Amazingly written. Everything was damn perfect about the article, except the last word :)

lovely article... loved it

Simply too good. Every enjoyable read. You should write more often!

Nice article Neeraj. Very well written.

You echoed my emotions mate!! Cheers.

I've bet only once in my life on a cricket match and i won it in unbelievable fashion due to Tendulkar. It was a Rs 5 bet (that was a few months savings of my pocket-money) that India would make 100 by 20 over in their WC 1996 match against Australia. I made the bet with my uncle during the innings break. India were soon 7/2 and then Tendulkar went berserk. Finally, at the end of 19 overs, India were 92. Shane Lee bowls to Tendulkar. The first ball goes for a boundary. The next four are dot balls. I am the only one hoping to win the bet. The last ball Tendulkar just smashes the ball over the bowler's head into the sightscreen. As his first selector put it, "gentlemen, Tendulkar never fails".

super stuff... are u a sports journalist?

njoyed reading it. a nice1

@Vaibhav, Absar, Arsh, Bansi, Varun,

Thanks people. Of course, it helps to be a writer when Tendulkar is the subject, since the whole world is on one side then.

i hope u win d bet this time:)

Yogesh - Glad at least one of us won our bets. My partisan deluded cranium had me convinced that he'd score a century every time he went out to bat, and realizing this to be a good financial proposition, my friends kept betting against his scoring a ton.Really, after all the money I have lost, Sachin should give me a percentage of his earnings. But then he gave more, with his bat.

Vineet - Some day.

Nicely written.

You forgot to mention SRT denied peaceful sleep to Shane Warne and in effect denied a happy marriage to Liz-Nayar

No doubt how good he is when it comes to batting. but cricket is more than tendulkar. I bet if Tendulkar was Aussie or british he wouldnot have enjoyed this much popularity because simple India is 1.3 Billion people which makes it unfairly biased towards him. I think there are several super good cricketers out there who deserve accolades like Dravid, Kallis, Steyn, Hussey, silva etc. Not to mention second name on the list is even a bigger match winner than he is.

awesome man!!! this denying tendulkar will take you through.. :) send this link to the publishers.. :P

cant wait for the final at Wankhede when Sachin will accept the Man of the Tournament award and help India lift the world cup.. It will be the perfect swansong.. And about the writers.. i totally agree.. they are running out of angles to write articles on sachin.. but they keep trying coz nothing is read as much as an article on sachin.. ask cricinfo!

Crazy guys, he is jus a cricketer. And dont forget all the hopefuls who have been denied a place in the India XI becos this guy (& Dravid) refuse to quit. We will suffer like the OZ as a whole generation would have been denied playing n learning in the middle order becos these guys have velcroed the No 3 & 4 spots for such a long time in tests !!

very nice article....loved it..

really a cult stuff, nicely written.

"Any original thought, since everything about him had already been written. "

well....u proved urself wrong..lol
great article(Original thought...)!!

he did gift something else apart from the runs - he was the first wicket for many bowlers(between 10-20)

wow! too good! i want to have your babies!!!

Very well written Neeraj. You should write more often :)

fabulous ! I wish u win ur money back !

@ Christy - You could be right, I do not wish to debate that. But here we are only trying to celebrate the man, with some humour for effects.

@Anonymous-who-wants-babies, Ur enthusiasm & lust moves me to tears.

Sanghvi - Will see you at the Wankhede. Come with curly hair.

Ali - Of course he wouldn't enjoy this kind of adulation if he was from some other country. As they say, "We are like this only"

Jatin - Brilliant theory dude, your imagination belongs to another plane altogether ;)

I Looove Sachin!!!!!

Gr8 article! Though Anjali might have had the "shallow pleasures" "in her teens" as she's elder to Sachin by 4-5 years!

Very well written

Very well written. Are you the one who experimented with truth?

Very nice article...keep on writing such articles...

Thank God! I was so tired of the "Sachin is God" posts. Sweet :)

Awesome post Nero! :)

Sachin is the brand ambassador of Boost, and not Bournvita.

Great article - I am wondering if Sachin can achieve one more record that I never thought anyone could ever equal. English great Wilfred Rhodes played Test cricket in 5 decades (1899-1930). Sachin would need to play for another 9 years and it is a tall order to equal it, but then again, does anyone want to bet against him ????

