Twenty Years Later

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The beginning of the 1987-88 season saw Sachin at the Ranji nets. Once again the top players were away playing Tests and perhaps the Bombay selectors felt it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give Sachin first-hand experience of a higher category of cricket. He was named in the 14 for the first couple of games,and manager Sandeep Patil kept sending him out whenever possible — for a glass of water or a change of gloves. All along Sachin probably knew that he was still at best a curiosity,and that while Bombay was giving him every blooding opportunity,he had to prove himself on the maidans.

And that is exactly what he did. Season 1987-88 was a purple patch that never ended. Playing in the Vijay Merchant tournament,he scored 130 and 107 and then at the Inter-Zonal stage he made 117 against the champions,East Zone. Then in the Vijay Hazare tournament (for Under-17s) he scored 175 for West Zone against champions East Zone.

Then came the avalanche. A 178* in the Giles Shield and a sequence in the Harris Shield of 21*,125,207*,329* and 346*! A small matter of 1028 runs in five innings! And in the course of that innings of 329* he set the much talked-about record of 664 for the third wicket with Vinod Kambli,who,it is not always realised,scored 348*. Perhaps the most fascinating of them all was the innings of 346*. Coming immediately,as it did,in the shadow of the world record,a lot of people were curious to see him bat. Sachin ended the first day on 122,batted through the second to finish with 286,and when the innings closed around lunch on the third day,he was 346*. And then came back to bowl the first ball. In April’s Bombay summer.

***
Quite often,he is playing all day; important because it has helped him build the stamina to play long innings. “I don’t get tired,” he says,referring to them. “If you practise every day,you get used to it.”

And what about that world-record innings? “I could bat very freely then because my partner Vinod Kambli was batting so well that I knew that even if I failed,he would get enough runs for the side.”

Isn’t there a lot of pressure on him now? Everyone assumes he will get a big score? “Only in the beginning. Till I get set. Once I get set,I don’t think of anything.”

Wasn’t he thrilled at being invited to the Ranji nets? “Definitely. After playing there I got a lot of confidence.”

***
The question that arises then,given all the publicity is: Just how good is Sachin Tendulkar?

“For his age,unbelievable,” says Sharad Kotnis,Bombay’s veteran cricket watcher. “He is definitely comparable to Ashok Mankad,who had a similar run many years ago…”

Luckily for Sachin,there is a calming influence over him,just so he doesn’t get carried away by this acclaim. His coach Achrekar knows exactly what he is talking about. “He is not perfect yet. Far from it. In fact,I would say he is not even halfway there. He still has a lot of faults,particularly while driving through the on,which is an indicator of a class batsman. He still has a long way to go… I don’t think we should get carried away by his scores. After all,one has to take into account the nature of the wicket and the quality of the bowlers. By his standards the quality of the bowling he faced was not good enough…

…Achrekar,in fact,is quite upset about the publicity Sachin is getting. “People don’t realise that he is just 15. They keep calling him for some felicitation or the other. The other day he was asked to inaugurate a children’s library. This is ridiculous. These things are bound to go to his head. He will start thinking he has achieved everything. I hope all this stops so he can concentrate and work hard.”

***
Clearly the curtain call is still a long way off for Sachin Tendulkar. He has a lot of things going for him. Most importantly he is in Bombay,where the sheer atmosphere can propel him ahead. In how many cities would a 15-year-old be presented a Gunn and Moore by the Indian captain? And in which other city would the world’s highest run-getter write to a 15-year-old asking him not to get disheartened at not getting the Best Junior Cricketer award?

Sunil Gavaskar wrote to Tendulkar to tell him that several years earlier another youngster too had not got the award and that he didn’t do too badly in Test cricket. For him the letter from his hero is a prized possession. Another great moment was a meeting with him where “…he told me that I should forget the past every time I go to bat. I should always remember that I have to score runs each time.”

He is in the right company. And the right environment. The next few years will show whether he has in him the mental toughness to overcome the over-exposure. If it does not go to his head,surely there is a great future beckoning. This is really just the beginning and I will be watching this little star with avid interest for the next three years.

If he is still charting blockbusters,I’d love to do another review then.

Aattack of the clones
A lot of cricketers have tried to model their batting on Tendulkar,with varying degrees of success.

India opener
Virender Sehwag
I modelled myself on Tendulkar after watching him bat in the 1992 World Cup in Australia. I’d try to copy his backfoot punch and his straight drive,I’d copy his stance,playing the shots in front of the television as I watched him do in the match. The reason I started playing cricket was that I wanted to be another Tendulkar. Had it not been for him,I would not have ventured onto a cricket field. A lot of people have said that I bat like Sachin,but the truth is,however hard I try,I’m not even half the batsman Sachin is.

Incidentally,I scored my first century in international cricket — my 69-ball hundred — using Sachin’s bat. He had given his bat to Sameer Dighe,and I took it from him when I went out to open the innings. I haven’t returned it.

Down the years,there will be batsmen who would want to bat like Sehwag,but this will be a short phase. But even for the next 100 years,there will be lakhs of youngsters wanting to bat like Tendulkar.

Karnataka wicketkeeper-batsman
Thilak Naidu
I watched Tendulkar bat from close quarters for the first time when the Indian team came to Chennai for an international match — I was at the nets and stood behind the stumps to watch him play. By the time I was 14,he was the top batsman in the world and everyone was crazy about him.

It’s the kind of shots he used to play that had me hooked. I started to model my stance on his and even tried to find similar pads when I went on tour to England with Star Cricket Club. It was hard to get the Morant brand,so I bought a pair of Duke pads that were similar. Much later,Rahul Dravid — who knew of my fascination with Tendulkar — bought a pair of Morants for me when he toured England.

J&K captain and former Mumbai batsman
Vinayak Mane
I’ve always idolised Sachin Tendulkar and tried to copy him as much as I could. As a youngster,I watched him closely on TV — his bat flow,his footwork and the straight drives — and tried to store those minute details in my mind. Once,during an Irani Trophy match in Chennai,I had a 70-run partnership with him,during which I hit Harbhajan Singh for a slog sweep. Tendulkar walked up to me and said that I had played that shot like him.

That felt great.