An emotion called Tendulkar

As the batting greats turns 50, it's time look back at the Mumbaikar's stellar career

While announcing his retirement from Tests, Anil Kumble made a statement that was at once instructive and poignant.

"Just as how Sachin (Tendulkar) had to prove people right every time he went out to bat, I had to prove people wrong every time I stepped on the field."

Tendulkar, who turns 50 on Monday, was a child prodigy destined to achieve greatness. Kumble, on the other hand, was often questioned for not turning the ball enough, how many wickets he took or the matches he won for India notwithstanding. Kumble and Tendulkar's careers almost overlapped. A few months after the Mumbaikar made his Test debut in Pakistan in 1989, Kumble cut his teeth in Test cricket in Manchester in August 1990. And it's credit to the two stalwarts that they, more often than not, met those standards.

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"You can't believe someone who made his debut at 16 is turning 50 now. For us, he remains that young Tendulkar we saw," Kumble tells DH. "It's a wonderful milestone. He had had to carry a lot of expectations throughout his career. It's a great honour for me, our careers literally coincided with each other's. As a person, you can't think of a better ambassador for the game."

In a career that began in Karachi and ended in Mumbai amid a sea of emotional fans cutting across generations, Tendulkar almost single-handedly elevated the status of cricket in India and the world with his exploits that are unlikely to be paralleled, let alone surpassed. India had had its cricketing superstars before too, with Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev being the biggest among them. But with due respect to all those greats, no one quite fired the imagination of the country like Tendulkar did. His boyish looks belied his fearless approach against the fiercest of pacers on the fastest of pitches, but that's what endeared him to millions of cricket lovers across the world. He was a boy wonder in the true sense of the word.

Through his 24-year journey, through the many ups and downs, Tendulkar built an emotional connect with India that remains intact and inseparable. That he made his debut at a tender age of 16 made him popular across generations. The evolution of Tendulkar has been, in a way, the story of India since the 1990s. The right-hander and India, which embraced economic reform around the time Tendulkar's career began, grew together. As the country's economy rose, cricket's capital too multiplied as sponsors pumped millions into the game to cash in on the Tendulkar-mania.

Tendulkar meant different things to different sets of people. He was a welcome distraction from his daily rigmarole for the average Indian, he was the batsman that enabled Indian fans to shed an inferiority complex about their team. Time stood still when he batted, and all hope was lost when he was dismissed. Tendulkar wasn't just a great cricketer, he was an emotion. And he had to carry that baggage every time he went out to bat.

"The whole nation looked up to him," says Kumble. "Even from the opposition's perspective, you get him out and you have sort of won the game. He had to carry that (pressure) every game. That's not easy at all. In terms of what he had to endure, his public persona... That has been brilliant. It was never easy being Tendulkar with the entire attention on him, in whatever he did or didn't. The way he handled all that was brilliant."

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Tendulkar's former team-mate and India pacer Javagal Srinath echoes Kumble's sentiments.

"At times, we used to empathise with him whenever he didn't get runs," says Srinath. "The kind of pressure he used to have because the whole stadium came to watch him bat. He was aware of that. For him to perform like a machine day in and day out, which he did on most occasions, it was great. But whenever he didn't - at the end of the day, he is also a human being made of flesh, blood and bone - it wasn't easy for him. That's what makes him special, right? That's the reason he was number one."

The highest Test and ODI runs, most centuries in both formats and 100 international hundreds vouch for his greatness, perhaps the greatest since Don Bradman, but what stood out was his humility, single-minded focus on the game and his ability to stay free of controversies. He was the son parents wanted to have and he was the batsman kids wanted to become. There won't be another like Tendulkar.

"More than anything else, we need such heroes for this country," notes Srinath. "For us being in the side, going along with him in the side, the kind of motivation he would give us, the kind of talent he would put on display for us to emulate. Not necessarily bat like him but 'I have to contribute to the game like him.' I think that itself is a huge factor. Not all can be Sachin Tendulkar, there can be only one. He was the pinnacle of Indian cricket and he still is. We need such people.

"Just imagine Indian cricket minus Tendulkar! It could have been somebody else, but not to the extent he has taken the game. Forget about India, you go to Australia, you go to New Zealand, it was all about him. Sachin Tendulkar. That's the kind of influence he wielded on the whole cricketing world. What makes it special is it's not just about his cricket, but the way he conducted himself off the field as well. He remained blemishless, never in the controversy, his humble upbringing, the way he talks to people, the way he goes around conducting himself... He has controlled his life so beautifully, that blends with his game to make him such a special person."