Tendulkar is a step from hundred 100s, but what does a record mean?

When Sachin Tendulkar walks in to bat at Lords later this week, he will be greeted by loud cheers, the England team will clap him to the middle, the umpire will smile and he shall, just for a moment, let his thoughts skirt with the idea of a record or should we say THE record. Tendulkar may not say it, but every time he holds the bat these days, he thinks about a record – namely the century of international tons. It would be impossible not to do that even though during the stretch of his career, he has regularly redefined impossible. But this is special – simply because no one else is likely to ever get close. Ever. The master batsman’s pre-match routine blocks out the world – strictly keeping newspapers and television out of the way. It’s music and painting a mental image of his innings that take precedence over everything else, life included. And he would have us believe that it’s working this time round, too. “I’m not thinking of records,” he said in an interview to Daily Telegraph recently. “I’m just thinking of enjoying this tour. The secret to any performance is not in chasing records. I think about, What is the best way to enjoy the game, and how can I enhance that enjoyment factor?" [caption id=“attachment_43443” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Tendulkar will get a great reception every time he steps out to bat. AFP”]  [/caption] “If I enhance the enjoyment then, naturally, the standard of play becomes higher. To me, that is more important. If I’m playing well, things can happen. I don’t need to go around chasing them. It’s a process. You construct a solid foundation and build on it.” It’s a process that has worked for him, largely. We do remember the painful wait until he beat Sunil Gavaskar’s record,  and his nervous nineties. But one can’t help but wonder what such a record would mean to Tendulkar. He has, after all, so many records that it would take pages to elaborate on each one of them. So, when you have so many of them, how much do they mean to you? It’s almost like wondering whether Marat Safin’s two Grand Slam titles mean more to him than Roger Federer’s 16 mean to him; whether Rory Mcilroy’s first Major would have greater value to him than Tiger Wood’s 14… What do words like most, fastest, youngest mean to these greats? At the end of the day, a world record is special. But at last count, Tendulkar has over 50 world records to his credit; would he be able to remember all of them? Or would the first one be the most special? Or is it just the big ones that matter? Tendulkar has always maintained that cricket for him is not about the records. So then, are these records just numbers and a little more? Anil Kumble, India’s leading wicket-taker in Tests, dominates the bowling side of records in much the same way as Tendulkar dominates the batting side of things. He had been around for 18 years and in the course of that stay, did more than just break records and established a legend that lives on to this day. But ask him about the records and the answer is tinged with thoughtful silence, before saying, “It’s a sense of great satisfaction. Not relief but satisfaction. It’s something you know you deserve. It’s not something that you consciously chase; it’s not a passion and it’s not even a driving force. It’s just something that happens along the way and gives, in its own way, meaning to what you’ve been doing. But all along, the underlying feeling is that of satisfaction.” Somewhere, we would like to believe that a record means something more. Aren’t they supposed to be milestones that help you remember how good you were? But just satisfaction… that’s a bit of a drop. Perhaps this is how the great ones are. So we move on to someone who didn’t have as many records to brag of. Like Ajit Agarkar. He never achieved the same kind of heights, but he did start off with a bang to become the fastest bowler to take 50 wickets in the world and who got a century at Lord’s, something Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman are still waiting to do. “When the record came along, I didn’t even know about it till the next game when someone came and told me. But then, I was like ‘ah okay.’ However, as time went by, it would be wrong to say that I didn’t feel proud,” said Agarkar. “The record stood for 10 years and that’s something to cherish.” Bishen Singh Bedi, who held the record for most wickets by an Indian bowler in Tests for many years, feels that the emphasis on records is a product of the times we live in. “In our days, we would congratulate each other and get on with things because there were always so many others ahead of us. It isn’t the same for Tendulkar because the record that he stands on the cusp of is a special one indeed. It’s like Sir Donald Bradman’s average of 99.94 – matching it in turn will take something special,” said Bedi. “But when you talk about players like Bradman, Kapil Dev or Tendulkar, the numbers don’t do their achievements any credit. They are legends in so many ways that the numbers in someway devalue what they have really achieved; in a way, the record limit them. These players are so much more.” Indeed, when Tendulkar does get to his record (that he will), rather than worry about making a serialised version of it or break it down into tiny fragments, we should just focus on the journey that got him here… the trials, the success, the failures, the return – all aspects that immortalised him in our eyes. But to the cricket connoisseur the perfect batsman’s perfect century in the perfect ground would indeed be dangerous for England. The series might likely be lost right there.