After Sachin, who?

"I have never seen a batsman as dedicated to his craft as Tendulkar and his longevity is apt reflection of that. I am sure he has a lot more to offer to Indian cricket."

(October 13, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Long before he scored his 6th double century in Tests on Tuesday, Sachin Tendulkar had been declared a national treasure by his fans who are as ageless as his batting. While many greats have enjoyed their fantastic years in the game, Sachin has lasted the full course.

Indian cricket may throw up more precocious talents like Cheteswar Pujara who was one year old when Sachin made his Test debut. Among young and established batsmen, the likes of Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Abhinav Mukund, Ajinkya Rahane and Saurabh Tiwary have it in them to shine in the new era in which T-20 cricket has a big place.

However, no batsman is, perhaps, destined to scale the heights Sachin has attained if only because they are likely to lose the focus even if they have a clear example in the master batsman to follow in how to fall in love with the game and stay with it for a whole career. Cricketers will come and go but there will have been only one Sachin. That’s one certainty in a highly uncertain game.

What makes his achievements even more special is the fact that in an era of distractions — money, women, wine, recreational drugs aplenty — he has not been guilty of breaching the basic code of cricket. Many have fallen to temptation, with someone like Yuvraj Singh actually going out of the way to advise today’s youngsters of the perils of desires in a recent interview.

In his 21st year in international cricket, at the age of 37, Sachin boasts a Bradman-like Test average close to 100 this year. The great fear at this time is will Indian cricket, no cricket itself, ever see a player like him again? His diehard fans will be pleased that no one will ever match some of his feats like 49 Test centuries (and counting), 46 ODI hundreds (and counting), aggregate runs in the international game beyond 30,000 and so on.

Those who have watched as close as is humanly possible every ball that he has faced for India, cannot stop admiring his commitment levels. “His basic technique is so simple and straight. He rarely hits across the line, which means his eyesight and footwork are not stretched to make up time to get to the ball. It’s amazing how he is able to visualise his innings even as he is beginning to play,” says longtime cricket aficionado, R. Venkatesh.

Remarkably, Sachin has always been a symbol of nationalism, with fans tending to identify with him regardless of whether he is turning out for India, Mumbai Indians or Mumbai. He is a true pan national icon. Even Kapil Dev who said Sachin has not played to his true potential when he completed 20 years last November, is inclined to agree that the little master is more of a complete batsman now. “He made 200 in an ODI after I said he had not realized his full potential. He has so much more to achieve even now” Kapil explains.

"I have never seen a batsman as dedicated to his craft as Tendulkar and his longevity is apt reflection of that. I am sure he has a lot more to offer to Indian cricket," concurs G.R. Viswanath who in his time was one of Indian cricket’s greatest batsmen. His fans who equate him to the God of cricket are convinced that he will remain singular in his weight of achievements and that none will surpass the many records he will leave behind. “I can’t imagine watching cricket after he retires. Even if I go on watching it because it is a habit now, somehow I suspect things will not be the same again,” says a long time fan, S. Ramesh.

When fit, Sachin is not known to have skipped practice or training sessions or chosen his matches or tours until physical fitness problems intervened to thrust some discretion in most recent times. That India became the No.1 Test team and, briefly, also No. 1 in ODIs may also have helped refresh his motivation after years on the treadmill of drills at grounds, lonely evenings at hotels and seemingly endless flights. Of the two men who have also lasted the course in their own way with a mountain of runs to show for their efforts – Ricky Ponting (12,250 Test runs and 13,072 ODI runs) and Rahul Dravid (11,581 Test runs and 10,765 ODI runs) – only Ponting can boast of having figured in a team that won three World Cups.

This year has been one of his finest years, a season in which he also became the first batsman to score 200 in a one-day international, feats that helped him land the ICC Cricketer of the Year award for the first time. But the one big gem missing in his collection is a World Cup victory. If Sachin is yet to achieve that, at least it gives him a great motivation to staying on course for one last attempt at the Himalayan ODI achievement in 2011.