An insight into Sachin Tendulkar’s career
Sachin Tendulkar came into the
limelight as he has often done when he smashed a record double century
to become the first ODI batsman to do so. It is also significant for the
fact that it came after some 35 years of ODI cricket since its inception
worldwide in 1975.
That was with the inaugural World Cup. Following this feat by
Tendulkar it is worth going into Tendulkar’s career. The turning point
in Tendulkar’s career was when as an 11-year old he came under Achrekar,
almost an unknown coach in India. Under Achrekar, the young Tendulkar
changed school and moved to Shardashram Vidyamandir in Dadar close to
the Shivaji Park on the advice of coach Achrekar.
 It was at Shardashram School that Sachin as a 15-year-old, started
demolishing bowling attacks together with Vinod Kambli, another of
Achrekar’s products. What took him to the national limelight was the
664-run partnership he shared with Kambli for Shardhashram School in an
inter-school tournament in 1988.
But it was a stand that almost didn’t happen as the two started
belting the bowlers not noticing the man at the boundary line who kept
waving with the coach’s message to declare. The effort found worldwide
headline publicity including the prestigious Wisden. From then on Sachin
always caught the public eye.
It was in the 1990s where the players of the Indian team had
successfully challenged the governing arm of Indian cricket in a
players’ rights issue that Tendulkar’s big chance came. The selectors
led by Raj Singh Dungarpur selected a new set of players - Ganguly,
Jadeja, Prasad, Srinath, Kumble, Kambli and of course, Sachin Tendulkar
who suddenly found himself thrust into the national stage. As it is
Tendulkar’s cricketing acumen was already too sharp for his age.
First class ton at 15
Tendulkar was only 15 when he played first class cricket for Mumbai,
then Bombay. And as the fairytale goes, he scored a century. A feat he
was to repeat in his first appearance in the Deodhar and Duleep Trophy
as well. Deodhar is to assess the one-day talents and Duleep Trophy a
notch higher involving intense five-day cricket. The break which
Tendulkar was waiting for finally arrived in 1989, on a tour of Pakistan
of all places.” Tendulkar’s turn to bat came on the second day against a
Pakistani team that included Imran Khan and Waqar Younis. At 16 years
and 2005 days Tendulkar was the third youngest cricketer to play for his
country in a Test match.
Mental discipline
Perhaps, the finest insight into the man’s secret to succees can be
derived from the following words uttered by Sachin in his
autobiography,’Sachin Tendulkar Masterful”, “I was too young at 16 to be
frightened by anything. I went out to play as hard as I could. I dreamed
of being the best player in the world, but you don’t disclose that.
I just wanted to score more runs than anybody else. I know now that
it is mental discipline that sets people apart, the ability to think
differently and to generate energy in the right direction. Everybody is
trying hard; the players who succeed are the ones who push themselves a
bit harder.” He was cleaned up in the first innings by Waqar and it had
Tendulkar questioning himself whether he was out of depth at that level.
In the second essay he made 15 in a drawn Test.
But in the next Test he was up and on his way with a half century.
“After that half century, I knew I could survive at this level of
cricket,” recalls Tendulkar. The rest is history.
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