Throughout his mega
career of 24 years, he silenced his critics through his bat. It’s a known fact
that he would like to speak more through
his bat than use words and phrases, but when he put his bat to silence forever
and used words to speak, he soaked billions of eyes across the globe. Sachin
Ramesh Tendulkar, on his farewell speech spoke straight from his heart as straight
as his straight drive on the field where you will not require a scale to draw a
straight line, just follow the path of the ball till boundary and one would
have a straight line.
As a keen cricket
follower and lover, to be very honest, SRT did not fascinate in his early days, I
would have debates and arguments with friends over Sanjay Manjrekar and SRT (I still
feel Sanjay Manjrekar was the best batsman with his shots just picked up from
Cricketing Text book and his technique par excellence) It was only during Coca-cup
in Sharjah .where I experienced the power of this genius, he single handedly
fought the last two matches and won them for India. He looked like a bull dozer on a
demolition drive, where he was throwing anybody and everybody on his way,
around the park and sometimes even on the roof. He had his ups and downs
throughout his career, his personal losses, not able to cope up as a Captain,
his injuries and at times being out of form, but every time surrounded with
problems he appeared like a Phoenix bird, which would rise from the ashes with
more force and velocity.
I have never termed him
as GOD, because for me GOD is a power which is felt and is not visible, but
here I had a complete Human in flesh and blood, where I could see him and feel his
power as well. He himself has never ever, been even a millimeter above the
ground due to the fact that the entire cricketing world was describing him as
GOD, such a grounded personality. This 5’4” human, first because of his
performance on the cricketing field and then finally on the day of his
retirement just multiplied himself into a GIANT figure because of his humble,
down to earth attitude and his thank giving speech. After his speech, when he
touched the 22 yards for the last time, I am sure he touched millions of hearts simultaneously.
I may not watch this
game anymore, because the equation that has formed in last few years was such
that Cricket means SRT and will be very difficult to imagine a squad without
SRT. I know it may sound queer to many, but I am also sure there will be quite
a few who would agree with me. Take a bow Master you have inspired the nation
through your game and will now continue to do so by your humble approach of
Being Human.
