Sachin Tendulkar has turned 50. Read that once more. SACHIN TENDULKAR HAS TURNED 50. How might he? We nonetheless bear in mind him because the curly-haired, baby-faced boy marvel of 16, who battled the fiercest of quick bowlers aged 16 in 1989, in Pakistan, with a bloodied nostril, refusing to take the sagely recommendation of the extra battle-hardened colleagues to retire harm with a stern shriek. “Nahin, main khelega”.
But Tendulkar is nothing if not a person of milestones. He simply needed to get to a different 50, though he retired ten years in the past. And this one feels totally different to the 68 half-centuries he has scored in Tests, the 96 he cracked in Odis, the 116 he smashed in First-Class cricket and the 114 in List A video games.
Add to these the 16 he obtained in T20s, largely within the IPL.
“This is the only 50, where I don’t feel 50,” Tendulkar, wanting contemporary and younger in deep blue floral printed shirt and jeans, sporting just some traces of salt and pepper in his day-old stubble, tells TOI throughout a 52-minute chat at his sprawling Bandra Bungalow, which just about kisses the sand by the seaside at Perry Cross Road.
You know you’re respiration rarefied air while you take a look at the wealthy assortment of trophies in Tendulkar’s cosy examine, as you wait your flip to interview him. An image of the one cricketer to attain 100 worldwide centuries accepting the coveted Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, peeps at you. Your eyes soak in all of the accolades that he has gained and a set of newspaper headlines that scream “God” after which they meet the legendary body of him strolling out to bat on the Wankhede for one final time on November 14, 2013 in opposition to West Indies, and the crowds within the stands clicking the second on their telephones.
As you’re led to Tendulkar’s spacious front room and also you park your self on the elegant couch subsequent to him, you ask him what turning 50 looks like. “I jokingly say, I’m still a 25-year-old with 25 years of experience,” he says with a chuckle. An night spent with shut family and friends members, playing around continues to be his thought of enjoyable.
Not as a lot enjoyable although as speaking about his biggest love. Batting. And batting lengthy hours. And that is the one space the place he lets humility briefly marry narcissism.
While he has reviewed many knocks in his thoughts, YouTube has now allowed him to look at them once more. Like many sports activities followers who befriend the web and swat away despair by watching a Tendulkar extra-cover drive or a Roger Federer one-handed backhand.
“I watch my knocks, sometimes,” he says, and provides, “In fact, I watched one last night. The 179 against West Indies at Nagpur in 1994. I wanted to see one shot,” he says along with his eyes lighting up. The enthusiastic shift in direction of you, signifies it’s a shot that happy him.
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“It was a back foot punch, more of a firm defence which I had played to Courtney Walsh. It bounced on the surface (claps his hands) as the wicket was hard and went over Walsh’s head for a boundary. I wanted to watch that.”
You remind him that on 99, he violently pulled Walsh for a six to get to his hundred. “I wanted to watch that too,” he says, along with his face awash by a cocktail of self-effacement and infantile pleasure.
In between these sixes and fours although, there have been 1000’s of deliveries that tickled the ribcage, crushed the fingers and made him put his head down and meet the ball beneath his eyes. The willpower to bat lengthy was ingrained since he was 12. Ask him if it’s a side that has gone lacking in in the present day’s cricket and he takes a beneficiant pause.
“The game has also changed after newer formats have been introduced,” he analyses.
“T20 has taught batters a new dimension. You need not defend. You can have an impact by playing 75 balls or lesser. The rules have changed too. But I still feel that if someone is bowling well, one should have the technique to survive for some time. You can’t say, main to maroonga and say, even if I get out, I always have another match. Play the situation. It is like if I am having Japanese food, I will use chopsticks. If I am eating ghar ka khaana, I will use my fingers. While eating continental fare, I’ll use fork and spoon,” he stresses.
But focus and approach are totally different, you argue. A rigorous preparer, who romanced toil and the odour of sweat, Tendulkar counters, “You improve concentration by challenging yourself in practice. It helps to bat long hours, and just when you feel you are about to lose focus, you pull up your socks and tell yourself, last ten minutes, last ten minutes.”
Ask him the secrets and techniques of bettering focus, and he says these 4 golden phrases. “SWITCH ON, SWITCH OFF”
“When I was at the non-striker’s end, I would look to switch off. At the striker’s end, I would wait till the bowler started his run up and be at 90%. It would be at 100 % when he was at release point.”
