Sachin – The God of Cricket

My friend had the pleasure of naming his son after his favorite god - SACHIN. To many of us, he will always be the ultimate cricketer, the world has ever seen. In a cricket mad country like India, where cricketers have a special place in people’s heart, to entertain the cricket lovers for 20 long years is no easy task and Sachin has the been the perfect ambassador the world of cricket would have hoped for. He is the vital cog in the Indian Cricket Team and all others play around him.

I still have vivid memories of Sachin, looking like a kid touring Pakistan in 1989. It was a time when watching cricket matches on Doordarshan and listening to the commentary of Henry Blofeld was an exciting experience. My mom used to call Sachin as a baby, due to his baby looks. Even during that time he had plenty of guts to take on the might of Akram, Waqar and Aquib. He was hit by a bouncer from Waqar and still batted with the blood stains on his T-Shirt. That was the intensity with which he played the game and it has not gone down a bit.

There were lot of match saving knocks he has played for the country and you would surely lose count when you try to count them. But I believe the best knocks ever played by Sachin have come in a losing cause. Be it the match against Pakistan at Chennai, or the brisk 143 at Sharjah (India lost the match, but made it to the finals and won the cup) or recent the 175 at Hyderabad. It may be a chink in his armor but the fact Cricket is a team game and everyone needs to contribute, which does not happen in the Indian Team too often. The players rely a lot on Sachin and surely he is the man for all occasions. He played against best of the attacks in the world and there were situations when Sachin gets out, people used to switch off the TV as they would surely know that without Sachin, India could not win the match.

To score tons of runs all around the world and be subjected to criticism is not new to Sachin. There are still calls for dropping Sachin from the Team, but the question is do we have any replacements for him? The question must be left to him as he can be the one who needs to think about retiring from the game and he cannot be dropped in any way. As long as he plays the game with the passion he showed at Hyderabad, he still has a long way to go.

He is such a down to earth person, who does not let his popularity take over him. With a million fans around the world and to be such a humble human being is not an easy task. We have seen what popularity has done to other sportspersons and Sachin is an exception. He has brought cheers to the faces of all the cricket fans in the world and deserves high respect. In a year when he completes 20 years of International Cricket, let us wish him the best and hope that he carries playing and continues to entertain people for a very long time. Cheers!!