The God Of Cricket- Part II

“…….. And if I have forgotten to mention anyone, please understand and forgive me.” And with that final and emotional speech, it was time for Tendulkar to bid us goodbye, one last time. Tears rolled down. Emotions filled the heart. Words were reluctant to come by. It was the situation of every other Indian, including me. The stadium filled with roars of “Sachin Sachin Sachin”. The atmosphere was undescribable.Though I didn’t show off my emotions in front of my mother and brother, (at home, I have a reputation of not showing off any of my emotions. Now, that is insane, you see!)
I was filled with tears deep in my heart. I didn’t know how I controlled my emotions, as usual. But, seriously, hats off to me. (Please bear with my stupidity!)  And, the whole nation watched the last part of what has been the most fantastic and amazing 24 years in the history of cricket. Tendulkar’s speech was truly emotional, to say the least. It probably made every Indian fill their eyes with tears.  Nothing can describe it. No newspaper. No blog post. No news channel. Nothing.  And yet it took minutes for me to get a realization of the moment. I would not be seeing the man, the cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar play again, bat, bowl and field, all the things he does so perfectly on the cricket field. That classy knock of 74 was part of history. That, it was the final frontier. The knock which summed up 24 years of greatness. That feeling began to sink inside me, and all. The people present in the stadium, were filled with so much emotion. They were all part of history, too. The history they would love to cherish their whole life. Generations to come by, we would all be proudly boasting around, about a great legend, in the name of Sachin Tendulkar. That, we experienced those memorable moments. Those classy shots against the best of the best of bowlers from around the world. Those moments would remain photographic to our memory for a whole lifetime.   And, on the field there was this victory lap which I was so dying to see. It happened on the day when India won the ICC Cricket World Cup. It happened again. The way the Indian cricketers were taking turns to carry Tendulkar around, it gave me and possibly every Indian goos bumps. And finally, Tendulkar went down the 22 yard pitch, which defined him, bowed down and took its blessings. It aroused tear drops too. And, that is how Tendulkar is truly defined. His humbleness. His respect. His everything which makes him a down-to-earth person. And he truly is.

Seriously speaking, the amount of emotions that has surrounded me has made it difficult to even portray Tendulkar. It may take a billion such posts and still the description about Tendulkar would be incomplete. But, what makes me most swayed by is the fact that when tomorrow I am going to wake up, I would wake up to a new era in Indian cricket. A nation, who, for the last 24 years had been obsessed and attached to a single cricketer, would finally have to learn to live life without that cricketer. The name of that cricketer who is considered ‘The God’ by almost all Indians would not feature in that respected Indian scorecard, ever. Few may argue with me that the situation around Tendulkar has been overhyped. But, truly speaking this is the least honor a nation can possibly give to a person of Tendulkar’s stature. Australians may consider Sir Don Bradman as the greatest cricketer. Even above Tendulkar. He probably was. But, for non-Australians Tendulkar is the greatest. No one can match him. For a person to carry a billion hopes for more than two decades, it might have taken a billion Bradmans to copy that. 24 years without a single scratch in his career. Without a single controversy. 24 years without losing his temper even once on the field, which I don’t think any Australian, let alone their legend, can live without. And, without a single doubt, he has been the greatest of all. 24 years is not a joke. I was not even born when Tendulkar made his debut. I came down to earth only a couple of years after he made his first test hundred at Old Trafford. So, by the time I started crying, he was already 5 years into cricket. Behold that. Thank you, Sachin Tendulkar for those glorious 24 years of cricket, out of which I could relish only 12 years as I started watching cricket only  in 2002. Thank you for those memories.  Thank you for making cricket what it is today. Thank you for everything. Those memories will truly remain in all our hearts. All in all, thank you, Sachin Tendulkar. Truly.

P.S: I may not have made a mention about the Bharat Ratna Tendulkar was conferred to. Probably, another blog post needs to be put up and I would surely make a special mention about it. Thank you. Be happy.