Neeraj,while sentiments are fine (especially your personalized ones) while penning this piece, you should not let cricket facts get the better of sentiments. Hope you got a chance to watch Gavaskar a fair bit since you seem to mention 1989 as some kind of a landmark year for you watching cricket.To call Dravid "arguably the greatest Indian batsman forever " is a blasphemy as Gavaskar (especially) and SRT are of a different class altogether. Dravid,Ponting,Kallis (even Sri Lanka's Samaraweera)all scored runs heavily after 2001(and till 2006-07). Even Ganguly (along with Dravid ) just about had an average touching 50 in Tests in the 90s, but would any one in their right minds call Gang a Test great?. Dravid failed in 5 toughest Tests against OZ and SA in back-to-back series in 1999-00. Sanga,Kallis ,Mahela J. maybe Laxman (if he lasts 2-3 more years) will all reach 12,000 runs. It's all about piling on the runs with the sheer volume of Tests you play.Good luck with your writing endeavors

Spare a thought for pore ol' Kambli. Think he was last seen near a soup kitchen shaking his head. But i guess i'll stop right there before I roughen up a raw nerve ,somewhere.

@Emancipator007 - In fact Dravid is undoubtedly better than Gavaskar if you want to stick to cricketing facts! Dravid has crossed 12000 runs and has had a better average than Gavaskar. He has been piling runs at a better pace than piling runs on sheer volume of tests! Also Dravid has the best average as an Indian playing overseas. Its just because of all the hype and focus on Tendulkar that he has missed on the recognition. I am sure you are a fan of Gavaskar and/or you are being sentimental here than the author! And about all those names who you think would cross 12000 runs, let them cross the landmark, because till then your argument sounds very hypothetical. Anyway everyone stands to have an opinion and you too should have it.

very good artical for an indian cricket lover

Bro.. Where ever you are, which ever city you stay in, whatever you do, I just want to wish you luck.. Thanks for giving us a fabulous article to read.

@ Emancipator007... its an article written in humour... don't argue just for the sake of arguing... smg was... rahul is... but all these are second best... end of story

'nuff said!

@ Ravi

Its unfair to compare batsman of two different generations. Law of averages may favor Dravid as a batsman but SG belonged to an era where anything more than 50 as test average was exceptional. Dravid no doubt is technically sound batsman but SG was an opener .
Its like comparing Sir don Bradman with SRT when we know that cricket has changed a lot in the 50 yrs of time difference when both the batsmen played.
SRT might have averaged more 100 tests or Sir Don mightnot have scored more than 60 per innings if they have swapped their playing generations. Who knows !

Rahul Dravid remains one of the best cricketer ever. SRT is the ultimate thing in cricket :-)

wonderfully written- all good except for the fact that your thinking of winning the bet this time. sorry mate , your going to loose 100 INR this time. :)

luvd it..he desrvs each n evrythg as just his thought, a conversation abt him, his ads, his smile brings in millions of smiles in India n abroad

Very nicely written indeed!! :)

As I have been writing as feedbacks to other coloumns as well, under the shadow of Sachin, Dravid's milestone of crossing 12,000 test runs went unnoticed eventhough it happened in the same innings. Indian media may kindly focus on cricket and whoever achieves any milestone should be promptly mentioned. After all Sachin is not the only one playing cricket

Nice piece, but i dont think he can win the world cup.

brilliantly written with emotions............loved it....and m sure god will score a century at wankhede on 2nd april 2010 whosoever the opposition is and this will be the best moment in the carrer of india's most beloved son.....

So you expect Aussies in the final, no not again ! Btw, the sledging champions seem to have been tamed...thanks to their woeful Ashes campaign.

P.S - The Narayanan family is rich now, and has raised the stakes. Each one places hundred bucks this time. Of course I will win back all the money I lost, in two months from now, when he scores a century at Wankhede and trounces the Aussies!

The final is on April 2nd. 2011. That's over 3 months from now!
Not to worry though, India and Australia have weak bowling attacks that is necessary to win it all. South Africa and England would be in the final and it it's a toss up at this time, but I believe that South Africa will win the big one just because I believe their batsmen will fare better against England's bowlers than England batsmen against South Africa's bowlers.

