Source: Wikipedia |
The eras of nations are often
remembered by one single person or one act of greatness. When one says 'America
in the mid-1800s', the first thought that springs to mind is Abraham Lincoln.
Similarly we might qualify Germany between the wars as the period of Hitler;
and Britain's eras are often defined by the emperor or queen at their throne.
All of these happen to be politicians of some stature.
Years on from now, when we look
back at India at the turn of the millennium, we will be saying that was "the
era of Sachin Tendulkar".
It might be because of a weak political
leadership, or because the nation was going through a transformation during
these times; but even without that, no other person single-handedly ever captured
a nation’s imagination as this gentleman did.
There have been great sports
persons, there have been great people and then there was Sachin Tendulkar. In
the later stages of his career, his greatness was no longer dependent on
whatever he did on the cricket field. He was already immortalized.
We often wonder why? Why do we idolize this man so much? Why
are those two sixes off Michael Kasprowicz so legendary as compared to the many
that have been hit thereafter (admittedly Ten Sports had a big role to play
here making sure we won’t forget those two Sharjah innings). Why does that
upper cut six off Shoaib Akhtar at the Centurion make everyone go gaga? Probably
today, every IPL match must now be seeing at least one square cut for six.
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Way back in 1994 (or thereabouts), like all kids playing
cricket with themselves, a nine-year old kid (me) had created an imaginary
scorecard. Sachin had scored 189*, poor Kapil Dev was the next highest with 24.
Somehow that memory stuck while I smile at myself in the years gone by at the
ridiculousness of that scorecard.
As I look back now, that scorecard didn’t seem way off from
reality. It just epitomized the hope and prayers the nation had when Tendulkar
stayed at the crease and answered questions of why we idolize him so much.
Match after match in the late nineties, we waited for
Tendulkar to come in to bat, can we forget the mixed emotions when he was on
strike. One part of us, cheering every run or boundary hit by him; while the
other praying in agony for him to get off strike so that he won’t be out. We
used to showcase an absolute frenzy of emotion while he was batting and plummet
to the depths of despair once he got out.
We got attuned to the fact that the entire nation’s hopes
were effectively on Tendulkar and once he got out; there wasn’t much hope in
chasing a target. That thought was fed by the 1996 semi-finals, the 1999 test match
in Chennai against Pakistan and many others. While this seems disrespectful to
his team-mates in the nineties, it is not intended to be as such. That is just how
we remember those days.
It is only in the new millennium we began to believe in the
possibility of winning after his dismissal. The colossal Laxman-Dravid
partnership at Eden Gardens and the destruction of English attack by
Yuvraj-Kaif were a couple of such instances.
He got injured for a period after which he accepted his mortality
and played accordingly even whilst we yearned for him to play like old. No
other elbow has got more people asking ‘what is a tennis elbow’.
Over time, we accepted that Tendulkar now had excellent
support and was a good batsman in a good team. Time and again, he reminded
everyone of what he was capable of – the 2003 World Cup was his highest peak in
the new millennium, the destruction of Australia in a near-impossible chase at
Hyderabad (2009), the 2011 World Cup too where he was India’s highest
run-getter.
With the emergence of the new generation – the Rainas, the
Dhonis, the Kohlis along with Yuvraj; we no longer absolutely imperatively needed
Tendulkar as a cricketer. Others could now win matches for India. However, we continued
to cling to him as an idol with the belief that once more we will see the
Tendulkar of yore. Still, get the same amount of joy when we see a straight
drive or a leg flick from his bat than any other. And that, while accepted to
be irrational, we millions as a nation continued to unabashedly idolize him all
throughout his career.
And as he announces his retirement, whether we weep or rejoice or ask questions about whether it came too late, it doesn't really matter to those who grew up worshipping him. We just understand this signifies the end of an era.
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In the last 24 years, people have grown from children to
full-fledged adults, got married and had kids. The number of cricketing careers
which started after Sachin and ended before his retirement would be an
interesting statistic to come up with. It might be a startling figure. India
saw a series of economic reforms; and also became a nuclear power in the
nineties. The man, who was finance minister two decades ago, is now the prime
minister. The triumvirate of Khans’ who started their fledgling career back
then, are now absolute veterans of the Bollywood industry. We as a nation became
much more consumer driven and got used to the world of colour TVs and mobile
phones. The internet grew till it became the most important thing in many of
our lives. All of this happened in “the era of Sachin Tendulkar”.
And now what? Time will go on. The master will get a grand
farewell in his last two test matches and numerous felicitations after that. We
will get on with our lives. Dhoni, Kohli and the like would continue to play
cricket and evoke interest and enormous fan following from the audience. But
there is unlikely to be another to evoke the kind of emotion only Tendulkar
did.
Years from now, with frail limbs and
failing eyesight, somewhere some of us will be sitting in our rocking chairs with a hint of a
crooked smile, reminiscing in old memories and telling our grand-children, “I
saw Sachin Tendulkar bat”.
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PS: Here is a link to a post written after watching
his innings of 175 at Hyderabad in 2009 against Australia.
Nice write-up....I liked everything except the first paragraph, we had era of Pele, Maradona, Sampras, Federer etc....we have eras of people other than political background...in India also we had era of Dhyanchand which always goes unnoticed because of our blind eye towards any sport other than cricket :)
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteI was just giving examples, not intending to state that we have no other eras of non political personalities.
The other comment is when you look at sports - you might say Tennis in 2000s was a Federer-Nadal era; or a Sampras-Agassi era. I doubt we would think of countries like Switzerland/Spain defined by these people. In case of Pele, Messi maybe yes for their nations too, I don't know.