BAT AN EYELID AND ANOTHER CENTURY

…Well, as it turned out, not only did Sachin successfully save the first Test for India, but he managed to use the occasion to add one more century to his towering stockpile of 87 international centuries – as an afterthought. Does the man have no mercy? Any more moot centuries and the skyscraper might topple over and damage the wicket!

The last day of the first Test between India and Sri Lanka saw India needing to bat the day out for a draw, with 8 wickets in hand. Mishra – night-watchman for namesake – had just succumbed to a sharp cutter from Matthews. Enter the Maestro.

He looked busy from the start, cutting Matthews to the point boundary and driving Muralitharan against the turn with experienced ease. Building a solid partnership with fellow centurion Gambhir, Tendulkar inched his way closer to his 43rd Test century. Then with VVS Laxman, he carried his bat through till stumps, on the stroke of which he scored his hundredth run of the innings. He also crossed the 30,000 mark somewhere along the line. It was refreshing to see Dhoni and Sangakkara allow Tendulkar the century before calling off the match as a desultory draw.

Give Tendulkar a rampant Aussie team and 50,000 clamouring fans in Sharjah and he will give you a hundred. Give him a dead, even strip such as the one in Kanpur and he would be hard pressed not to score you a century. With Laxman for sedate company, the restful outing he got in the middle seemed the perfect gift from the Cricket Gods to commemorate his strenuous 20 years in international cricket.

What he does not need is the untimely flak he is getting now from Bal Thackeray on what was an absolutely secular comment made by him. Perhaps Thackeray means well. Perhaps he simply wants to use Sachin’s occasion to get some personal leverage. But it is still in bad taste, if you ask me. Even Marathi actors like Atul Kulkarni, Madhur Bhandarkar and Sonali Bendre feel it is a non-issue that is being unnecessarily politicised. Maybe the great man should be allowed to have his achievement untainted.

Meanwhile, Michael Atherton has come out and doused the festivities a bit by drawing attention to the fact that Tendulkar has built his vita opus in the age of helmets and other protective paraphernalia, where the batsman can play without fear of death by leather. He cautions that calling Tendulkar the best ever would be blinding oneself to what the ancient cricketer like Bradman had to negotiate. Sadly this makes it impossible for die-hard cricket enthusiasts to ever declare anyone The Greatest. Technology – ironically something that Tendulkar recently came out denouncing – has struck out at his title. But in Tendulkar’s defence, he has had to contend with something which the great Don did not – bearing the weight of a billion plus hopes upon his spine every time he dons his gloves.

BCCI plans to honour Tendulkar with special mementos during the Annual BCCI Awards Ceremony on December 6. It will be another resonant note in the glorious symphony that is Sachin Tendulkar’s cricket career.