Great article. I really loved it.

Just another panegyric article!

Another story of Anti-Indian article.Now that you have failed to make the people convince that he is not a match winner,you are now indulging in developing grudges between the teammates;Well the Englishmen are famous for divide and rule policy.By dividing two of the greatest batsmen you are gaining nothing;and by highlighting his personal things you have now proved Cricinfo editors can droop to such a low that they would look into even one's bedroom to defame any well-known person.I completely ridicule this article.

I am sachin fan, happy to read such a nice article.

well done Neeraj... Its always great to look the world from the other side..
and he denied his wicket to Brad hogg.. I dont know if it is right or not but I read it somewhere that in a match Hogg got Sachin out and after the match was finished, he went out to him to get an autograph and was smiling.. Sachin most humbly autographed the ball and wrote "it will never happen again". Since then he never got out to him..

ah, lovely bunch of words those! proud of you!

Great fun to read this. The contents,languange and eveything about the article is as nice and elegant as Sachin's cover drive

I am Sachin fan but I am his hardest critic too. He played most selfishly on the final morning of ist test against SA .He did not try to save the innings defeat by try to shield last two tail enders and scoring runs to cover the tail enders.

Again failing in both innings of a test match as he did in the second test against SA is inexcusable.

He is responsible for failing at very crucial time in test/one day matches. Losing oneday matches in 2007 against Bangladesh and srilanka were like match fixing by Sachin .. Iknow nobody likes such wild accusations but then don't compare him with Bradman

I am repeating the statement which even I dont remember how many times I have posted as a commment to CricInfo articles. "sachin has been the most focussed, entertaining & humble cricketer ever lived & his contribution to cricket cannot be matched" & now I would like to add another statement which might seem a bit exaggerated to few.. "Sachin may be the (one & only) person in India who is loved by each & every Indian after our Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi"... yeah may feel a bit too much but it is nowhere less to a FACT !

@Anil Anupam - Yes I completely agree that they belong to 2 different generations. And who knows if they had swapped their places what result we would have seen! Anyway I had responded to an argument from Emancipator007 who called author as sentimental in this article and thought Gavaskar to be better on the cricketing facts!

@Anil Anupam - Yes I completely agree that they belong to 2 different generations. And who knows if they had swapped their places what result we would have seen! Anyway I had responded to an argument from Emancipator007 who called author as sentimental in this article and thought Gavaskar to be better than Dravid in terms of cricketing facts alone!

I have looked at this invincible artist with great interest, and by now i am convinced that he is the greatest conquestador to ever grace a cricket field.His flawless timing; strokeplay is the hallmark of a genius.He has conquered fear with every stroke,and every bowler with the exception of none shared this pain. They know it.It is sad that to know that many greats are overshadowed by his dominance,but it is the law of nature,The greater the canopy,the greater the shade.

I am not denying SRT anything when I say that his humility in particular, has also denied lots of reporters the ability to be unbiased in their comparison of him and his peers.

Hi Mr.Narayanan,

This is one among the best piece I have ever read about Tendulkar, Rather than reading about the great records he has set through the years, over and over and over again, reading stuff like this gives me more goosebumps a zillion times over. To be frank I remember going to the temple the day India played Australia in the Sharjah cup final '98 ( doing my 8th grade then) to pray that, may the little master hit a hundred, it so happened and India won and did I go to sleep with that free flowing complacency ( feeling that atleast I could this for the Indian Criicket Team............hahaha).

Anyways, that wasn't bragging from me, I was just trying to be a loyal fan like everyone one in this page.
Thoughts well aligned and words well put!!
Hoping to see more from you.
Hail Sachin.

As usual Nero ..very will written ...straight from heart :)
\\To anybody who ever happened to be the second wicket to fall for India
is so so true !!

P.s : super duper happy to see ur post at ths blogspot ..keep posting

Priya - I hope she did, after all the adulation our man has got, its only fair if Anjali had some of her own.

Ceeyem - Yes, its the 'experimenter with truth'.

John - Great to see some Aussie love for the man. I hope ya beat the Pommies.

Emancipator, Ravi - It is very hard to decide who is better, Gavaskar or Dravid, and mere statistics arent a deciding factor. We can use a number of stats that can prove either as better. That's why I used the phrase 'arguably second best'. Lets not compare them, both have been great, lets keep it like that.

