The world around Sachin Tendulkar: Team India absolutely had to retire that No. 10 jersey

Sachin Tendulkar holds up the 2011 World Cup trophy at Wankhede Stadium. (Image source: Instagram/ Sachin Tendulkar)

In February 1989, a 15-year-old from Bombay (now Mumbai) was devastated. He had hoped for higher honours, not in the class 10 boards which he had to write this year too, but because he had hoped to get selected for India’s cricket tour to West Indies starting later in March 1989. But the selectors, led by the venerable ex-royal Raj Singh Dungarpur, decided that Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, who had made waves all through the 1988-89 season, was simply too young to take on the best side in the world. It was felt that at 15, Tendulkar would not be able to handle pace like fire from the legendary West Indies quicks.

Young Tendulkar was absolutely shattered. Afterall, he had spent the preceding months scoring runs by tons in all forms of cricket in India’s leading domestic tournaments. He had expected to be picked, at least as one of the standbys for the tour, announced before the final squad was chosen.

The old guard was still in place, to an extent, in Indian cricket squads at the time. But the world was about to change very soon. An English computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, was proposing a radical change in the way we communicated and indeed lived. In March 1989, even as India’s cricket squad was on tour in the West Indies, Berners-Lee proposed what was then called an information management system, which later came to be known as the World Wide Web (www). The geographical barriers that existed around the world and between humans were about to be broken forever. But what did that mean for Tendulkar?

That West Indies tour was indeed a trial by fire for the men on the squad. They failed miserably and then took on the powers that be at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by going on an unsanctioned tour of the United States. Though the Supreme Court reinstated the warring players, a lot of the seniors were on notice and the incumbent skipper, Dilip Vengsarkar, was sacked. It was time to ring in the new and bring down the old.

Also read: Sachin Tendulkar, Arjun Tendulkar and other fathers & sons of Indian cricket

Sachin Tendulkar gets to 14,000 runs in Test cricket on Day 2 of the Second Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2010/11. Michael Hussey is fielding at leg slip, and Simon Katich is fielding at short leg; Tim Paine is keeping wicket. (Photo by Pulkit Sinha via Wikimedia Commons 2.0)

Enter Sachin

This was the theme not just in India but around the world. The pro-democracy protests in China led to the infamous Tiananmen Square Incident. So, the world was at the cusp of a change and so was Indian cricket. India itself was about to see a period of communal and social strife.

India’s cricketing seniors first felt the axe falling on them as the likes of Mohinder Amarnath were being moved on. India had a new skipper in Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Vengsarkar opted out of a Pakistan tour for personal reasons.

India was looking for fresh blood. Dungarpur & Co felt that it was time for young Tendulkar to be drafted on a tour of Pakistan which has traditionally been the graveyard for famed Indian cricketers. The magic of India’s famed spin quartet and the genius of Gundappa Viswanath had ended on the dusty lanes of Pakistan previously. This was a huge gamble that the selectors were taking. Afterall, the young boy was still only 16.

But they took a risk, much like those who brought down the Berlin Wall, up since 1961. That broke the barriers and brought a divided nation back together on 9 November 1989. Almost a week later, on 15 November, 16-year-old Tendulkar took the field for India and things were never the same again!

The world was also never the same, as around the same day in November 1989, the first successful communication via a HTTP server was established by Berners-Lee.

Right through the 1970s when Tendulkar was born, India was in a state of crisis despite the huge success of the Bangladesh war in 1971. The breakdown in democracy, thanks to the Emergency in 1975, and massive unemployment had led the nation to the brink.

In the 1980s, strife in Punjab and Kashmir, alongside the brutal assassination of the sitting Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had made the entire nation cynical. There was no hope left, and it seemed that the 1990s would lead us into further disintegration. There was nothing that could help us get out of the morass.

Until one boy, Tendulkar, slowly but surely emerged from the shadows of the cursed past. India was still reluctantly weighing up this baby-faced teenager.

Dungarpur & Co were willing to finally break with the past and launch what they called the team of the '90s as a fresh young lot was chosen under a reluctant new captain Mohammad Azharuddin. Elsewhere, Nelson Mandela, the great South African disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, was released in February 1990.

It seemed like changes were happening in a tidal wave around the world.

