Sachin Tendulkar may be turning into an old man by numbers, certainly old by sportsman's standards at thirty-eight years of age. But he is perhaps the most hungry cricketer that the world is privileged to witness, which is why perhaps cricket cannot afford the vacuum of his absence.
sachin tendulkar world cup trophy
What rule book in the world says that a sportsperson should not carry on if he is able to outclass men in his league, who is able to change the game's history and continue to challenge his own record?
If one needs to imagine what Sachin Tendulkar is to cricket, perhaps a Formula One can relate to the Michael Schumacher factor in the sport. The retirement of the seven time champion left the field wide open for new leaders to spring, and while the likes of Sebastien Vettel have been able to more than upstage the likes of Lewis Hamilton, the overwhelming favourite to take over the sport, it has failed to create quite the same aura, aggressiveness and passion for the sport.
Perhaps tennis fans would understand that the absence of Sachin Tendulkar as the absence of grace, finesse, subtlety and traditional rivalry only to be replaced by power hitters since the likes of Steffi Graf have moved on and the game was deprived of traditional serve and volley players such as Stefan Edberg, Patrick Rafter, Michael Stich or Goran Ivanisevic. Only Roger Federer can still claim some bastion over the art.
Sachin Tendulkar is a rare entity in the sport with the ability to combine power and aggressiveness with sublime execution. And to do it over a consistent period of twenty-two years of international cricket, is not for the faint hearted. Yet Tendulkar is the the world's leading run scorer in both Tests (14,692 runs) and one-day internationals (18,111 runs).
Having recently been a part of the Indian cricket team to win the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and scoring heavily with the bat with 582 runs, it is hard to imagine that Tendulkar continues to be interested about the game, enough to not contemplate retirement. With an increasingly audacious display with the bat, birthdays for Sachin Tendulkar are about the numbers, but only about the runs.
(Republished with permission)
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