CRICKET BEYOND SACHIN TENDULKAR !

                                         The Irrefutable fact is that, the first and the foremost sporting hero that any Indian kid born during the early 90’s would have known is Sachin Tendulkar. You can never deny this fact, either you love him more now or you don’t. As a kid and a teenager, I watched all his games closely and that’s where all my dreams started. I watched Tendulkar on TV and have thought many a time that I want to be like him, one day playing for India. It will never happen and it is too late, that I couldn’t chase the dream and I end up writing this commendation for him. The passion and love for Tendulkar kept growing more and more as and when I grew older which eventually mutated me into an avid cricket fan.

The kid that carried the hopes of a billion Indians for more than 23 years!

                             
During my childhood as an ardent sachin aficionado, I have emulated him many a times. May it be sticking the Hand written “MRF” paper to the pad and the locally made bat which I used or may it be adjusting the crotch guard just like the very same way he does or may it be sticking number “10” on the back of my T-Shirts while playing and what not ? He has influenced my life to such an extent, that I have hypostatized myself as Sachin, solitarily in my terrace, spent a lot of time padding up just like him, playing all those stunning straight drives, flamboyant flicks and those pleasing paddle sweeps. I did soliloquize and commentate those dreamed-up shots in the air and have conquered many imaginary victories most particularly against Pakistan wherein sachin has never scored anything less than a three figure mark.

The Jersey that can never ever be replaced !

It has been more than 18 years now, ever since I started adoring this little man, the love and the respect for sachin hasn’t changed at all instead it grows more and more.

And They said the Master  played for his personal records !  

                 

                “While I was a kid, I did cry out to my dad and mom

                   When India and Sachin failed to perform,

                   Gone are those childhood and teen ages,

                   I still have the same passion towards sachin

                   And India but in a self-restrained manner,

                   Now I won’t cry out or sob when he gets out or

                   When India is on the brink of defeat,

                   Because they call me a man,

                    When people and my friends start scathing sachin,

                     I pretend as if I don’t care for it, but the pain

                     Within Still grows badly, Then I say it to myself

                     My sachin will prove them all wrong as

                     There is always a Next time,

                     People and critics haven’t taught him his

                     Cricket, they will never know

                     What his body and his mind are up to,

                      People writing off a champion like sachin

                      Just like that, has created a revulsion in me,

                      He is just a mere human like you and I,

                      His lean patches doesn’t mean that he has 

                      Faded and perished, for all that people have

                      Spoke about him, the day is not so far when

                      He will revive back to class

                      With an extraordinary resilience,

                      I know the master will never let me down,

                      Waiting for that moment wherein

                      The master will look into the sky,

                       With his head and willow high,

                        Kissing the Indian flag carved in his

                       Helmet again, to prove them all wrong in the tests!

The Picture Says it all !

 Yes we can’t help him rejuvenate or reverse his aging process. Sachin is getting older just like you and I and I agree he is in his crossroads; the sooner he will be hanging his boots and calling it quits from all the forms of cricket. For all the joys, jigs, excitements, sore throats, innumerable patriotic and those proudest moments he has given us being an Indian all these days, we all need not show a pinch of gratitude although it won’t be sufficient for what all he has done us, but at least we should have not been writing him off.

                        

                               

Cricket has had greats, cricket has had phenomenon’s: it has had legends but it will never have another Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, whose every single run from the willow has been a history. No human can ever surpass these records: 23 years, 463 matches, 18246 runs, 49 centuries, 96 fifties, highest of 200*, an average of 44.83, 21367 balls faced, a strike rate of 86.23, 2016 boundaries, 195 sixes, 61 man of the matches, 15 man of the series and the list shall go on unless he is named “Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar”. 

Love you Little Master ! Hail sachinism and proud to be your  perpetual follower!

                          

Thank you sir, it’s been a real pleasure and a privilege watching you bat all these days making each and every Indian proud, with the blue jersey numbered “10”. Proud to be born in the era when you started playing for India. There were days in the past when everyone loved you unconditionally. People may change, time may change but my love and respect for you and the game of cricket shall never change. 

It’s imperceptible to my senses that I won’t be seeing you again in the Indian colors and I have gone restless and literally tearful ever since the morning.

Cricket shall just be another number game for a person like me to whom god is one and he is Sachin!

One Man, One Nation, Only God- Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar!