Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography: The greatest story ever sold

“I knew that agreeing to write my story would need me to be completely honest, as that’s the way I have always played the game. It would require talking about a number of aspects I have not shared in public before. So here I am, at the end of my final innings, having taken that last walk back to the pavilion, ready to recount as many incidents as I can remember since first picking up a cricket bat as a child in Mumbai 35 years ago.”

These words gave a huge number of fans possibly a last whiff at another fix of a drug whose reserves were close to cessation. A year after the biggest retirement in Indian sporting history, an account of his version will be available for the public. 

As the most anticipated autobiography hits the stands come November the 6th, there is, as expected, a lot of blather and blither about the revelations. Everyone who has ever had anything to do with Indian cricket has her or his list of questions they seek answers to. Some of them are writing about what they expect Sachin to answer through the book; one person – H Natarajan, has written about the intriguing questions or rather controversies Sachin was supposedly close to or amidst, and hence there is a feeling of his duty to speak on those. 

Another has written a list of things not to expect from the book. Thankfully, there is an overlap to some degree with the topics in both these articles. So, one thing is certain that the list of ‘controversies’ is pretty unchanged and common across all sects of fans – The usual nine yards of Kambli, Mike Denness, Kapil, Ferrari, Multan, Chappell, Monkey-gate, the hundredth 100 and timing of the retirement. 
The stake-less fan though, probably has a different list. A fan, that grew up with Sachin – one who was a toddler in ’89 and a voter by ’01, who had his/her first break-up in ’99 and was married by ’07. 

So, here is yet another list. We all talk about the anecdotes of brilliance without a care for their veracity, from the ‘Mai Khelega’ to ‘Upar se de’; from the Jeremy Snape anecdote to helping Neil McKenzie, the relationship with Yuvraj and Harbhajan; the ups and downs, the regrets and jubilations, 136 at Chennai and 175 at Hyderabad - but transcending all that, is our love for him for the person he is. Old and young, girls and boys, aristocrats and the blue collars, business moguls to the unemployed and retired all alike have tethered their emotions to him over 24 years, and that is not just because he scored 100 of those beautiful bat-raising things. It is because, each and every individual found something of theirs in him. They felt that they owned a part of him, and he too knew that. 

A common thread tying the fans’ adoration for Sachin, from pundits to the Puneri mother, is the story of inspiration and dedication – of romance, hope and faith. One of his most ardent fans and an exquisite writer, owing to whom Sachin breached the visual boundary and became one whom you could not only watch but keep reading about is Harsha Bhogle, and in one of his articles Harsha writes about the strength of faith in the words – “Sachin ahey na, mag theek ahe.”. 

When did he know?
Surely, we can understand what he must have gone through after the biggest hype was looking to die out a very premature death, but, when did he well and truly know that this was his calling and the only thing that made sense to him? When did he know that he will be the ‘Special One’? When did he know that joys of a billion people depended on him? When did he know that a nation’s sleep depended on his batting?

How did he overcome the exuberance of youth in forgiving the wrong decisions and injustice? 
Will he ever be able to forgive Steve Bucknor? We know that we probably might ever not. Yes, bad decisions are a part of the game, but, since he claims to be human, doesn’t it affect him more than he shows it does?  

Does he like the cover drive more or the on-drive?
Pictures and paintings of thousand words we have seen, but a thousand words are not enough to describe that cracking sound and a photographer’s symphony his bat makes when he drives. Did he pose for just a moment longer when he drove it to the boundary?

Has he sledged?
The sane ones, had it figured out very early, that trying to get under his skin was like standing on a rodeo bull – leave apart the Caddicks and a few Aussies. But, did he give it back with his mouth? Never? In the age of the anti-hero, surely there are fans who wish he sledged back.

Does he feel that his hard work is underappreciated owing to the attributing of genius?
300 balls per hour for a Ranji Trophy game after 198 Tests speak of one thing, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious hard work. Ravi Shastri’s most famous comment could be twisted to mean that everything Sachin managed to achieve was pretty much expected, considering his genius, but doesn’t he feel that attributing everything to genius, means belittling his work ethic? Yes, there are advocates who keep on stressing on his work ethic but how many of us listen to them rationally?  

Does he prefer a coaching or an administrative job post retirement?
He can’t possibly have nothing to do with cricket anymore. So, what role does he see himself in another 10 years? A coaching job doesn’t seem the best option, since he demands his level of genius and work ethic from everyone – divine interventions don’t come about so frequently. 

What advice would he give a bowler bowling against him?
Stories there are, in abundance, of him having helped numerous batsmen from all over the world to deal with the best bowlers in the business, but what would he advise the bowlers? How does he explain the sheer control that would have gone into not getting out to the Cronje-Fannie-midwicket combination again and Brad Hogg the second time?

In the pre-Ganguly era, how did he deal with the frustration of losses in spite of his performance being at a peak?
What was his vent for the frustration of losses or didn’t he have any frustration? He has been vocal about his happiness in the dressing room in the second half of his career, but, how did he deal with the first half, when most youth find a reason to crib at every minor nudge to their expectations? 

Who understood him better, John Wright or Gary Kirsten?
The team and him both, flourished under these two brilliant coaches, but who according to him harnessed his potential and met his needs the most?

How does he plan to fulfill the surfeit of expectations that won’t die just because he has retired?
This is the most important of them all. He already faced flak about the Rajya Sabha anointment and the Bharat Ratna, none of which was demanded or even requested. Things that are bequeathed come with an unconditional and never ending fine print.

René Descartes in his letter to Princess Elizabeth says – “It would ill become me to flatter, or to give expression to anything of which I had no certain knowledge, especially in the first pages of a work in which I aim at laying down the principles of truth. The generous modesty that is conspicuous in all your actions, assures me that the frank and simple judgment of a man who only writes what he believes will be more agreeable to you than the ornate laudations of those who have studied the art of compliment. For this reason, I will give insertion to nothing in this letter for which I have not the certainty both of experience and reason; and in the exordium, as in the rest of the work, I will write only as becomes a philosopher.”

To call stumps on the article, what the purest fan expects from ‘Playing it my way’, is the above with replacement of the words truth with sport and philosopher with sportsman.