SACH is the class!

Preface and Acknowledgements: Thanks to all my blog readers for showing interest in my blogs and taking out time to read this one. This time I have tried to come up with a blog on a great personality. With the hopes that you would like my small effort, let’s start:

Hey Bhagwaan! - We use this phrase more often than not, atleast I do. So I thought of writing about the Bhagwaan – not the one which we normally think of, but about the Bhagwaan of ‘lamb dand gol pind daud pratiyogita’! Ah! Too much of patriotism of using Hindi language! Back to English - I am talking about the God of Cricket – no guesses for this; he is the Master Blaster, Sachin Tendulkar!

Numbers speak a lot (at least for Managers or for to-be-managers like me :P). So let’s start with them. 2 & 4 – There is something to do with these numbers for Sachin. He was born on 24^th, and he achieved one of the greatest feats of international cricket, also on 24^th, when he was playing his 442^nd ODI – again a combination of 2 & 4! The feat I am talking about – die hard cricket fans, who are ample in India, will absolutely know about it – is of scoring 200 runs in an ODI for the first time by an individual on this planet! We had to wait for 2961 ODIs or 29 years, 1 month and 20 days for this feat to be achieved.

One more interesting fact – umpire Shavir Tarapore and Sachin have an interesting relationship. Shavir, according to me, is the most fortunate person on this planet (Sachin is out of this race as he is the GOD!). He might be the only person to witness LIVE the three highest scores by the God. Yes, he was umpiring in those three matches – 200* (Ind vs SA in 2010), 186* (Ind vs NZ in 1999) and 175 (Ind vs Aus in 2009). So the relationship being that one ST is a good luck charm for another ST!

Leave aside numerology, alphabetology (new term coined by me for S & T being lucky for ST ;)) and fortunes, there is much more than this behind Sachin’s success. After all, very few people can think of dedicating their lives to just one, single thing – Sachin being one of them and Cricket being his passion. The hard work, the dedication and the perseverance shown by Sachin towards cricket is incomparable and unmatchable. The class, the timing, the placement of shots doesn’t come so easy. There is a lot of practice behind it. Can anyone imagine continuously practicing batting with the ball suspended from ceiling by using a thread, that too at late hours in the night? Can anyone imagine securing a one-rupee-coin, in an exhausted mode, by not getting bowled out – not for its monetary value but for the pleasure, the satisfaction one gets from it? Mind you, Sachin has got, rather scored, 13 such coins and he considers them as some of his most prized possessions.

The God has got innumerable feathers (records) to his cap. Few of them being the highest runs in ODIs, highest runs in Tests and the latest one as mentioned above. Someone has rightly said that Sachin does not break the records, but he creates records which are meant to be broken – many of which are still unbroken! He doesn’t run behind the records but it’s the other way round.

Such has been the class of Sachin, that he has been a topic of debate in the Indian parliament. The members are debating about an indubitable topic – whether Sachin should be awarded the Bharat Ratna (translates to Gem of India in English). There is no doubt in this - the whole India agrees that he is the Gem, the Jewel of India.

The next ICC World Cup, in 2011, will probably be the last world cup for Sachin as an ODI player. Let’s hope that the best of Sachin continues for his cricketing tenure and India wins this World Cup when he is playing for the country.

Happy Reading!

As I always say, I will try my level best to come up with a new blog sooner!

Regards,

Lalit.

My MBA Institute - PUMBA