"He plays in a similar manner. It is
just his compactness and his stroke production that make me feel
that I must have played in much the same manner".
This was how the greatest batsman of them all, Sir
Don Bradman described our own Sachin Tendulkar. The papers in
England, especially the old time writers like John Woodcock and
E.W.Swanton have gone into raptures over The Don's comments and
having seen The Don bat, and now Sachin play one of the finest
Test century innings ever, they are in full agreement with The
Greatest. Woodcock has gone even further and is confident that
having seen the way our little champion carries himself on and
off the field, he will be as unspoilt by success as The Don was.
Family background and upbringing has a large part to play in a successful person keeping his head on his shoulders and feet firmly on the ground and with a Professor as a father, and a brother who writes fine poetry in his spare time, Sachin would in due course live upto not only Woodcock's hopes, but those of all Indians and cricket lovers around the world. We must not forget, of course his wife, Anjali, who is the big stabilising factor for him and who has inherited the dry British wit from her mother. She will have a harder time coping with the adulation that her husband attracts and being a doctor and a paediatrician at that, she can always be on hand if her baby faced husband begins to get a little too big at the corners and give him a not so gentle tap on the head to get it back into shape. Today the whole of India adores Sachin but make no mistake, the moment he assumes the captaincy of India he will have a few disgruntled people having their own peculiar reasons for not warming to him.
Six years ago on the eve of his departure to England in 1990, I had been invited by the other residents of the co-operative society where he lives to be the Chief Guest at the good luck farewell function they were having for him. I remember saying then, that his voice sounded (it still does) like Sir Don Bradman's and I hoped that he would be able to do a bit like Sir Don did on his first tour of England. At that time Sachin did not even have a Test century to his name and there were some, who thought I was getting a bit carried away. But now with Sir Donald himself paying him the ultimate accolade, I guess I am not too far wrong. In our commentary box every single commentator (including Charles Colville, who is as staunch a British supporter , as one could hope to see) are big admirers of him and want to see him do well.
The only person he seems to annoy is Ian Botham and that too only when Sachin calls him Mr. Botham, while Ian wants him to call him by his nickname "Beefy"! But in this case, Sachin is doing exactly what I have told him to do for an annoyed Botham is more value than a mellow one. Even Botham was touched, when Sachin on his way to a BBC TV interview stopped and said to me "Sir, that first raising of the bat was for you and then to the dressing room". How can you but not like the man who in his moment of glory has the time to remember the few moments spent in the morning, talking technique. Not that one is trying to take credit for his superb batting, but it is always a pleasure to talk to him, when he approaches one for having told him of some minor adjustments needed, one can see him making the effort to correct himself.
All of us are Indians and we dearly want our team to do well and are available if our experience is required in any way. If our observation in our media roles are at times critical that is simply, because we know that the players have more potential and are capable of more. Our observations are in the hope that the team will play better and not because it gives us any special pleasure out of writing something critical. It is disappointing to see players not playing upto the potential they have because of carelessness or lack of cricketing thinking. But it is even more disappointing to be slotted as anti a particular player or two, for at the cost of repeating oneself, we are keen to see the team do well and bring glory to the country. If ever Sandeep Patil or Azhar want to pick on our experience all that they have to do is walk up like, Tendulkar did and so regularly does and we would be only too happy to be of help.
To Bradman's remarks Tendulkar replied : "That to me is the greatest compliment I could get in cricket.I am really thrilled.When I heard it I was so happy I was amazed.I don't think I'm anywhere as great a player as Sir Donald Bradman was."