Nair - I think they do focus on most cricketers, maybe it would be a lot better if the media gives some focus to other sports as well.

man who can never perform under pressure ... and i am not talking for just last 2 years

What an impressive way of writing,everything mixed so well and written so beautifully...i am falling short of words..Amazing, well it seems may be he denied many people many things, he gave you one of the best articles i ever read...:)

Prashant, Rushme, Bala, Phani, Sunil, Anand, Vj, Dinkar, Pkraj, Nadesh, Archita, Ravi -

Nakul - Heh, I hope the same for you man. Thanks for making my day with that comment.

Geeta - Absolutely lovely response, although I dont think the article was half as good.

Atish - I'd love to see the Aussies in the final, man.

Abhishek - You are as hopelessly and ridiculously optimistic as I am. The best way to be :)

Kiththa - Wait and watch, this time we'll win and I'll flash those 1000 bucks in front of your face :P

Wonderful article Nero boy. In your own distinct style. Thumb's up! You totally rock!

really awesome writing...believe me i relived all the moments written as i was reading this...

An avid Sachin fan....adore his humility and character more than his batting...but...

What will he deny in future is something very interesting...!!
- the joy to a billion Indians; two reasons - no more Sachin and a hard time for the Indian team as the spots he occupies in Tests will be a gaping hole...I hope Pujara rises to the occasion :)

I chuckled at the last point....what makes you think the Aussies gonna be there...??

Lovely piece on master. Nice read. Thanks for the share.

nicely written..

but when you said pretty Anjali...you mean Sara right?

nice and the 1st comment was nice too... "last word" lol. i dont think it will be aussies this time either.. better not be anyway..

Since the last world cup i have given up on watching cricket unless its Sehwag playing for a simple reason that he deserves a whole lot more respect as a team player who plays for the country and doesnt beat the system to add more feathers to his cap. There definitely are many more cricketers to be written about then just those who sell. However this is a good read.

@ christy..what do u mean exactly? so if a batsman make > 10000 runs in both forms of cricket nd still doing great, he should retire just bcoz there are other players waiting..my dear there r only 11 members possible in a team nd these guys cant be replaceable at the moment..dont talk nonsense only bcoz u dont like someone.

Im a srilankan but even I'd be happy if sachin helps India to win a world cup.. sachin deserves it..The youngsters should help him to achieve that

Well very sad that how much over-hyped he is, his 50th didnot helped us at all, on 5th day morning some reply to Stein's bouncers was due, that is what I am deprived of, he choose to remain at d other end and remain not-out, Laxman has played better in d last decade n more delight to watch in test-cricket. But alas like Gandhiji one more flawed icon got the nation's attention. No doubt about his batting ability though... n If India wins WC, we will be ecstatic, no matter how many he scores.

Rahul - Your calling me Mr Narayanan makes me feel ancient and prehistoric. Love the way you talk about your passion, buddy, I see a likeness in us. Thanks for the glowing comment, it wasnt a great article but I am thrilled nonetheless.

Randolf - I like the perspective you offer, it could be spot on. However this article is only meant to draw a smile, not portray Tendulkar as a collossus (add phrase: that he is):P

Ashan - That is a lovely thing to say. We pray along with you that India wins the world cup. Heh, no man, Sri Lanka is playing brilliant cricket recently.

You missed out kasprowicz's name. Sachin almost single handedly ended that guy's career.

Sachin is a lil boy, him cannot compare to Bradman, Hobbs, Gooch, Richards, Zaheer Abbas, Hanif Mohamed or Lara. Why? Him never make a big score yet. Him got 50 century yes, but him not attacking like these men. A lot of people say this.

Really good article! could not agree more that Dravid will be the most troubled

Wat an unusual take on Sachin's magnificence!! :)) very innovative and original.Never thought of him this way. Love it Neeraj! :))

SRT is the Best.No debate...

@ pallab, As long as we expect somebody else to help us, nothing is going to be helpful. 11 men make a team and a billion people make a country. Only if everybody works towards the goal, can a team or a nation do well. No point in blaming the next man for our shortcomings.

hai Neeraj Narayanan,
amazing article keep going as often as sachin does.
bye
praveen

Nice Article!