Tendulkar says batting is all about choosing up indicators from the bowler. “If you are sharp, you will pick those up. Even before the ball is released, you know what is coming at you. Inswinger, outswinger, bouncer, split-finger slower one, the way a bowler hides the shine to cover the grip, I would watch that. It gave me extra time,” he says.
If you had been privileged sufficient to cowl Indian cricket by the 90s and 2000s and watch web classes, you’d have observed Tendulkar carrying on within the nets even after the coach or help workers yelled, “Last round”. You remind him about that, and he says, he had that trait even at school.
“I just enjoyed batting,” he says, his eyes radiating that love for his craft. “Even if I was batting well, I always was just happy, never satisfied. I never wanted to get out of the nets. Achrekar sir, had to pull me out.”
So, what was a passable web session for him?
“The sound,” he emphasizes, with a voluble tock. “To me, my batting was all about that sound I heard. When I played the ball, that sound told me whether I was batting well or not. I may or may not have scored runs. But that sound told me what I was doing. Whether I was moving well, or not. A batter needs to hear that. When you hear that perfect sound, it puts you in a different zone. If I did not hear it, I would focus on quantity and volume, till I heard that sound,” he stresses.
Was 1998, the 12 months the place the captaincy was taken away from him and he recorded in all probability his biggest season and had arresting duels with the late Shane Warne in India and Sharjah, the 12 months when the sound was the sweetest, or was the sound sweeter when he had that incredible second wind, put up the 2007 World Cup, the place he rattled off 24 centuries in a prolific four-year interval?
You attempt to counsel that perhaps he did one thing totally different in 1998 than 1997?
It is the one time within the dialog that you just sense a semblance of agitation on his face and tone.
“I did nothing different to what I did in 1997 when I was captain. There were a number of things that were falsely reported that I was struggling. Yet, I scored 1000 runs in both formats and if I am not mistaken, that year, I was the only cricketer to do it. Those days, I felt, reporting was not done properly. To me, whether I was the captain, or just a player, winning mattered more than anything else.”
What was extra pleasurable for him, then, the purple patch of 1998, or the golden sundown of 2007 to 2011? Tendulkar says, for him, it was enjoyment issue that counted probably the most. And in that second wind, he says, he was having fun with his cricket.
“Enjoyment keeps you in the right space. Mentally, if you are in the right space, you think better. There is fluidity in whatever you do. Your movements at the crease are unrestricted. For me, batting is all about how you react. Every ball, a bowler is asking us a question. And to answer that question, if your mind is complicated, and you lose 0.45 seconds, it is already too late. That is why on certain days, a bowler who is bowling 135 can rush you, but on another day, even if someone bowls 150-plus, you feel you have time.”
This business of nice gamers having further time, makes for a captivating chat and also you ask him, whether or not that’s actually true and the way that’s attainable.
“You have that extra time when you are playing one ball at a time. When you get rushed, you are playing multiple balls at one time. One is the actual ball and the other is the imaginary one that has never been bowled. If there are multiple things going on in your head, you end up playing at the imaginary delivery. And by the time you realise that you are late and are caught on the move.”
The dialog easily veers from abilities and preparation into the artwork of preserving one’s physique for the brutality of elite competitors. Over a embellished profession of virtually 24 years, Tendulkar’s physique was ravaged by accidents, each outdated and new and the one which hurts him and his numerous followers most for its nearly tragic heroism, is the again damage he suffered throughout his epic 136 within the fourth innings at Chennai vs Pakistan.
As he uncomfortably shifts in his seat, Tendulkar’s voice turns sombre, and his eyes replicate the reservoir of ache. “I still remember, it started happening before teatime. At teatime, I was in the dressing room lying on the floor, with my feet on a chair as I was trying to relax my back. I told my teammates that I am going to try and accelerate. Because the way my back is acting up, I don’t think I have enough time.”
You log in to your personal reminiscence financial institution attempting to recall that cruelly tense January Sunday afternoon and ask him did the ache trigger him to hit Saqlain Mushtaq for 4 boundaries in an over.
“Yes,” he says and analyses his dismissal with India 17 away from a well-known win. “But that is when the bounce did me. The ball (off Saqlain) bounced a little more than what I had expected. We were six down, and we still had four wickets in hand. I thought I could finish the game a little earlier by taking more initiative.”
