Shall we call it walk into history books — but wasn’t he already there? He was already a legend, he was already a cricketing God. He had more records than platinums notched up by the Beatles; I could go on and on. He has it all; maybe he always did.
So, when he steered the ball behind point for and then strolled across 22 yards of turf for his 200th run of the day, what did it bring us — I would say a sense of relief ! We can always rejoice later.
First, we need to take a deep breath and then take a bow. Hail Tendulkar! (yuck, another cliché!)It might sound blasphemous, yet I must confess that time and again I have had this sinking feeling Tendulkar might leave the stage having under-achieved, his nearly-100 international centuries notwithstanding. Was Sachin destined only to be an accumulator: a collector of masterful hundreds and thousands of exquisitely crafted runs? So what really is his potential? God, if there is one, alone knows that.
Such is the level of expectations from him — we want nothing less than first, the most, the best, the highest, and whatever else from him. No longer. They can take away his centuries, they can take away his runs. But, just like they cannot take away his genius, neither can they take away the fact he is the first to score 200 runs in a one-day match.
To put it in perspective: Tendulkar was a mere two years old, when his would-be mentor Sunil Gavaskar batted through 60 overs for 36 runs. Who would have thought a lad, who idolises and considers Gavaskar as his mentor, would one day score an unconquered 200 in a single 50-over innings!
Still there is even more that one expects from him and also want for Tendulkar. It would be no grave injustice, if India does not win the World Cup in 2011. But it would be unjust, maybe even unfair, that Tendulkar would then have to depart — surely he cannot be around in 2015 for even fairy tales and dreams have limits imposed on them — without a World Cup winner’s meda
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