The Tendulkar dialogue: What will you miss most about Sachin?

It’s official. Many of us are going to take a break from cricket. If not that, we will at least not be watching it with the same fervour anymore. For many of us, cricket was Sachin and it’s tough to imagine the game without him. He was the cricketing habit we found so hard to kick. Even when the times were tough, we tuned in for Sachin. That was his magic. Ashish Magotra and Tariq Engineer on what we’ll remember and miss most about Tendulkar. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section too. Tariq Engineer: It’s still hard for me to digest the news that SRT is calling it a day. I suspect those last two Test matches against West Indies are going to be crazier than the 2011 World Cup final. A lot of people are going to call in sick. For me, what I am going to miss the most is knowing that India had a player that was better than anyone in the opposition and whom the opposition actually feared. I go back to 1998 and the way Tendulkar surgically took apart Australia. This wasn’t a player just getting hot. This was simply Tendulkar being Tendulkar. And he gave you lift in a way I imagine Sunil Gavaskar must have given the previous generation. That we could give as good as good as we got. Ashish Magotra: Honestly, the moment that stands out for me is not a particular knock. It is the moment when the crowd would realise that Sachin Tendulkar was the next man in. It didn’t matter what the man who was dismissed had scored, it didn’t matter if it was Sehwag, Ganguly or Dravid. His walk to the crease was always accompanied by the most earth shattering noise you will ever hear. It was a crescendo without an end. It was an experience. It was what cricket was all about. We have just two more Tests of that remaining. [caption id=“attachment_1164825” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Sachin Tendulkar. Getty Images[/caption] Tariq Engineer: I know what you mean. I remember being at a Ranji Trophy game with Mumbai playing Bengal. The crowd actually booed Sourav Ganguly when he field the ball when Sachin Tendulkar was on strike. And this was when Ganguly was captain of India and had a huge fan following of his own. But the admiration for Tendulkar was always on another level. Once Tendulkar was out, the Wankhede stadium quicky emptied. It was like the stadium was being evacuated because there was a bomb scare. Ashish Magotra: Yeah, True. Everyone has their favourite player – Ganguly for some, Dravid for the classics, Sehwag for the mavericks, Kumble for the gritty. But no one could bring themselves to hate Sachin. That was his greatest achievement. He managed to break boundaries in the way no other cricketers did. We all grew up aping his stance, his mannerisms, his aila too. Few… no, no one will ever achieve this kind of adulation again. As big as Dhoni is, it is just not the same. Tariq Engineer: Admittedly, that admiration did take a little bit of a hit over the last couple of years, as his form suffered and people felt he needed to retire. But for me, he had earned the right to keep going until he felt he was not able to contribute to the team. His coming to the wicket was always the most anticipated moment of an India match. My grandmother, who is 86, has said she will stop watching cricket once Tendulkar retires. I am sure she is not alone in her sentiments. He has defined Indian cricket for almost two and a half decades. It is difficult to accept that the end has come so suddenly. Ashish Magotra: But still what is it that you will remember most about him? Some of the best things about him were seen during the nets session – away from the public. He would be the first man in (even during Ranji practice), the last man out, would wear out the coach (just ask Gary Kirsten’s shoulder). I met him for dinner once during India’s last tour of New Zealand and he said that practice for him was not about quantity, instead it was about quality. But even then there was a lot of quality in there. A lot of hard work too. He had a very human touch about himself – as great as he was, he was always approachable – to fan and journalist alike. Tariq Engineer: Yes. There were no airs about him when you talked to him. What I remember is the meticulous attention to detail. Everything had to be just right. I watched him get ready for a photo shoot in 2009 and he had plenty of questions for the stylist. He wasn’t going to let anyone mess with his hair unless he felt comfortable about it and approved of the concept. That’s one trait all the great ones have in common. Talent is necessary but it is the commitment and dedication that turn that talent into achievement. No one was more dedicated to playing cricket than Tendulkar. Ashish Magotra: With Sachin in the middle, anything was possible. That is what I will remember most. When wickets were falling all around him in the 1990s, he was beacon of light for cricket fans in India. He gave us hope and that meant a lot to us. Through his career, he was the man we trusted to set things right. Through every controversy, he remained untainted. Through cricket, he brought us together… huddled in front of our screens. Simply put, he made cricket India’s national past-time. Tariq Enginer: I couldn’t agree more. I do have one criticism, though. I feel he was always too quiet when it came to scandals. When the match-fixing scandal broke in the late 1990s, Tendulkar chose to stay in the background and not say much publicly. I am sure he had plenty to say behind the scenes and to the younger players, but I wish he had been more vocal in public. His moral authority has always been unimpeachable and I wish he stood up the way he did when he told the Shiv Sena that “I am a Maharashtrian and I am extremely proud of that. But I am an Indian first. And Mumbai belongs to all Indians." Ashish Magotra: Perhaps Sachin had his own way of doing things off the field. Perhaps it was not the right way. Perhaps he believed that he wanted to do all the speaking with his bat. Yes, we would have loved him to talk about the scandals – we would have loved him to take on the BCCI – we would have loved to see him right the wrongs. But then again many of us like him because he managed to find a way to not get embroiled in any controversy. He remained pure. His going away is going to leave a void for us all. How will cricket survive? Will we ever have the same sort of involvement? Tariq Engineer: I know I won’t watch cricket the same way. What Tendulkar did on the field was personal. He belonged to his fans in a way that none of his contemporaries did. You didn’t change the channel or do errands when he was batting. His triumphs were our triumphs. His failures hurt in our guts and we felt let down because we believed he should never fail because if he failed, we failed. He was, to steal a phrase from the Beatles, “our ticket to ride”. And I don’t know how you replace that. You can replace the bat on the field with another bat, but you can’t replace the man and the space he occupied in our lives. There has never been another Don Bradman. There will never be another Sachin Tendulkar either.