Dear friends,
Our very own Sachin Tendulkar holds the record of maximum number of runs scored by any individual in ODI as well as International Test Cricket. He has got 47 test centuries and 46 ODI centuries under his belt, no one has achieved the feat in both forms of the Game so far. Recently he scored 200 runs against S. A. in an ODI, thus becoming the first player to score double century in the shorter version of the game. Before Sachin, Saeed Anwar of Pakistan had scored 194 odd runs against India, in Chennai, nearly one and a half decade ago and that was the record broken by Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar in his 20th year of Cricketing career. Not too many years ago, I heard Sunil Gavaskar saying, "I will not forgive him if he doesn't make 42 test hundreds before he retires" but Sachin surpassed what Mr. Gavaskar had anticipated in his life. Whenever asked by the reporter, about his targets, Sachin always replied, “I don't play cricket to achieve certain milestones and do not set any target. I'll play cricket so long I enjoy playing it". Yes, Sachin was right, if he would have ever set a target, he would have been under tremendous pressure and his career might have come to an end by now, like in the case of many of his friends who were equally talented, who can forget Vinod Kambli, Praveen Amre, Saurav Ganguly , etc . Cricket is such a game which can never be played under pressure. Every record he has broken or achieved so far came in such a fashion that nobody knew how fast they came and became a history. He is just inches away from making a century of centuries in International Cricket and I can proudly say that the moment will come sooner than later.
IPL T20, 2010 has just begun and there were some discussions in the media that Sachin should be honoured with "Bharat Ratna" just a few days back. For the first time, in his career, Sachin also opened his mouth and replied in optimism. Now, the time has come for all of us to standby him and start a campaign in our endeavour to convince the Government to honour one of the greatest heroes of India with nothing less than "Bharat Ratna". There cannot be any better opportunity to start the campaign than at this very moment when the mega event - IPL T20, 2010, is being played at different cities and towns of the country and all the cricket lovers, who are unable to watch the matches from the stadium, are keeping themselves glued the TV Channel (Sony Max). At the same time, Stars and Superstars of cricket from different parts of the world have gathered to participate in the tournament. What Sachin has contributed to the world cricket cannot be measured by any standard but as a token of gratitude to the contributions of this living legend, we can at least show our solidarity in our effort to see Sachin being honoured with the highest (Civilian) award of our country and persuade the Central Government to have a thought in honouring the great cricketer of all time.
In connection with above all my friends, old and new, are requested to post their comments so that the same can be forwarded to Hon’ble Minister of Sport, Ministry of Youth and Sport, Government of India.
I hope my dear friends will generously express their views, in the form of comments, to justify our appeal to the Governt. So mates, keeping my fingers crossed and looking forward to getting maximum votes from you as requested above.
