Limiting Sachin Tendulkar to his records is impossible
Written by The Indian Express
2 min read
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Before he became the Sachin Tendulkar we know so well,he was that little schoolboy who wouldnt look his coach in the eye so he would not have to declare in what went on to be a record-breaking 664-run
partnership with his mate,Vinod Kambli. A year later,in 1989,he made his Test debut for India in Pakistan against a pace attack of Imran Khan,Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis,and Javed Miandad would sledge him by asking after his homework. In his early years,he would sleepwalk in alien hotel rooms,his nose would be bloodied,and he would still bat on. Yet,we knew how it would turn out,we had glimpsed destinys hand and got inklings of the records that would eventually be his.
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Twenty-one years later,his stami-na has,lets accept it,outpaced our imagination. As he notches up his 50th Test century,all we can say is that no one else will reach anywhere near his numbers. But it would be foolhardy to place a wager on the limits endurance may place on Sachin. Indeed,the fact that hes still at it 21 years later,having piled up the first double hundred ever in a one-day international just this year,even the narratives of earlier years have fallen away. He was the guy,remember,whod make up on the cricket field for our everyday inadequacies as a nation,for our singular failure to excel at other sports and for his teams lack of support he would,for the length of his innings,offer respite from all-round underachievement. Post-Mandal,post-liberalisation,post-Cold War,Indias doing better,other sports and the cricket team too. But he still stands out.
How we once mocked the cliché of those old days,that Sachin would retire at a time of his choosing,because we thought we knew time would find him out. But its Sachin whos found us all out,and Father Time.
