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Cricket
By G. Viswanath
Paul Sheldon, Chief Executive, Surrey County Cricket Club, presenting an npower stump to Sachin Tendulkar on the eve of his 100th Test, at The Oval on Wednesday.
In the previous two decades Mumbai had seen Sunil Gavaskar earning the sobriquet `Little Master' following his rise to fame in the Caribbean scoring 774 runs in his first four Tests, Dilip Vengsarkar commended by Clive Lloyd for his show of courage against the West Indian fast bowlers and thereafter Sandeep Patil challenging the Australian pace attack in Australia after being felled by Len Pascoe. Mumbai's large cricketing family showed a natural affinity to the new kid on the block and welcomed him to the fold. Tendulkar's sensational performances with Vinod Kambli after they scored 664 runs in an inter-school match set tongues wagging about the appearance of a prodigy all set to storm the cricket world. It was not easy for the young Tendulkar, training day in day out at Shivaji Park, which till date is regarded as Mumbai's nursery for cricket, to make his mark in Test cricket. As he said during the course of an interview to The Sportstar: "frankly, I did not know what was happening around me. I was playing at every ball bowled. I had not faced balls delivered at such speed. Pakistan had Imran Khan, the `Burewala Express' Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Javed Aqib. I thought it was the first and last match I would have played on the tour. My feet were not moving. I was not sure whether I would be able to handle such speed and pressure.'' As luck would have it, he got the second chance he prayed for. Krishnamachari Srikkanth was the captain of the team then. Things changed dramatically for him at Faisalabad. The doubts that took over him at Karachi disappeared after he made 59 against almost the same attack. "Spend time in the middle, do not bother about the runs,'' was the sage like advice from Mumbai's past masters of the game. Tendulkar followed the advice strictly and has not looked back since. "The recovery happened soon,'' he recalled. It was not long before he became the darling of the cricket world. On Tuesday afternoon at the Long Room, The Oval he said, "reaching 100 Test matches is going to be special for any batsman. It's a proud moment for me having played for 13 years. I have learnt a lot and a lot more things have to be done. I have enjoyed and cherished each and every moment. This was one of my dreams to play 100 Tests for India. That's when a player feels that he has achieved some thing and contributed to the best of his ability. "When I started playing for India I was not counting the number of Test matches I was playing. I just wanted to go out and enjoy every moment of it. My family, especially my elder brother Ajit, imbibed in me that there are no short cuts for success. They told me, if you look for short cuts that will be the end of your career. Playing with the senior cricketers of Mumbai helped me a lot.'' Tendulkar arrived into international cricket with a match saving century for India at Manchester on his first tour of England with the national team in 1990. He was not sure about the results had he been picked for the West Indies tour in 1989, but as he admitted, "I got another six months to prove myself against top class bowlers in India before being picked for the tour of Pakistan.'' He turned out to be a big hit in Australia. Centuries in Sydney and Perth got the nod from the knowledgeable people in Australia. The sight of Dean Jones and Merve Hughes sprinting towards the pavilion during a break to congratulate him for his century in Sydney is still fresh in Tendulkar's memory. "But I would pick the century at Perth as No.1. There was life in the pitch and the ball was doing a bit.'' While runs flowed from his bat in Tests and centuries were made at many venues in England, Australia, South Africa and West Indies, Tendulkar did not make his first century in one-day internationals until his 79th. He did it was against Australia at Colombo, nearly five years after making his debut against Pakistan at Gujranwala. Tendulkar has always given the impression of dominating the bowlers and scoring runs at a clip. He was striking boundaries at will until three years ago when he appeared to be a little cautious and keen to safeguard his wicket. He did not dismiss this fact, but said he doesn't go out to bat with the objective of batting, as he likes. "Cricket is a team sport. I go out and bat according to the team's requirements.'' He further clarified saying: "the public's expectations are very high. What I try and do is live up to my expectations. I set targets for myself, which are achievable, and try and live up to it. It's going to be difficult and tough to live up to peoples' expectations. I do not want to put pressure on myself. I want to be realistic.'' Tendulkar said it's an advantage to be in a position where he is now in the Indian environment. "Not many can be in this position. I want to thank all the people of India for helping me to be in the position I am now. Life cannot be normal. I cannot take my family out, which I have to do very discreetly and privately. I cannot do certain things, which a family man would like to do." He also has not set any time limit for hanging up his boots. "As long as I play, the motivation is going to be very strong. The day I begin to feel that there no point in playing, I would not like to be a burden on the team. I would always like to score runs for the country with the objective of winning." Tendulkar's commitment while training and practising has not diminished. He faced the `bowling machine' - with Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer handling the machine - for almost an hour. He said on Tuesday that he wanted to be one of the leading batsman in the world. He will be one on Thursday number wise, capped for the 100th time by India. At 29 years and four months, he would be the youngest to do so after Kapil Dev, David Gower, Michael Atherton, Javed Miandad and Shane Warne. He will be the 26th to play 100 Tests overall.
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