Tendulkar reveals he travelled to Australia and England to get his again sorted out. “I was also told that I may have to get operated. I did not eventually. But the injury troubled me for a good six to eight months.”
In August 2004, he additionally made all his followers google Tennis Elbow after he was identified of the situation in Holland the place India had been taking part in a Tri-series. “It troubled me for a year. I tried taking injections and went through several treatment methods, but things settled down only after my surgery.”
(PTI Photo)
The Master reveals that from 2007 to 2011, when he scored these 24 centuries, he was affected by Tennis Elbow and a Golfer’s Elbow on the proper hand. “If you see my videos from that period, you will see me wearing protection on both sides. After every practice session, I would ice my elbow. But my previous experience had taught me how to manage the injury.”
Tendulkar reckons while you get injured issues rather a lot within the remedy of the issue. “Very few know that Rahul Dravid also had a Tennis Elbow injury. But his injury happened towards the end of the season in 2002 or 2003. Rahul told me, for the next three months, he won’t lift a bat. And his injury had healed. To me, it happened at the start of the season.
“I had no possibility however to select up a bat and play 100-plus balls each follow session. That ensured, I sank slowly, however absolutely.”
Experts reckon, the pre-Tennis Elbow injury Tendulkar was more thrilling to watch. Post 2004, while he became more prolific, the run-making, according to analysts, seemed more efficient but less exciting. For a batsman naturally blessed with a wide array of shots, how ego-puncturing was it to give up some of the shots to ensure that the injury does not worsen?
“They had been in there someplace. But after the 2003 World Cup, I had my finger operated. That damage truly occurred in New Zealand in 2002-03 earlier than the World Cup. It took me about 4 months to recuperate. I felt my grip and my fashion of taking part in had modified due to that. In the next 12 months, I suffered from a Tennis Elbow. I have no idea if all the things is said now. From right here, (exhibits his grip) while you change your grip, it impacts your hand. In 2005, it was my proper shoulder and bicep that needed to be operated. In 2012, I injured my wrist. All these accidents impacted my grip and my again raise. That is the rationale I felt sure pictures… (leaves it unsaid).”
Tendulkar reasons that the brain understands the body better than anyone else. “The mind shuts down sure elements of the physique and forces you to make refined changes. And I felt someplace with out me realizing, these adjustments (chopping down on sure pictures) had occurred.”
(PTI Photo)
But he was also the most analysed batter by rivals and opposition teams and cutting down shots may have something to do with captains blocking some of his good shots. Tendulkar replies in the affirmative and adds, “That additionally brought about me to alter my taking part in fashion. If there’s a widish mid-wicket, I’m going to attempt to place the ball to keep away from him and play straighter, in direction of mid-on, which could look like I’m avoiding the shot over mid-wicket. The pictures that I could have minimize additionally is dependent upon what my position was within the group.”
Tendulkar’s body did go through the wars a fair bit, but his eye was still intact. That eyesight, which allowed him to get in position early and allowed him to pick up length earlier than mortals, was what made him revered.
The great Sunil Gavaskar took care of his eyes by not reading in moving vehicles, dim light, and by taking care that pens and pencils of emotional fans seeking autographs do not get near his face. How did Tendulkar nurture his greatest gift?
“I didn’t do something particular,” he says. “Because I used to be practising and focusing so onerous, each time I went to ophthalmologists, I used to be advised that my eye muscle groups are robust. That allowed me to focus. I used to be additionally capable of immediately look into the solar. There had been a lot of guys who discovered it tough to catch the ball that got here out from the solar. Even in the present day, if I’ve to catch a ball that comes straight out of the solar, I’d discover methods to do it regardless of wanting immediately into the solar. Right from childhood, I used to play lots of of deliveries every single day with intense focus. That strengthened my eyesight.”
Tendulkar never shows off at the best of times, but he does indulge in a bit of it by reading the smallest font on his phone without glasses and contact lenses and reveals he still has 20:20 vision. “That means, it is good to nonetheless be within the 40s. I do not understand how lengthy it’ll final,” he jokes.
(PTI Photo)
A creature of habit, Tendulkar reveals the one thing he never gave up doing from November 15, 1989, at National stadium, Karachi to November 14, 2013, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, was packing his bag and ironing his kit the night before a game. That was his trigger.
“When I noticed my garments pressed, I knew that tomorrow there’s something necessary taking place. And I might begin switching on. Also, on match-day mornings, I might at all times make my very own tea in my room.”
