Tendulkar averages well over 40 in ODIs and over 50 in Tests.

Tendulkar is a batsman who does not like to be kept quiet, in tests or in one dayers. He always wants to dominate the bowlers, and he does an excellent job of it. His strike rate in One Dayers is over 88 per 100 balls, which is superb to say the least. He is an excellent hitter of the ball- he uses one of the heaviest bats- and he holds the record for most sixes by an Indian in a one dayer- 7 sixes !
His technique is impeccable, he packs trmendous power and strength into his short, stocky frame, and his ability to time the ball is exemplary, making him the most dreaded batsman in ODI cricket. He is also an effective slog over bowler. Tendulkar is also one of the best fielders in the world.
He has also won the Coopers and Lybrand Award for Player of the Year in June 1998, backed by an amazing 40% of almost 5000 votes cast during an online survey . He has also climbed to the no.1 spot in the very important and prestigious Wisden Cricket ratings based in his test performances in the last two years, scoring at an average of above 57 in 26 tests.

 
                                                      He stands alone on one-day cricket's Mount Olympus. Ten thousand runs, 28 centuries, a catalogue of
                                                      achievement that may never be matched - in our lifetime or any other...

                                                      In hindsight, it's almost impossible to believe that it took Sachin Tendulkar five years
                                                      and 79 matches to score his first limited overs century (against Australia at Colombo).
                                                      It was an innings of unparalleled brilliance at Eden Park, Auckland against New Zealand,
                                                      a few months earlier that had set the tone for the explosion that would follow. Till that
                                                      day, Tendulkar had batted in the middle order, coming in at number four or five. The
                                                      team management's experiment to open with the little maestro in order to make the
                                                      most of the fielding restrictions in the initial overs turned out to be an inspired one. It
                                                      not only won the match for the Indians but also utterly transformed Tendulkar's
                                                      One-day career. Till then, he had only shown glimpses of his undoubted class in the
                                                      shorter version of the game. An average of 30.84 might be considered respectable by
                                                      most, but it did little justice to a player of his quality.

                                                      Then, Eden Park happened. He blazed away to make 82 runs from a mere 49 balls. The
                                                      bowlers had no idea what hit them, looking this way and that as perfectly decent deliveries were sent crashing
                                                      into the boundary hoardings. After that little blitzkrieg, there was never really any question of Tendulkar
                                                      dropping back down the order. Barring the occasional tactical decision to drop down (it has happened just 18
                                                      times since then), Tendulkar has always led the Indian charge for runs. As his astonishing record shows, it is a
                                                      role that he seems to revel in - 196 innings since that fateful day in Auckland have produced 8265 runs, at an
                                                      incredible average of 46.17. He has made 28 hundreds and 36 fifties, a mind-boggling ratio of close to one
                                                      score over 50 every three games.

                                                      The 10,000th run at Indore put him in a class all his own, the first man ever to scale the Mount Everest of
                                                      one-day cricket.  On one occasion, he told, "Before, when I was batting lower down the order, I would usually
                                                      come in after the 30th over or so and  the situation demanded that I had to go for my shots from the start.
                                                     Once I started opening, that changed. It's   up to you to take the initiative early on. If you don't, the bowling
                                                      team will. When I open, I can pace myself  better and try to make sure I bat through the 50 overs."

                                                      It seems almost funny to think of it now, but there was actually a time in the not too distant past when the
                                                      master had to share the limelight with the likes of Saeed Anwar, Mark Waugh and the mercurial genius of Brian
                                                      Lara. The magnificent foursome was bunched together in pursuit of Desmond Haynes' record of 17 One-day
                                                      international hundreds. Perhaps the endless debates over who was the best irked Tendulkar. We can't be sure
                                                      of that, but we do know that he stepped up a gear or two to leave the others choking on the smoke from his
                                                      exhaust.

                                                      Tendulkar prefers not to dwell on past glories though. "I don't really think too much about what I've achieved
                                                      so far or what lies ahead. I prefer to focus on the present. I'm happiest when I can make runs and help the
                                                      Indian team win matches. There's no point just sitting back and saying that I've scored a certain number of
                                                      hundreds. There are always new challenges."

                                                      These days, no one with even half a brain would question his status as the best there is. Perhaps only the
                                                      legendary Sir Vivian Richards was as destructive a One-day batsman as Sachin has shown himself to be over
                                                      the past few seasons. Saeed Anwar said it all really after passing Haynes' mark in Nairobi recently. "I'm not
                                                      chasing Sachin," he said. Regardless of whether he meant it or not, the fact is that no one is even within
                                                      sniffing distance of Mumbai's favourite son. The past three seasons alone have seen him make more centuries
                                                      (16) than most players can even dream of, leave alone emulate.

