“The secret of his success is that he thinks he is a student of the game. We call him the master. But he thinks he is a humble student of the game,” says Sunil Gavaskar.
There is a bit of a golfer in Sachin Tendulkar. He has started measuring the risk-reward ratio — what is the reward for a shot and what’s the risk.
You cut off the risk and you only have reward. The exuberance of youth is replaced by some cold-blooded calculation of the risk-reward ratio. Little wonder he is scoring runs in centuries.
This has been his best year in Tests. “The secret of his success is that he thinks he is a student of the game. We call him the master. But he thinks he is a humble student of the game,” says Sunil Gavaskar.
Unruffled composure over two decades, in the face of the world’s most hostile attacks and the frenzied demands of a celebrity-fixated society, confirms the true greatness of Tendulkar. For a man in his 38th year, Tendulkar’s appetite for runs remains the same. Some one called him the Jack Nicklaus of cricket. May be he can surpass WG Grace, who played international cricket in his 40s.
Tendulkar was predictably named Man of the Match and Man of the Series after the second Test against Australia but preferred to praise his teammates rather than talk about himself. When he did it was with humility and respect for his sport.
“I’ve played 20 years but that doesn’t mean that I know everything about cricket,” Tendulkar said. “It’s important to be a student of this game. That’s when you can actually learn and get better. Learning never stops.”
So, too, is his ability to remain unaffected either on or off the field by the relentless glare of public adulation which makes a private life impossible in his native India.
No hint of scandal has touched the man who last weekend became the first person to pass 14,000 Test runs in the second test against Australia and he remains the complete team player.
“It is about what I want to do for my team,” he said after scoring his sixth Test double hundred in 171 Tests and his 11th century against the team who have dominated cricket during his career.
“And I will not compromise on that.” Tendulkar has shown unqualified commitment to his team and his sport. The relentless demands of modern cricket have taken their toll and Tendulkar was troubled by injuries to his elbow and his shoulder and a slump in form in the middle of the last decade.
He rebounded to such effect that this year he was named the ICC Cricketer of the Year for the first time.
Tendulkar intends to play in next year’s World Cup, a tournament which all India fervently hopes will give their team the trophy for the first time since their upset victory over West Indies in 1983.
But pundits say he is preparing India for the future.
“My suspicion is that he dropped out of the ODI series — knowing that the team has to be built for the future. He has realised that there are other players who are capable of scoring a quick 50 which he is expected to do. And that this is the time for him to make sure that other players step up and take responsibility,” Harish Thawani, whose television company broadcasts India’s matches, told DNA.
Thawani thinks by skipping the ODIs against Australia, Tendulkar has given a clear signal to Indian cricket.
“The true greatness of a player is putting country before self. He is goading the players for an era in which he won’t be around. He is signalling to Indian cricket that it should be preparing for the future.
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