Turn it around, Master! If anyone can, it's you!

Dear Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

     Over the last couple of days, I have been sick and tired of listening to the “Retire Sachin” campaign. Many who were waiting for you to fail from the beginning of the last decade or so, are licking their lips. There are a few with a terrible short-term memory who cannot look beyond the most recent series, or at best the present year. We always have the stubborn ones, who are so obsessed with the likes of Jacques Kallis, Brian Lara and Steve Waugh and thereby fail to acknowledge how important you are for the prestige of World Cricket. Critics never cease to exist, but the Master you are, always choose to fight them alone and in the only way you know - The Quiet Way, with the Bat.

If you had to, you could have walked out immediately after your Test Debut, during which a fiery Waqar Younis bouncer left you bloody-nosed. At the tender age of 16, there wouldn’t have been too many questioning you, had you wished to stop your innings. You refused to, you fought hard, but got another beauty when you were comprehensively beaten to be bowled. But you did score a gutsy half-century, in the match that followed and Tendulkar arrived then. Things did go rather smoothly with very little troughs until the year 1999. The weight of your bat took a heavy toll on your back. In addition to the weight, it’s the number of hours you spent on the nets and during matches which could have been responsible for the disintegration of your back. You could have chosen to hang up having played 10 years of solid cricket at that time - aged 26. You didn’t! You continued to fight and overcame the trouble with the help of a disciplined fitness regime. Not many would remember one of your finest ODI innings, which was played at Colombo in 1999, when you were fighting this injury. Immediately after hitting a trademark straight drive and before the ball had crossed the non-striker, you were in your haunches yelling with pain, holding your back. It was traumatic, but you didn’t give up. 

                                             

When Dad Tendulkar passed away mid way through the WC 1999 and you could only fly back with a regret of not having spent the final minutes with him, you could have easily chosen to say "Enough is Enough" and Quit. You didn’t - What did you do? You performed the rituals as a responsible son would, rushed back to join your team-mates as a loyal sportsman would, eyes filled with tears and heart filled with agony and scored a scintillating 140*. 

Just when all of us thought that the back injury was the last you had to encounter, we had a shock in the year 2005. Tennis Elbow - the dreadful pair of words, echoed in our ears for the first time. As you have admitted many times, this phase happens to be one of the darkest in your career and possibly life. There was a time when you struggled to even pick up a bat, let alone wielding it against fast bowling. You fought hard, worked religiously and ensured that you made a comeback in the same year. What a batting performance it was, to announce to World Cricket, “I’m back”! Right through the innings, I had my nervy moments, praying that the elbow should stay put and not break down. I was thankful to God that it didn't and still am.

                                                  

FORM - when it is good, rarely gets noticed. Alternatively when it's wretched, people spot it in quick time. What they fail to understand with your loss of form was, it was visible only because of the remarkably high standards you had set for yourself for such a long duration. You had a very poor tour of Pakistan in early 2006, where Mohammed Asif troubled you repeatedly. Back in India shortly afterwards, when you fell caught behind to Jimmy Anderson, the beloved Mumbai crowd booed their own little Master. “Well, this is ridiculous” everyone thought, “The end is nigh”, many murmured. But the most important personality who knows best about Tendulkar is Tendulkar himself and he kept believing. Your form didn't improve drastically well as few of your better knocks for a while came only against lowly Bangladesh. However, there were enough signals to indicate that the tank isn't empty as yet.

You had an ordinary WC in 2007, two failures in three games and that was one of the reasons why we had to exit in such ignominious fashion. The World was against you, not to mention the unruly “fan” base back home. 2011 was a long way away at that time and it was looking increasingly possible that the Tendulkar era will be over without a World Cup triumph to his name. Ian Chappell insanely remarked that you were playing with the help of your reputation and not with that of your technique. He asked you to be honest and walk away. You believed otherwise, so did we and rightly so.

                                                  

You rejuvenated yourself in the year 2008 and the Test Centuries count kept going up. I cannot recall a single slump in the next three years that followed, culminating in the 2011 World Cup, where you were in imperious form. The 100th Century took a long while to come and during this period of wait, a lot of needless pressure was mounted on you. The England series was forgettable at best, the tour to Australia was surprisingly mediocre considering how well you have played there in the past. I wasn't overly worried because you looked good in each innings until you got out after settling down nicely. You looked like lacking that element of luck since you were getting out every time to the first false stroke you played. It cannot be an issue of technique because just over a year ago, you had a fabulous tour of South Africa, where the conditions were tougher and more demanding. You couldn't have become a bad batsman overnight. You cannot, even if you desperately try to become one.

Throughout your career, on most occasions you have known when to shoulder arms, when to drop your wrists, when to duck, when to weave away, when to pad up, when to paddle, when to attack, when to defend, when to get down the track, when to go back and forth, when to cut square, when to go over the slips, when to pull, when to drive, when to punch, when to glide, when to flick, when to call for a single, when to turn it down and many things more. Having known all these, I truly believe, you will certainly know when to retire also. You have experienced 23 years of hardship and rigours - it will be only fitting if YOU call time on your career when you know the time is ripe to. With a greedy belief that the time doesn't arrive at all, we will watch you as long as you play. Even if that takes you well into your forties, we would never ever be tired, because Cricket cannot get another Sachin Tendulkar. You are a Masterpiece and therefore you are Unique.

Sincerely yours

One among the Millions who worship you!

srtendulkar@gmail.com