                                                      Barry Richards attributes Sachin's greatness to a combination of factors. "He's light on his feet, sees the ball
                                                      really early and is always looking to dominate the bowling. He's the type of player who looks to stamp his
                                                      authority on the game from the very first delivery he faces. There are lots of guys that score heavily but few
                                                      show Sachin's eagerness to dominate. In that respect, there are shades of Viv Richards in his batting. Having
                                                      said that, they are completely different players. Viv used to muscle the ball away, play with a real flourish,
                                                      whereas Sachin is smaller and more compact, more orthodox in his strokeplay. Both men though have terrific
                                                      hand speed while executing their strokes." Considering that Barry Richards once made 325 runs in a day and
                                                      knew a thing or two about dominating the bowlers, that's high praise indeed.

                                                      Despite having gone through a relatively lean patch after the Carlton and United series in Australia in 1999/00,
                                                      he still averages just under 50 over the last three years (99 matches). When he gets it right, it's worth going
                                                      thousands of miles to see it. People have paid millions of dollars for the paintings of Van Gough and Picasso,
                                                      whilst the songs of Lennon and McCartney still generate millions by way of copyright revenue. Temperamentally
                                                      though, Tendulkar is no Picasso. The Basque was quite a character, so cocksure of his genius that he painted
                                                      the words, Yo El Roy (I the King) on his forehead in a self-portrait.

                                                      The pocket dynamo from Mumbai has let his weighty willow do the talking for him. Over the last six years or so,
                                                      it's been a one-sided conversation. The bowlers must hate it by now, though some of them would secretly
                                                      admit to admiring the `eloquence' of his willow talk.

                                                      Michael Holding, `Whispering Death' during his playing days, says Sachin is an extremely difficult batsman to
                                                      bowl to because "he's technically very correct. He always seems calm and collected, in control of the situation.
                                                      He doesn't panic even when the team loses early wickets and he has to do the job more or less on his own.
                                                      That's his greatest strength."

                                                      Like Barry Richards says, there have been many batsmen who have accumulated runs by the thousands. Few
                                                      though have the ability to turn a match on its head like Sachin does. Of the 28 tons that Tendulkar has scored
                                                      with his unique combination of blistering power and grace, 21 have resulted in Indian victories. That's a success
                                                      rate of 75 percent and it just serves to emphasise how much of a team man Tendulkar is.

                                                      We live in a skewed world where it has become almost fashionable to take pot-shots at genius. It stems from a
                                                      feeling of one's own inadequacy and pure jealousy. In a way, it's sad because genius is a rare commodity,
                                                      something to be treasured. Perhaps the cynics will only realise Tendulkar's true worth when he calls it a day.
                                                      Then they will look back and shake their heads with wonder at everything that he achieved. He has done
                                                      enough already to go down in the history books as his generation's premier batsman. Only the hopeless
                                                      sentimentalist who completely disregards facts would place the likes of Lara ahead of him.

                                                      Steve Waugh, Tendulkar's biggest rival in Test cricket, put it very simply when he said that the little man was
                                                      `second only to Bradman'. I remember meeting some Australian fans in Bangalore (March 1998) after Australia
                                                      had beaten India to salvage some pride after a series in which Tendulkar had put them to the sword. One fan,
                                                      nursing his beer and his wounded pride, told me, "No matter what you say, mate, I still think we're the best
                                                      team in the world. But I'll grant you this, that little fella Tendulkar is different class. He's simply awesome. We've
                                                      heard stories about Bradman, for sure. But I honestly can't imagine anyone batting better than Tendulkar has in
                                                      this series. The very thought's scary, isn't it?"

                                                      Scary, yes. And wonderful too if you happen to be an Indian cricket fan. And what's more, there's plenty more
                                                      to come from India's version of the Ferrari. There are many more laps to go in this race, and you can take it for
                                                      granted that when he drives past the chequered flag, he would have left the others several laps behind. Alan
                                                      Sillitoe wrote a wonderful story once about the loneliness of the long distance runner. Sachin Tendulkar would
                                                      certainly know what that feels like. Having redefined the parameters for excellence in the One-day game, the
                                                      only challenge ahead of him now is how far he wants to stretch the boundaries.

     Hey,..... He is not yet finished... His bests are yet to come.... So watch out....
 

Last updated on 2nd April 2001
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