The latter makes you curious and you goad him into revealing why he did that when the entire hotel staff would be more than willing to serve him tea.
“It was a part of my preparation. I didn’t need to see anybody within the morning. If tea was not obtainable within the room, I might at all times inform the one that served it, to go away it outdoors. My room on a match day was MY SPACE. It allowed me to consider the sport with out anybody disturbing me. I HAD to be in that zone.”
You ask him if he felt he was in that zone when he was making his retirement speech, which even today, if people need a good cry, plug in and play. And you ask him how much did he prepare for it?
“I did not put together in any respect,” he says animatedly. “We had been to have a press convention a day after the Test ended. But the Test ended on Day Three. Star TV requested me, we are going to ask you three questions, is it wonderful?
I advised them, is it okay if I converse, reasonably than answering simply these three questions. The sequence that was deliberate was like this: I might converse first, then the person of the match, man of the collection, Darren Sammy after which my three questions. At the tip, Dhoni was to talk, and we had been to go and take the trophy.
I advised them, is it okay if I modify it a bit. They stated ‘wonderful’. But I stated, it will likely be greater than three 4 minutes. They stated, ‘go forward.'”
Tendulkar reveals that he only had a list of people who he wanted to thank and no prepared text. “Whatever I spoke, it simply got here out. I knew who I used to be going to speak about and the best factor I did was I simply organized all the things chronologically. It was very tough emotionally, although. I stored sipping water to keep away from choking and tearing up,” he says.
10 years of living as a retired cricketer has not diminished his love for cricket, but Tendulkar says he does not watch too much of it on TV. However, he has interesting views on the three formats.
“In T20s, can we discover a stability between either side bowling within the second half of the sport and batting within the first half? I might like it if ODIs are break up into 4 innings of 25 overs every. But a group has solely 10 wickets. You determine the way you need to use your batting sources. It brings the help workers into the sport too. We additionally want to think about going again to 1 ball, as a result of in the present day there isn’t any reverse swing and discipline restrictions make it inconceivable for spinners to alter their line.”
And what about the format that is considered the purest, Tests?
“We should acknowledge that on the coronary heart of Test cricket is the pitch,” he stresses. “We have two variations that favour batters, Test cricket must favour bowlers. You have launched two variations the place each ball or over, there’s something taking place. You don’t need to have Test cricket on useless tracks. We hold listening to Test cricket is our no.1 format and we should revive it. We can revive Test cricket provided that bowlers are capable of constantly ask batters difficult questions. Let us not speak about what number of days the sport goes to final,” he adds.
Having had his fair share of injuries and rehabs, you ask Tendulkar about cricket fitness and gym fitness in these days of workload management and preservation. His views are simple, but deep. “Batters, keepers, quick bowlers and spinners, everybody’s necessities are totally different. After them, you determine the way you practice, how a lot you practice and while you practice. The means one trains within the low season, you can not try this in the course of the season.”
Tendulkar stresses on skill-based training for overall development. “I hold listening to issues about not bowling an excessive amount of within the nets. Yes, you need to not over bowl. But it’s equally necessary to not underneath bowl. Because the talent units {that a} bowler develops, he develops solely when he bowls. If you retain conserving your self, as an alternative of 24, you’ll develop these abilities at 28. All the main bowlers I’ve spoken to have advised me that they needed to bowl to get higher. Same with batting. If I simply hold going through restricted deliveries every single day, I’m not going to get that selection,” he states.
As the chat nears its conclusion, you ask him if turning 50 will make more people seek his counsel as one assumes by that age an individual has experienced most of life’s ups and downs. While Tendulkar remains a generous tipper with cricketing views, do young players also come to him for financial advice? After all, he was the first Indian superstar, to be managed by a firm, something which became a norm in later years?
“No, they do not,” he says, laughing, but turns serious, quickly. “If they do, I’ll inform them to have a private advisor, whom they will belief. Involve shut relations too. Have educated folks round who’ve good intentions for you.”
Tendulkar says, his family always took care of everything else off the field which allowed him to devote himself single-mindedly to cricket. “We took nothing with no consideration. We valued all the things that got here my means. And it was hard-earned cash. We by no means splurged with out pondering correctly.”
He concludes with a prophetic, “You will hold getting launched to newer issues in life, however always remember your roots.”
(Reuters Photo)
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com