Broadly, there are two kinds of cricket-junkies: those who will tell you how bad they felt all the four times Sachin Tendulkar got dismissed at the score of 99 in 2007, and those who will promptly point out that it actually happened thrice. In short, we know a lot about Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. But to know the rest, here are three fresh titles on this pint-sized wonder.
Suvam Pal's Sachin is a repository of trivia and factoids in a Q&A format. It's a heady mix of tough, predictable and easy questions and gripping trivia ('Sachin holds the unique record of completing his hundred with a six the most number of times') and answers all questions related to the icon's life both on and off the field. The other two are titled Sach. The one by Gautam Bhattacharya, which has a foreword by MS Dhoni, refers to Tendulkar as 'India's Kohinoor' and asks 83 people, including the star himself, on what Tendulkar means to them. Rattling sentences like 'Tendulkar knows that batting is a cruel, one-ball game and unless you keep on searching for perfection, it is likely to move away like a butterfly' steer it away from the 'boring' sports book narratives. But it's Sach, the one edited by Suresh Menon, that qualifies as a complete package. Replete with fantastic pictures and statistics, it has 16 essays by people (Harsha Bhogle, Anil Kumble, Barney Ronay, Bishen Bedi etc) who know their leg-byes from their mid-offs.
So as India prepares for its Big One against the West Indies tomorrow, make sure you read these three titles while hoping that Sachin hits his 100th century!
{{/usCountry}}So as India prepares for its Big One against the West Indies tomorrow, make sure you read these three titles while hoping that Sachin hits his 100th century!
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