An Artist with a brush called Cricket Bat. Review on Sachin Tendulkar

1,2,3,4,5 . . . . . .10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

These are just numbers. You can add on and on. But if you mark it as Centuries with a Cricket Bat probably 10 would mean you are a good Batsman and 25 would mean that you are a great Batsman. But for this man, the summit is 35 and he is going to raise the barrier by another 10 by the time he hangs his boots.

Cricket field, a canvas for him

This is from the blade of an Artist who is 5 and half feet tall and uses his nearly 3 feet long brush called as Cricket Bat and keeps brushing the length and breadth of this canvas with his shear artistry-that is Sachin Tendulkar for you. I had called Lara as Magician of cricket, and then it will be apt to call Sachin as Michaelangelo or Picasso of Cricket. Let it be a slashing square cut, an imperious cover drive, a text book style straight drive, a short arm pull, a wristy flick or a poetic paddle sweep, this artist’s brush chooses its own sketches which look as beautiful as Michelangelo’s drawings on white canvas.

The most perfect Batsman after the Don

Sunil Gavaskar ,” Sachin Tendulkar is the closest thing to batting perfection that the game has seen, the stillness of the head, straightness of his back lift, the ease of playing shots off either the front foot or the back foot and of course, the range of shots that he possesses against both pace and spin in all kinds of conditions.''

Don Bradman , “ He plays very much the same way as I played . . . his compactness, his stroke production and his technique.

These words mean a lot for any Cricketer and if it comes from the Don, It will

be apt to say that Sachin is the Don of modern Cricket era. Sunil Gavaskar another artist and perfectionist himself spelled it the most perfect way to describe Sachin, whose record incidentally he has broken in Kotla.

Bach of Cricket

In my Lara review (https://mouthshut.com/review/Brian_Lara-88010-1.html), I had mentioned Lara and Richards as Beethoven and Mozart and Sachin as Bach of Cricket, simply because Sachin’s game is more classical than that of the other two like Bach’s music and the technique un- blemishing. Similarly, his game can be appreciated by every type of Cricket follower from different genres right from the pundits to the layman of the street and the semi knowledgeable cricketing fraternity like us. He has been a shear joy to watch whatsoever.

My favourite five-Sachin’s Test Hundreds

His, first one which is most important one for anyone as a teenager, he scored unbeaten 119 at Old Trafford which is very special one for Sachin himself and got him plaudits from the great Kapil. The standing ovation that the Englishmen gave came from a seventeen year old’s bat on a swinging pitch. I still remember when he got out in Napier for 88 before that which could have given him world Record.

After his unbeaten 148 on a spinning track in Sydney, Perth welcomed with a bouncy wicket where he enthralled us with his 114 which remains one of the best innings of Sachin coming on world’s bounciest wicket.

Wanderers no less a demanding pitch then, a fast bowler’s delight made Sachin demolish the bowling of none other than deadly Donald. His 111 would have made Shephard to jump up, Donald to become more furious, but for us, we can watch this game hundred times in shear joy.

Shane Warne considers him as the best Batsman to have played against him because he made his own lesson on how to play Warne’s deadly turning deliveries from the leg and that too hitting against the spin for a superb 177 in the Bangalore Test, This after plundering 155 runs in Chennai and winning that Test as well. Sweet memories these were for Taylor and Warne even though they lost.

I can recollect this match where Sachin batted valiantly with Mongia in spite of severe back trouble and we were sighting victory when he scooped one of Saqlain to get out for 136 against Pakistan. Everyone was cursing him, but the other batsmen got out for less than 10.India lost the match by 12 runs.The one innings will epoch all those critics who say that Sachin does not contribute for team’s cause. Imagine how many matches India would have lost in these 15 years if there was no name called Sachin on the score card.

Sachin has won accolades from most Celebrated and blessed Batsman from the past and present and dreaded by the likes of Mcgrath and Donald alike and our Media and public want to write him off after the long layoff due to injury which is the traumatizing for any sportsman.

Give him time not only because he has the technique to sustain as long as his body takes him but also because he has the mind for the game which is nothing less than a Genius can have and I am sure he will craft with his wonderful brush many more sketches on many more canvas in his artistic beautiful style.

The missing link-the BIG ONE

If Lara’s magic can wield his bat to score 400 or 500, why are we unable to see such figures from Sachin. Lara’s game also ensembles high levels of stamina, temperament and Concentration while Sachin’s style and elegance. It will be very tough on us to expect Sachin to break those heights as he is playing for the expectations of hundred Crore Indians and it is extremely difficult to focus for so long. Maybe we would be blessed to see a triple hundred to flow from his blade. There was batsman called Lazy Elegance who even if he scored 4 runs would give us a shot to fondly remember as a beauty (David Gower) and how many such beautiful sketches have we seen from the brush of a legend called Sachin Tendulkar

For the Record

There will not be many that he will not break,so I will leave it now.

“Gift, like genius I often think only means an infinite capacity for taking pains”,- Ellis Hopkins

This is the continuation from my tribute to Brain Lara to the man from our own soil who has gone through the pains of becoming a Genius and the reason for that is his dedication, simplicity and his lifestyle which are lessons to learn for the young.