Things have got to a stage when Sachin Tendulkar needs only to step on to a cricket field to break another record. No one’s mentioned this yet, but he could well have, in the course of his hyper-real career, broken the record for having polished the ball on his trousers on more occasions than any other cricketer.
After 20 years of international cricket (which he completed in November 2009), and more runs and more centuries than anyone else in the history of the game, Tendulkar is a world-beater and a global citizen. He belongs not merely to India and Mumbai, as he said earlier this year (a rare, non-anodyne remark, which became a national talking point). With a fanatical following on every continent, he belongs to the world.
Given that whole generations of Indians — the ones who acquired the rights to vote, drive a car and drink in 2009 — have never seen any Indian cricket without Tendulkar, it is difficult to see the man’s achievements in the context of a particular year. Anything that he does these days is linked back to the continuum of his extraordinarily long career. Still, what sort of year did Sachin have? In six Tests, he scored 541 runs with two centuries at an average of 67.62 (well above his career average of 54.72). In 20 ODIs, he made 868 runs with three centuries at an average of 51.05 (well above his career average of 44.56). Those numbers show that even after two decades at the top, he continues to be hungry, consistent and staggeringly effective.
Numbers, though, aren’t everything in cricket. In spite of those astonishing figures, Tendulkar has in 2009 been neither India’s most reliable batsman (that would be Gautam Gambhir) nor the most destructive (undoubtedly Virender Sehwag). For a man who carried the weight of his side in the first half of his career, this must seem liberating: he can now play his own game at his own pace — in whichever way he chooses.
{{/usCountry}}Numbers, though, aren’t everything in cricket. In spite of those astonishing figures, Tendulkar has in 2009 been neither India’s most reliable batsman (that would be Gautam Gambhir) nor the most destructive (undoubtedly Virender Sehwag). For a man who carried the weight of his side in the first half of his career, this must seem liberating: he can now play his own game at his own pace — in whichever way he chooses.
{{/usCountry}}And he chose on November 5 in an ODI against Australia in Hyderabad to unveil an innings of 175 with such unabated fury that it seemed as though we were watching the highlights of an innings rather than the innings itself in real time.
In a way, we were watching the highlights: the highlights of what Tendulkar has offered us over the past two decades. There were nods to his magic in Sharjah, in Centurion, in Sydney. It was like a photo album — as much homage as delighted remembrance.
As 2010 creeps up on us with all the whirl of anxiety and uncertainty that a new year brings, we’ll be happy to live with this sense of certitude: Tendulkar will still be playing for India.