200!!

There are days when I’m sure I would consider myself a lot luckier if I was alive when Sir Don Bradman ruled the game....
And then there are days, when I’m not so sure.

Innings like yesterday from Sachin Tendulkar puts me in two minds. Would it be worth the money to watch the older stalwart in action, if I may not live on to see the little master? It’s a tough choice really, especially for one who hasn't seen Sir Don actually, in action.

For the idiots who are going to ask the obvious stupid question, let me be done with the answer first. This is not from a point of view of comparison between these two as batsmen (I don’t believe anyone in this planet is qualified enough to do so), this is purely from the point of view of my personal idea of visual entertainment on a Cricket field.

Luckily, Sachin’s 21 year old cricket career has almost coincided with my career as a viewer of the game. I, like millions of cricket lovers all over India and the world have marveled at the ‘push’ on the front foot, thrilled by the pull to the fastest of bowlers and dreamt about the flick from the off-stump. Naturally, we have never bothered how much hard work, concentration, dedication must have been behind this on his part to sustain this for over two decades.

What is amazing is that, it doesn’t seem to bother him, either.

If you look at Sachin’s eyes closely, when he watches one of his sixers flying to the galleries, there are two emotions. First, of a dispassionate judge who notes if the timing and elevation is as exquisite as it should be. The second is of a novish spectator, to whom it is a pure surge of joy!!! Judging and finding faults with Sachin Tendulkar’s batting is a boring job, as you might imagine. You don’t have much to do. But Sachin has somehow managed it, maybe because he feels the same innocent pleasure when he hits Del Steyn for a six at the age of 37, as he did when he hit Washim Akram for fours at the age of 17.

It seems, he is a child who is running amuck in a beautiful garden, drinking the flowers with his big, brown, expectant eyes without realizing that he is the gardener himself. This is not narcissism, or even pride. I guess, no one can see a man as something of a demi-god, other than his fans. And Sachin Tendulkar is perhaps the biggest fan of Sachin Tendulkar. He, more than any of us, believes that ….. he is capable of doing anything with a cricket bat.

And yesterday was an exhibition of ‘anything’ all over the place. I won’t name specific shots, or moments. It was a solid slab of a thrilling sensation for two and a half hours. Everything in the field, the grass, the stray crow, the sweaty towel, the man on the sight-screen, everything seemed to be part of a dream, while at the middle, a little man of 5’5 was doing what he does best……..miracles.

There has been loads of speculations about new theories in cricket grammar after this innings. On principle, I disagree with all of them. Just as a genius cannot fit into a general rule, a general rule cannot be made based on a genius. Kishore Kumar does not prove that anyone can be a music maestro without professional training. Awed by this innings, if the BCCI decides that they won’t care about the fitness theories and will pick only a team of 11 Sachins, well, all I can say is, they are in for it.

But I don’t want to discuss these things now. These are moments to sit back and savour the memories. Even after a Hundred years, it would seem like it happened just yesterday. And right now, it did happen yesterday!!! There will be days, perhaps, when I would repent I was not around to see Sir Don bat, but at the moment, I can confidently say like the little master, “God has been very kind.”
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P.S. By the way, yesterday Sachin became the first person to score a double century in 40 years of international ODI. Maybe, in a year, he would be the first cricketer to have a “century of ceturies”.
After all, history is one of the unavoidable side effects of genius.