A letter to Sachin [Extractes from
Official UK website of BBC]
Dear Sachin,
You don't know me, although I do
know you. Actually, I don't really
know you, but like hundreds of
millions of others, I think I do.
Which is why you can't leave the
house. Sorry about that, but take it
as a compliment: that's what
happens when you are one of 'the
few'.
What, you might ask, are 'the few'?
Well, the way I see it, 'the few' are
those sportspeople so great - the
greatest of the great, if you will -
that they can't even pop out for...
well, anything actually, for fear of
being trampled to death in
Morrisons (or wherever it is
celebrities pretend they do their
shopping in India).
If it's any consolation, we've got a
bloke in our country - well, he used
to live here, before he outgrew
Morrisons - called David Beckham,
who might know how you feel. But,
between me and you, with Becks, it's
as much about his looks, which
means he's not strictly one of 'the
few' at all, more a very good
footballer who they let in because he
has a nice face.
Sorry, that didn't come out right,
but please don't take it the wrong
way. What I'm trying to say is, with
you, it's all about the talent (and
maybe a little bit about the face).
But anyway, your skipper Mahendra
Dhoni has got the 'Indian Becks'
thing pretty much sewn up.
Apologies, I just realised I haven't
actually told you why I got in
touch... Congratulations on your
100th international hundred! And
while I've your got attention, well
done on winning the World Cup.
And all those World Cup records you
hold. Oh, and those 15,000 Test
runs. And the other 18,260 in one-
day internationals (sorry, by the
time you get this, you'll have
probably passed 20,000). Actually, I
meant to ask, is there a batting
record you don't hold?....
Remember Maggie Thatcher? You
probably don't, you were only a kid
at the time, but she was our Prime
Minister when you first toured
England with India in 1990. The
reason I mention her is that there
used to be this great piece of graffiti
on a wall somewhere in London
which read: THATCHER OUT. To
which someone had added: LBW B
ALDERMAN.
My point being, Terry Alderman, who
made Graham Gooch look silly in the
1989 Ashes, was still playing Test
cricket when you started out - and
he made his first-class debut in
1974. And now, 22 years after you
made your Test debut (when I was
13, probably acting the goat in
double history) you're still around.
That, my friend, is what you call
'longevity'.
I saw you play at The Oval in 1990.
Well, I saw you field. David Gower, a
childhood hero, scored a ton that
day. We loved Gower in England,
thought he was great, but he wasn't
one of 'the few', he just made us
think he was with that gorgeous
cover drive of his.
Of course, what I know now is that
greatness is about more than
looking willowy at the crease - it's
far more about sheer weight of
numbers. And while the unfurling of
Gower's strokes resembled honey
dripping off the back of a spoon,
numbers-wise, he is but a delicate
butterfly crushed under your steel-
rimmed wheel. Then again, who
isn't? (Sachin scored his first century in Uk 1990 test series)
Brian Lara, maybe? Sorry to bring
him up in the middle of what is
essentially a love letter, but that lad
could bat a bit, too. And many said
he scored his runs with more style
than you: as languid as Gower, but
as rapacious as Bradman when it
came to making runs.
But Lara called it quits five years
ago, while you're still here after 22
years of unrelenting pressure,
shouldering the expectations of
billions, and it never managed to
diminish you. When you call it a
day, it will be on your own terms,
and even some of your fellow
'few' (Lara, Diego Maradona, Babe
Ruth ) weren't able to do that.
They say things have got easier for
batsmen in recent years - flatter
tracks, smaller boundaries, not as
many wicked fast bowlers on the
prowl. But you made your debut
against Wasim and Waqar and
played against pretty much all the
recent greats - Ambrose and Walsh,
Donald and Pollock, McGrath and
Warne, Muralitharan. You even
played Test cricket against Sir
Richard Hadlee, for pity's sake, andold 'Paddles' is now in his sixties.
You had a bit of a blip a few years
back, in 2006, when England's quicksgot after you and you kept gettinghit. It was a bit like watchingMuhammad Ali being bashed round
the ring by a thrusting Larry Holmes.
But while Ali was shot to pieces by
that point, the following year you
racked up 776 Test runs at an
average of 55.4. Not much of a blip.
You know what somebody said to me
the other day? "Tendulkar - great
player, little bit dull." Bit out of
order, to be honest. Dull - why?
Because you don't abuse opponents?
Or get boozed up in nightclubs? In
more than two decades at the
pinnacle of your sport, under the
glare of more than a billion adoring
countrymen and women, there has
been barely a hint of controversy.
That doesn't just make you a little
wonder, that makes you pretty much
a miracle.
This is getting a little bit
embarrassing now - a little bit This
Is Your Life, I didn't mean to come
over all mawkish. But the thing is -
and this is another thing that
elevates you above the merely great
- it is doubtful whether we will see
your like again, because after you've
gone, cricket, which is threatening to
splinter into a thousand parts, may
never be the same.
To play 188 Test matches... well, the
mind boggles. And given the
indifference towards Test cricket
from many modern fans, surely no-
one in the future will come close.
Which means you could be one of
Test cricket's last true superstars -
like silent movie stars before
'talkies', a titan from a more
innocent, more romantic, seemingly
more lustrous age.
You know what someone once said
about Chaplin? "It is doubtful any
individual has ever given more
entertainment, pleasure and relief to
so many human beings when they
needed it the most". Given how long
you've been on the job, given how
many people there are in your
country and given the grinding
poverty many of them still live in, I
reckon you might just have trumped
him. Which is why I wanted to say
thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Benjamin (you don't know me)
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