Amidst of some of ‘all time India’s greatest sportsmen’ like Dhyan Chand, Viswanathan Anand and Dhanraj Pillay, why was Sachin Tendulkar only awarded India’s most prestigious award- Bharatha Ratna? Does Sachin really deserve such an honour from the Indian Government? These are the questions that are being asked by many from the day our PM announced it. Without any surprise, the response was probably positive to the latter question. In fact, knowing Sachin and his contributions well, one just can’t say that he does not deserve the award. Not every cricketer who plays 200 test matches or scores hundred ‘hundreds’ would get such an honour. The only two reasons behind him getting the award are the motivation he gave for the upcoming cricketers and his punctuality. In a country like India, where people do not start any proceedings on time, Sachin was never late to the team meetings and practice sessions in the 24 years of his cricketing career.
Why is Sachin the ONLY GOD of cricket?
Sometimes, sitting at work places- having a cup of coffee in the evening or before falling asleep, it suddenly hits- that a little man from India scored hundred ‘hundreds’ in his entire cricketing career. Forget about scoring them, we get tired even to count sixty-seventy numbers and this guy reached that magical figure hundred times, which is phenomenal (yet, we still have people criticizing him). The most important quality in his game is his ANTICIPATION. He reads the bowler’s mind so fast that he adjusts his position and decides his shot even before the ball is pitched. He used to be the only hope for Indian cricket fans. The very popular notion says it all “once Sachin is out…the rest of the Indian batting line up will fall like a pack of cards”. Another interesting feature of his play is that he would shatter the game plan of the opposition with his play. He played during the era of some of all the time fast bowlers like Wasim Akram, Glenn Mcgrath, Malcolm Marshal and some other mighty West Indian pace bowlers. The main job of the fast bowlers is not to get wickets but to create fear and pressure on the batsmen with their pace. And Sachin would drive the ball back past them for a boundary. This is a kind of insult for the fast bowler and an inspiration for the batsman at the other end.
GOD OF CRICKET
~Hemanth Vihari