The hopeful 1990s

Tendulkar announced himself to the world that very year in 1990 as he scored his first Test hundred in Manchester and helped save a match for India on the English tour. He had well and truly arrived.

In the rest of the world, slowly but surely, the iron curtain was being brought down as communist regimes and indeed the cold war was coming to an end. Right from 1947 till the fall of the Soviet Union, India was a strong socialist nation. So, we took time to assimilate with the rest of the world.

But in 1991, even as the Soviet Union collapsed, India was prepared to finally break with the past. Another assassination, that of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, shook the entire country. We again stared at an uncertain time already vitiated by the communal, social, and of course territorial strife in various parts of the country.

The new regime liberalized the economy and opened the doors for the world to invest in India. That was the unlocking of the potential that had hitherto been untouched.

With the seniors slowly being eased out of the system, Tendulkar was climbing up the charts slowly, unlocking his own potential. He brought hope to a nation that was longing for new heroes to look up to. Only this one was still a young boy! His focused approach on the crease made us forget our worries about the state of the economy in 1991, whether it was a temple or a mosque or whether the stock market was in a tailspin.

This, even as India played very little cricket at home and we only saw glimpses of this teenager via grainy images provided to us on state-owned Doordarshan.

Clear picture: Advent of satellite TV

In 1991-92, Tendulkar confirmed that he was indeed primed for greatness as he was the lone man standing on a deck that was burning in Australia. For the first time we saw clear images of our Boy Wonder from Australia, thanks to the entry of private satellite television. He was the youngest to score a Test hundred in Australia, when he made 148, and later at Perth, he underlined his class when his seniors failed. During the 1992 World Cup he took on the best and confirmed that he was indeed India’s best.

His rise was so swift that even the stiff upper lipped Englishmen from Yorkshire could not resist his charm and offered him the deal to be the first overseas player for their county in 1992.

India stared at a prolonged period of communal strife when, in December 1992, the Babri Mosque was demolished. The cricket squad was on a historic tour of South Africa then, ironically led by Azharuddin, with Tendulkar being the prime contributor as a batter. By the time the Indian squad returned home in January 1993, the country had changed.

India was looking to rebuild its cricket through Tendulkar with a dash of spin. The bombings and the communal riots in Tendulkar’s beloved Bombay (now Mumbai) in early 1993 did little to deter the young man, still in his teens.

Later in 1993, in a sign that India had indeed broken with the past, Tendulkar was named vice-captain. He was now winning games for India not just with the bat, but also with the ball. The country simply loved him.

The world was also aiming to move towards peace as Israel and Palestine were brought to the same table in Oslo.

Meanwhile, Tendulkar was slowly but surely emerging as the solo artist in a country where multi-starrer Hindi movies were still in vogue. His promotion to open in ODI cricket in early 1994, led to a new wave.  Mandela was being sworn in as South Africa President as apartheid was unshackled there, even as Tendulkar was destroying bowlers in both forms of cricket.

By the time the 1996 Cricket World Cup came along at home, Tendulkar had become the darling of the corporate world. He was endorsing products left, right and centre. He sold us everything from cola to credit cards.

Sachin Tendulkar at the non-striker's end during a Test series against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. (Photo by Vikas via Wikimedia Commons)

Cola, credit cards, captaincy

It was little wonder then that in mid-1996 he was named India’s cricket captain.

But this is when the seven-year long honeymoon ended.

India demanded results. A nation now fed on colas, burgers and the best that the world had to offer, wanted trophies. Tendulkar & Co came close but always managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

So, it was hardly a surprise that captaincy was snatched from Tendulkar in early-1998.

He was back in the ranks and now he was even more dangerous than when he was a teenager.

In 1998, Australia and indeed Shane Warne paid for the move by the Indian selectors especially on his 25th birthday at Sharjah. This was a much more determined Tendulkar, very much like the Indian nation, emboldened by the nuclear tests at Pokhran in May 1998.

Later from September 1998 we could even ‘Google’ to find more about Tendulkar’s exploits as the search engine was born.

India was at war with Pakistan in 1999 (Kargil War) and the countries mourned the loss of our soldiers.