I would like to add one more thing to this list! One group of people that was left out is the "Bradman Fans". Everytime Sachin reaches a landmark, the debate begins whether he is greater or the Don is. Poor fans of the great Don have to scramble to get evidence and come up with arguments proving Don is still the greatest...hehe. However, Don Bradman should be really grateful to Sachin as Sachin compels experts and common men alike to look at his career more closely.

Very Innovative Writing. You need a new category to write :o) may be "Sports - The softer side". Wish Sports journalist's had the time to think this laterally, and not just round up on years worth score sheets to analyse and create reports and present to the public. Think its the small stories behind the big numbers which make the difference. Thanks for making my day. Better get back to work now, have spent an hour reading and re-reading the article and all its comments..haha.

50 th ton is great but it is waste. Though VVS didnt make it to 3 figures, if India wins tomorrow, his 96 is better than his 111* by all means. The innings that change the result of the game is important and a player who can rewrite the result is great not the one who rewrites and creates records. Sachin is my all favorite and he is a legend but not great.

Awesome awesome...Sachin is not a mere mortal..He has denied the formation of atheists since '89.. You forgot to mention that :)

Tendulcar is not that great; He never make a big score. I like Bradman, Richards, Zaheer Abbas, Gooch and Lara more. These guys are attacking unlike Tendulcar.

In one word, SRT denied the cricket world, leadership.

For a cricketer of his caliber and experience, he should have been bestroding the cricket world like a colossus, as Lloyd, Richards, Imran, Border, Waugh and many others did.

Instead, he has been mollycoddled, protected, pampered and pandered to protect his batting numbers.

India stand a good chance of winning the next world cup....but some of the other teams are capable of beating them at home easily...the only thing more dissapointing than what Tendulkar has put the writer through...is what South Africa has put their fans through over the last 2 decades....heartbreak without fail.....outright favourites in 96 - homeground advantage in 03 - semi-finals in 99 (incidentally they had a better team than the aussies then), 92 was just bad luck - home ground advantage for the last T20 finals - always up there as one of the best teams, always one of the favourites, and always choking, choking, choking, choking and choking.....even now the team is strong, yet in India next year, the psychology of the mind will be weak and there will be more rash plays when it matters, more rash decision under pressure, more bad luck and more heartbreak for the fans....so proteas please mend this fans aching heart

i've always liked rahul dravid over tendulkar..no matter how good and powerful he is but dravid is just something else..and very true because of tendulkar and how overly hyped he is dravid has not gotten the attention or appreciation he deserves.

Great article....
I keep saying abt the point u mentioned abt Dravid to all my friends. "Dravid is a Sachin in any other nation."
I don't agree with u on the last point... India will be in WC Final but not against Aussies.

it is a bad article .....................crap

A refreshing article about my favorite hero !!!
Strange that just 4 years ago people were screaming from the their roof tops asking him to retire. He is not the best simply because he has scored maximum 100s or runs or holds the most desirable records.
He is the BEST because he has been the hope of every Indian cricket lover even when there was no hope to be kept (Read denied logic as the author mentioned)
And as SMG once said, Sachin would happily swap all his records just to get a chance at winning the WC - his greatest dream ever.
H isnt a hero who never fails, he is a Hero who rises after defeat and says "It will never happen again" (thanks for the trivia sandy)

Keep fighting Sachin. Dats what you do best !

For an instant, your article gave me goosebumps when i read the last paragraph.Proud to be an Indian. I wish your wish(and mine too) comes true. Very well written.

Sachin denied me being the next Bill Gates!

In trying to watch each and every innings of the great man, i bunked numerous classes/exams which meant i never got great grades, never got a scholarship to Harvard, never dropped out of Harvard to start my own software company - hence, never became the next bill gates :(

Still, i don't regret it! He's the best :)

Neeraj - Excellent article! If your next article is even half as good as this, you would have done a great job! :)

hahaha... sachin has always overshadowed other great players from our country... he is what Rajnikanth is to cinema... Mainly its the fault of the indian audience who are used to a single hero saving the day from the tens of villians... sachin is that hero... unfortunately

Salutations to the master!! the article is wow! kinda emotional! great work! :)

Wow thats an amazing article on the legend of cricket. But i think there are lot more to add like the nightmares for Shane Warne and McGrath to be the highlight of the few :-) .... Still whatever you mentioned just shows what a great player he is.... My pick of lot would be "To an entire generation of youth" because thats exactly what i sue to think when he was out there , whatever the odds are we have a chance because Sachin is batting... Never a player has made such an impact in Indian cricket.... once more thanks for the article

Excellent article.. viewing Sachin and his 21 years of cricket journey in a very different angle !!

nicely written

good one :-) Echoed the views of most of the Cricket fans in India.

