From: mhusain@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Muqtada Husain)
Subject: Who is Sachin Tendulkar (The Rising Star)!
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 16:46:38 GMT

   I received this thru a personal mail from one of my friends. I don't know
who wrote this originally, but I am posting it as it is makes an interseting 
reading about an emerging star of nineties (Sachin Tendulkar). Hope you will
enjoy this.
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                     Subject: Sachin Tendulkar
  
   Sachin Tendulkar is named after the famous films music director S.D.
Burman. He has 4 brothers and sisters, he is the youngest. His elder brother 
and sister were SD. Burman fans so the name. His father is a retired teacher
cum poet, not interested in cricket, same is with the mother, not interested
in cricket. Sachin started playing cricket from the age of 5 in Bandra (East)
at the age of 7 his elder brother noticed the way Sachin would center the ball
everytime he hit it and suggested Sachin join Sardashram School where the noted
(I forget the name)coached. According to the coach Sachin had all the 
ingredients he just needed polish.

   Sachin averaged 100 practice sessions every year in school and in his final
year was noticed by the Bombay Ranji squad after he had scored 2500 runs that
year which included two 300s and a 200 he was only 13. He played for Bombay 
when he was 15. He scored century in his first match for Bombay. He holds the 
record to score a century in his debut in the Ranji, Duleep, and the Wills 
Trophy. He represented india in test matches after he had established himself 
as the main run getter for Bombay in the Ranji Trophy.

   Gavaskar and Richards are his idols. He calls Sunil "Mr. Gavaskar" withgreat
respect. He has never seen Gavaskar play in the flesh, but has seen all the
videos of him bat. He met Gavaskar for the first time during the Reliance Cup,
he still remembers that day. Before his departure to Pakistan for the Test
series Sunil presented him with his old pads saying since they were the same
size (ST is 1.65 mts) the pads should fit him. Sachin wore the pads throughout
the series. He was 18 when he represented India in international matches.
Gavaskar was 21 when he made his debut.

   According to Sachin Cricket is all in the mind you win and lose a game in 
your mind.Undoubtedly Azaruddin considers him the future captain of India.Kapil
says an early fame mayspoil him. But Sachin disagrees he says Cricket has made
him what he is today, he likes it that people come to the stadium to watch
him play, but once he goes on the field,cricket is all that is in his mind.
The press is comparing Sanjay Manjrekar and him as the Gavaskar and Vishy of
old. He disagrees. He says Sanjay plays a steady innings but he wants to get-
going as soon as he can. There is no way he can compare to Gavaskar, he does
not copy Gavaskars playing technique, but he would like to have his approach
and mentality for the game. He says "Gavaskar is an institution of cricket,
you cannot copy but you can definitly learn from him". In the test series
against England he would get out early as he would hurry his strokes too much,
Gavaskar advised  him to learn to play a long innings, the result his first
century in test.

   Gavaskar really admires Sachin's ability to learn. According to Gavaskar
"Nobody can be perfect in cricket but the person who can learn quickly has
got a bright future in the game".

  In Australia Gavaskar advised him to wait for the ball to come to him and not
vice versa the result 100 after 100 after 100. He started dominating so much
that at one time when Ravi Shastri was going great guns Sachin set up the pace,
he would let Shastri face the bowling and give him the strike as soon as
possible. But after Shastri got out he tore apart a bowling already tired.
Merv Huges would never forget a late drive of him to a ball pitched on the leg
stumps to the cover boundry. He could nothing but admire the stroke with his
arms on his hips and a look of disbelief on his face. Only two other batsmen
in the world could have done this and with the same nonchalance, Viv Richards
and Javed Miandad (I consider Javed as the best the world has at present, only
if he gets the same respect with his fellow Pakistani Cricketers)

   All of this was done after having bowled in the first innings and taken
two diving catches and assisted in a run out.

   Sachin according to the famous Channel 9 anchor of australian TV (I think
Richie  Benaud)represents the modern day picture of an all round cricketer.
He says " he is so good now,what would he do when he matures?!

   Deryke Murray the noted wicket keeper of old and the present manager of the
West Indian squad considers him a perennial headache to bowlers all over the
world. McDermott says " ...the bloke is difficult even now...."
In the current B&H triangular series people would come just to see Sachin play.

   In England after his first century, which according to the commentator, was
the most flawless the world had seen in a long time. The sparse,normally
uptight British could do nothing but slowly get on its feet and applaud.
  
   Sachin has played in 19 testmatches so far (an update would be appreciated)
and is averaging 42.3 runs per match. His 1-day average is 33.0 (and this
excludes his run rate, which is considerably higher)
  
   Sachin loves Phil Collins, Dire Straits and Pink Floyd, but hates hard rock
as too mucmmh noise. He has a red maruti that was presented to him after he
returned from England at that time he was too young to get a driving licence!
Right now his favourite"Time-Pass"is to go around his colony with his friends
in his Maruti.
  
   Tendlya (to his friends only!) wants,not to be one of the 100s but the only
one of a kind.
  
   His mentality for the game is most evident when he played in Pakistan, 
undoubtedly the most difficult and hostile playing grounds in the world. At a 
time when Imran Khan Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram (Probably the best trio of 
pace attack in the world) are at their hostile best, and where Imran is 
reported to have said '" ... abe hindustani pehle cricket khelna seekh...", 
where all the indian batsmen had failed, Sachin was a headache to all the 
Pakistani bowlers. So much so that Waqar Younis even tried to get him injured 
by bowling a barrage of bouncers, Imran was totally useless,even with his 
bouncers! Sachin played on even with blood on his face, he couldn't care less. 
I think he scored 67.

   I have always felt that Pakistan plays dirty cricket in Pakistan,but not for
Sachin after the test series he considered the Pakistani bowlers to be,lets say
very good and very difficult, nothing else.
   
   In the past decade we saw the emergence of Kapil as a star and was immediat-
ly compared to the likes of Lillee, Hadlee, Imran at his record after 14 years. 
Let us also remember that he made his debut in Pakistan. Now we have Sachin,
tempered by the same fire,as Kapil was 14 years back, of Pakistani cricket.
Are we seeing the emergence of another collosal.
  
   In the seventies we had Gavaskar. In the eighties we had Kapil. The Nineties
will surely be Sachin Tendulkar.
  
   I would be happy if somebody could post the entire statistics of Sachin's
career. It would be worth following his career,for those of us who were too
young to have appreciated Gavaskar when he was beginning his career. We under-
stood the merit of Gavaskar when he was already established, we took him for
granted. It would be fun to stay with Sachin through all his best and of course
his worst. I am sure when he retires some of us will have a story to tell our
grand children, of Gavaskar and Sachin.
 
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Cheers,


Muqtada Husain
Deptt. of Mech. Engg.
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH