What is so special about Tendulkar?

Well, now Aussie legend Shane Warne has released the book, 'Shane Warne's Century' which rates Sachin Tendulkar numero uno. But what is the specialty Sachin Tendulkar has? Where does he outscore his competitors? There are many answers.

HE IS worshiped as the God in a cricket-driven country. His opponents once used to feel, somehow if they can send him back to the pavilion, then half of their work is done. After his departure, everyone in India used to switch-off their televisions. As long as he used to bat, everyone prayed for him. This was the power Sachin Tendulkar had once.

He holds many records in both Tests and one-day international matches (ODIs). He has the maximum runs in international cricket, besides scoring maximum centuries in international formats. He is about to break his one time rival, Brian Lara’s record of highest run aggregate in Tests. He also has the maximum Man of the Match awards in ODIs.

So are these factors are enough to make him the number one player of his time? The answer is yes. But at the same time he has outscored his contemporary batsmen (perhaps, even players) in the area of attitude.He never played any mind game with any of his counterparts. Instead, he allowed his bat to do all the talking. When he travelled to Australia for the first time in the 1991-92 series, some of the Aussies made fun of him regarding his age.

But after the end of the series, he shut everyone’s mouth. During the 1999 World Cup, he lost his father and he had to rush back home from England eventually missing the match against Zimbabwe. But still he returned to the Indian side in the match versus Kenya, whom India could have easily beaten proving his commitment. Not just this, he even scored a century in that match dedicating it to his late father.

He also seems to have a strong distaste for fights. During his first stint of captaincy, Azharuddin started all sorts of politics against him and divided the Indian team. But he did not make it a prestige issue and resigned from captaincy (which is considered to be a dream of every player) to avoid a split in the team. Besides this, he has never spoken about himself or his achievements.

Like every other celebrity, he also has his share of critics. They always accuse him of playing for records, money, fame, sponsors, etc. But they still forget he was our one-man army once upon a time. India was fully dependent on him. He may be the biggest sports brand in Indian history, but it is not his fault if the media makes him a God or any company pays him to endorse its products.

He never approached those brands. At the same time he is playing well too. If you ignore the recent Sri Lanka series, you will find he has scored runs in the previous tournaments also. In the tour to Down Under, he scored two important hundreds in the Tests and two crucial knocks in the finals of the tri-series, which eventually helped India to win a tri-series for the first time in Down Under.

So is there any reason why he should be dropped? May be because people expect him to hit a century in every match, only then his performance is considered good by those people.


He also seems to be the most popular and respected player among his team mates. If you look at the past, we will see Gavaskar and Kapil Dev always wanted to oust each other. Then when Azharuddin came to power, he removed Srikanth and Vengsarkar. Next, during Tendulkar’s captaincy, he fired Azharuddin. Ganguly always showed more favour towards Harbhajan keeping Kumble out of the squad. Dravid, with the help of Chappel dropped Ganguly.

Now Dhoni removed Dravid and Ganguly. But one thing you will notice, nobody had the guts to drop the Little Master. His mere presence in the team seems to give confidence to his team mates and scare the opponents, regardless how bad his form is in.

So leaving out these critics, you will find every intellectual and every cricket legend has admired him. So truly this makes him the God of World Cricket.

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