Excellent article, man. Never read anything of this sort. And as someone mentioned before you should write more often yaar. And yes i hope that some day you lose 'big' bet to me. Keep writing....

Tendulkar is a genius. No question about that. More importantly, how much he puts into every match to give himself sufficient chance to succeed on a consistent basis.
My heart goes out to all those other aspiring crickers who could have reached this level during these 2 decades when the little genius was playing and constantly occupying the #4 slot but never got a chance to make it great. We lost the services of a whole generation of players like Badrinath and so many others because they just happened to be playing and competing for the slots occupied by Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and VVS Laxman.

a refreshing article indeed, i loved reading it very much.

Nice article. It was different from others. Sorry about rahul dravid. Poor fellow but "great player".

Sachin has highest partnership with dravid,so its not only dravid after whom sachin comes. Max. Time its other one.

No doubt sachin is best,i have two more aspectation from him: one is world cup and other is a triple century in test match.

Article is nice written except the line about dravid. Dravid is a legend of class and technique of cricket.

Sachin & Bachin will never get old. They will never stop. they are great gems on earth. Both have "in" in there name. They will remain progressing, maturing, performing better, touching new hights with the passage of time. for them in real sense "the work is worship" . God bless them both.

Good one

Nice. no one can finger on Sachin..!

1/2: Since 1994, many critics started floating around the little master. If you iterate them, all will end up saying he never win matches. No one could be a match winner. For winning match you need a good team. Remember in 1983 WC final the top score is 30+ runs by srikanth. They played as a team and won the cup. So don't blame sachin for not winning a match after keeping the load of entire team on his shoulder from 1994 till 2004.
Can you spot out one cricter in this world who took his team on his shoulders for about a decade???
He loves cricket. He plays the game for his nation. If he is not performing he might have been dropped by selectors. Why you worry abt those stuffs.
Can you see a man at 37 running btwn wickets for one full day??? For that only he is been aplauded and not for dominating anyone.
Forget his game. No need sachin has to perform. Being in the team he has provided his share of contribution by certain tips to the youngsters through his experience.[Contd.]

2/2:
Dada or Wall failed to do so and hence now been ignored.
Sachin's presence increases the spirit of indian team - said by steve waugh
P.S.: Just 2 months for the world cup. Please dont post these kind of stupid articles and disturb the spirit of the team.
Stop all your non senses.

Too good,

after seeing your article , I feel like writing a similar for Prince of Calcutta , thanks for sharing your views, very genuine,guess we all indians share same views when the man i Sachin.

its farcical that Ponting got player of the decade! it would maybe be slightly more understandable if it were "batsmen of the decade" because then it could possibly come down to personal preference amongst the judges involved bcoz they had similar-ish records in the period(Ponting,Kallis,Tendulkar & maybe Lara),but "player of the decade" would encompass batting,bowling & fielding which would then make Kallis the obvious choice by a COUNTRY MILE!!!!

Well crafted thoughts...

I am a great fan of cricket. And with that being said, i can never divert myself from being a sport fan to a fan of a sportsman. I love Sachin,for his dedication to this sport, for inspiring and influencing emerging talent, for adding lot of value and marketability of this sport. However, this game's international platform is not big enough to occupy all the emerging sportsmen and it is a talent drain when a batsmen holds a spot for 20+ years. Sachin is great batsmen just like lot others at a given time, and this game will see lot more. India is a dangerous squad for world cup. I praise SA, Eng, Aus as well because these teams have same potential. However, India's squad is going in the world cup with most of their player being at Top Form compared to other teams. Lets hope for a good overall entertainment from the tournament.
Wishing all the team Best of Luck. Provided, India WILL be the toughest task for any team.

Best,