For Tendulkar, his own tryst with serious injuries began in 1999. As a nation we sighed as Tendulkar held his back in pain in early-1999.

We learnt a lot about injuries and its recoveries through Tendulkar:

·       Back (1999)

·       Toe (2001)

·       Finger (2003)

·       Tennis Elbow (2004)

·       Shoulder (2006)

·       Groin (2008)

·       Hamstring (2011)

Each time Tendulkar went under the knife for his injuries, we learnt new things. He belonged to the whole country and his pain affected everyday life, including the untimely death of his father during the 1999 World Cup. In 1999, Tendulkar was back as India captain, but it was a short-lived stint and he very quickly gave it all up.

Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman

Till the likes of Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, V.V.S. Laxman emerged, Tendulkar carried the entire nation on his shoulders. It was only around 2001 that Tendulkar became part of a multiple-hero cast for the first time since his debut. Virender Sehwag’s arrival further eased Tendulkar’s burden.

Indian cricket has never looked back since 2001 and neither has the world after the horrific 9/11 terror attacks in New York, USA. The world was moving to a tighter security regimen.

Indian cricket was hoping to scale new heights under its foreign coach John Wright, who brought in a fresh regime of fitness and accountability.  Tendulkar was buying into it and was embracing the new culture wholeheartedly.

By early 2004, India was back on the negotiating table with Pakistan. A historic tour of Pakistan in early 2004 once again underlined his legend even as his tennis elbow caused a nation to worry later that year.

He came back slowly, but the world was once again going through a crisis as a tsunami in December 2004 caused widespread destruction.

It was Tendulkar again who provided cheer as he moved closer and closer to his childhood hero, Sunil Gavaskar on the Test run-getters list. He first levelled with Gavaskar on Test hundreds, crossed the 10,000 runs, and finally after 12 months went past the original Mumbai master in the tally of tons.

All this while, his aim was always the World Cup crown, which had eluded him since 1992.

The 2007 World Cup dream turned into a nightmare even as Tendulkar and other players became the target of a nation. A divided squad with a head coach in Greg Chappell ready for battle with his own players was always a recipe for disaster.

This even as the world was welcoming the smartphone, thanks to Apple, in January 2007. The world was shrinking further in size.  India did finally win a World Cup, albeit in the T20 version later in 2007, but Tendulkar had opted out. He watched as a new India emerged!

Sachin Tendulkar retired from International ODIs and T20 matches in 2012 and from Test cricket in 2013. (Image via Instagram/ Sachin Tendulkar)

World Cup 2011

He was now even more keen than ever before to lay his hands on the trophy. The 2011 finale was at his beloved Wankhede Stadium and he was keen to be part of that.

The global recession in 2008 did not slow him down and later that year the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai moved him like never before. He batted with a vengeance to help India chase down a massive score against England in a Test as a tribute to the victims.

Injuries meant that he made sporadic appearances, but even as he completed 20 years in international cricket, the Indian squad was changing as the newer lot was emerging.

But in 2010 even as Aadhar established our identities as Indian citizens, Tendulkar reinforced his hold on the country by becoming the first male to score an ODI double-hundred. A year later he achieved his dream finally.

The entire country cried with him as India celebrated the ODI World Cup victory at Tendulkar’s backyard, Wankhede Stadium!

But there was still some more gas left in the tank.

The 100th international hundred had eluded him for a while. He had to wait a good 12 months before he finally achieved the feat in Bangladesh in 2012.

Everyone knew that the end was nigh when he became a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Rajya Sabha. It was a measured move much like the rest of his career.

First, he gave up colour in late 2012 and then in 2013 at Wankhede Stadium finally gave up the white-ball format, standing taller than all of us even at 5′ 5″.  It is now a decade since he retired but Tendulkar’s farewell speech that day in Mumbai still moves all and sundry.

He is now India’s only sporting Bharat Ratna, but is even more relevant today than ever before, just ask the advertisers.  In the days of AI, Tendulkar still stands out with his humble persona.

The joy on his face when his son, Arjun Tendulkar, took his first wicket in the Indian Premier League (IPL), confirmed that he still retains some of the boyish charm that he first showed us back in 1989.

Long may it continue!

Take a fresh guard, Sachin. The innings has only just started as you know better than most.

Happy Birthday.