Sachin Tendulkar: How a mortal man with an exceptional gift turned into a god for his fans(Part-2)

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Tendulkar and the television wave

By the time Hayden made his comment in 2001, Tendulkar had reached the pinnacle of popularity by riding this fantastic wave. But, it will neither be just nor honest to attribute his rise to demi-god-hood to the television revolution. The revolution took place, but Tendulkar climbed to that level of deification through his deeds.
 
The period from the 1996 World Cup to the end of the Australian tour in 2001 can be taken as a five year period of transition during which cricket changed from an immensely popular sport to one with a fanatical following. And during this time, Sachin Tendulkar had no rival as a batsman across the world. All of his dominance was seen on the television. Indians had never witnessed someone of their own stride so far beyond anyone else in the sporting world.
 
Gavaskar did have claims to being one of the best batsmen of the world, but the mantle was generally reserved for Viv Richards. Those who went by figures also put Javed Miandad and Greg Chappell at par. But, here was Tendulkar way, way ahead of the field. When he played those cover drives off the backfoot or those imperious pull shots with a quick swivel in those halcyon days of the 1990s, every viewer realised that he was seeing something uncanny, something exceptional. Be it the desert storms at Sharjah, or the Test hundreds at Birmingham ’96, Cape Town ’97, Chennai ’98, Chennai ‘99 or Melbourne ’99, the story was always of genius unfolding. No Indian batsman had reached the top of the batting charts by dominating the best of bowlers in this way. And the television channels beamed each and every stroke, taking them to every cricket-loving home in India.
 
To put the difference between Tendulkar and the rest of the batsmen in this period in perspective, it makes sense to look at some data. During those five years between World Cup 1996 and Australian tour of India 2001, Tendulkar scored 11,204 runs in international cricket with 41 centuries! The closest rival in terms of runs was more than 2000 runs and 17 centuries behind him. The nearest in terms of centuries was 18 behind. In Tests, his average was 60.52, with no one else above 55. In ODIs, he combined an average of 46 with a strike rate of 89. No one came close. Brian Lara, his rival for the batting throne most of his career, trailed him by more than 20 runs an innings in Test cricket.


World Cup 1996 to 2000-2001 season – Tests
 

World Cup 1996 to 2000-2001 season – ODIs
 

Contrary to popular belief, during this period when his reputation was sealed, Tendulkar actually led the Test field by a greater margin than the ODI scene.

And just for the sake of demonstrating the difference in the level of quality the viewers saw in these five transitional years, let me combine the two formats.

In Tests and ODIs combined from 1996-2001 what the viewers saw on Television
 

It is not for nothing that most cricketers of that era believe that Tendulkar is by far the best batsman they ever witnessed.

Tendulkar continued without a rival till first his lower back and then his tennis-elbow affliction bore the strain of continuous cricket. The effects of playing 166 ODIs in five years, helping the Board rake in the television profits.

God he certainly was not, but he was indeed streets ahead of his fellow men. And during this transition phase, the television channels beamed his exploits without a pause. People accepted him as the platonic ideal of batsmanship, an established master of the art. And this was the Tendulkar whose fan-following had perplexed Hayden into uttering those oft-repeated words.

After 2003, Tendulkar went through that phase of recuperation, a phase during which he was no more the best in the world. But, by then he was already the biggest icon the cricket world had ever seen. A genius who came riding on satellite channels. His aura had already been etched. And there it would remain.

There was a second wind in the story of his greatness. He made his way back to the top in 2007 and for four years ruled world cricket yet again. He got 23 centuries during this period, 16 of them in Tests and seven in ODIs. During this period he was perhaps more impregnable as a batsman.

However, I do wonder whether he would have kindled the same fervour if he had entered the television as the compiler rather than destroyer. The excitement of domination was absent. And indeed, if Tendulkar had come to the fore in 2007, the radiance of his halo could have been dimmer. That has nothing to do with the quality of his batsmanship. He would not have coasted as the best in the world on the initial impetus of satellite television transmitting the images from every venue of the world.

Yes, Tendulkar benefitted from the sports channels and the television revolution, which allowed a cricket-crazy nation to watch every game ball by ball. Even the matches played far away that they had earlier reverse-engineered from clippings, newspaper pieces and often exaggerated reports.

But, the status of the near-divine batsman was achieved through his genius, by virtue of being far ahead of the rest of the field.

(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twiter.com/senantix)