India's icon, who left other batsmen trailing in his wake and bowlers with enduring nightmares, begins his final Test against West Indies in Mumbai on Thursday
When Sachin Tendulkar announced that the two Tests against West Indies, the 199th and 200th of a career without parallel, would be his last, he gave the merest hint of the void there will be in his life after 18 November. "It's hard for me to imagine a life without playing cricket because it's all I have ever done since I was 11 years old," he said, setting in motion a month of nostalgia unprecedented in the annals of sport.
His last bow, which begins on home turf at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, will be extremely special to him for another reason. It will be the first time his mother, Rajni, has come to watch him play, a full 25 years after he started his first-class journey with a Ranji Trophy hundred for Mumbai. Ajit Tendulkar, Sachin's elder brother and mentor, said on the eve of the game that the family had stayed away for fear of disturbing his focus: "We thought he was born to play cricket." Ajit, too, will buck the habit of a lifetime and come to the venue to watch his little brother play.
Tendulkar has asked for, and been given, 500 match tickets to accommodate family and friends. The average fan, though, can forget about watching the spectacle live. The Mumbai Cricket Association has given away 25 tickets to each of the 329 clubs under its control. More than 13,000 have been promised to its sponsors, and thousands more to various arms of the state government, from which the land for the 32,000 capacity stadium was leased.
With most of the 1500 seats in the upper tier of the Sachin Tendulkar Stand going to overseas fans – on a first-come-first-served basis – the general public has been left with a paltry 3,500 tickets. Those too could only be booked online, and not bought at the gate. The portal entrusted with ticket sales, kyazoonga.com, promptly crashed on Monday morning.
Such is the esteem in which Tendulkar is held that it would surprise no one if tickets changed hands for six-figure sums on the day he bats. His status and legacy are not simply about the many records. For a quarter of a century he was the repository of a nation's hope, its favourite son, and in so many ways the stages of his journey mirrored the Indian nation's own progress on the world stage.
*The Boy Wonder – November 1989 to October 1996*
Anyone who followed Indian cricket in the late 1980s would have heard of Tendulkar long before he went on tour to Pakistan aged 16. Sunil Gavaskar, who had retired in 1987 after becoming the first man to cross 10,000 Test runs, had written him an encouraging letter; Kapil Dev, India's finest all-rounder, had bowled to him in the nets; and such was the buzz in Mumbai cricket circles that the selectors were confident that they were not taking an outrageous gamble by sending over a teen to take on Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Abdul Qadir and Waqar Younis.
Tendulkar's advent came at a time when the country's economy, wedded to Soviet socialist principles, was in the doldrums. Even in the early 1990s a Ranji Trophy cricketer could hope to make only 400 rupees a day. If you did not have a job outside the game, there was no way you could put enough food on the table to stay in it.
The Indian side that Tendulkar came into was also a creature that thrived only with home comforts. In the subcontinent they were a match for anyone, walloping England 3-0 in 1992‑93 and drawing 1-1 with West Indies a year later. Outside the comfort zone, however, they were hapless. In Australia in 1991-92 Tendulkar – who had scored his first Test century at Old Trafford 16 months earlier – made sublime hundreds at Sydney and Perth. India lost 4-0. Even two decades on the Perth innings remains a marvel. "There was a big crack on the wicket," recalls Javagal Srinath, one of his team-mates on that tour. "They had great fast bowlers. None of the [other] Indian batsmen had any clue. The way he countered the bounce … he was so aggressive. That innings stands tall in my mind."
On India's first tour of South Africa in 1992-93 he made a superb 111 at The Wanderers in an innings where no one else went past 25. That boy-on-burning-deck theme was reprised on the next tour of England in 1996, when he made one of his finest centuries at Edgbaston – 122 off 177 balls. The next-highest score was 18 and India lost by eight wickets.
By then Tendulkar had become cricket's first millionaire, signing a five-year, $7.5m deal with Mark Mascarenhas's WorldTel. WorldTel recouped that sum in under three years, in an economy that had started to thrive after Manmohan Singh, then India's finance minister, introduced drastic reforms in 1991. By the mid-1990s cable television – a developing nation's window to the capitalist world – was becoming ubiquitous and Tendulkar was the face of half a dozen bluechip brands upon it.
Much of that appeal in a country still in thrall to the 1983 World Cup heroes stemmed from his exploits in the one-day arena. His fortunes there might have been very different but for Navjot Singh Sidhu hurting his neck on the eve of a match at Eden Park in March 1994. In the middle order Tendulkar had intermittent success without ever making the big scores expected from him. When Sidhu's neck sprain provided him with the opportunity, Tendulkar went and begged Mohammad Azharuddin, the captain, and Ajit Wadekar, the manager, to let him open. He smashed 82 from 49 balls. The first one-day 100 would soon follow, as would record after record.
But there was heartbreak, too. When the subcontinent hosted the World Cup in 1996 Tendulkar topped the run charts with 523. He played one of his best innings on a square turner in the semi-final against Sri Lanka. When he was second man out after making 65 from 88 balls, the score was 98. By the time rioting in the stands stopped the match, India were 120 for eight. Tendulkar's partner in schoolboy run-making feats, Vinod Kambli, left the ground in tears. Tendulkar sat in the dressing room stony faced.
*The captaincy years: October 1996 – March 2000*
*India's Test record:* 7-14-14; away: 0-8-9
*Tendulkar:* 3,125 at 55.80 (35), 12 hundreds scored
*India's ODI record:* 60-67
*Tendulkar: *4,380 at 45.15 (110), 15 hundreds scored
Tendulkar had two tenures as captain. The first started like a dream; with victory in a one-off Test against Australia and a 2-1 home series win against South Africa. But once they left Asia India were as clueless as ever. In Durban in December 1996 they were bowled out for 100 and 66. In Barbados a few months later they collapsed to 81 all out while needing 120 for victory. Tendulkar was sacked in January 1998 but returned soon after the 1999 World Cup. If anything, though, the second stint was even more miserable than the first. India were routed 3-0 in Australia, a tour best remembered for Jaywant Lele, then BCCI secretary, predicting just such a result – in what he thought was an off-the-record conversation – before the team departed.
Solace, as ever, came on home soil, with Mark Taylor's Australia beaten 2-1 in 1998. Between his two stints as captaincy and without the associated cares it brought Tendulkar stroked a magnificent 155 in Chennai and 177 in Bangalore, tormenting Shane Warne to such an extent that the Australian confessed to having nightmares about him. As leader, some of his most notable innings came in vain. At Cape Town in 1997, he made 169 and added 222 in just 40 overs with Azharuddin. India still lost by 282 runs. At the MCG nearly three years later, he made a fabulous 116 (out of 238). This time, the margin of defeat was 180.
His brother believes his 136 against Pakistan in January 1999 was his greatest innings, though he still rebukes him for the miscued loft off Saqlain Mushtaq that cost him his wicket. Set 271 for victory at Chepauk, India were 82 for 5 when Nayan Mongia joined him in the middle. When Tendulkar was out, India needed 17 with three wickets in hand. They added only four. Four months later the two countries would go to war in Kargil and India would win the most tense of World Cup games at Old Trafford, with Tendulkar making 45.
He had been absent in the early stages of that campaign after his father died. On his return he made an emotional century against Kenya, raising his helmeted face to the sky when the landmark was reached. India, despite the win against Pakistan, would go no further than the Super Sixes.
For a generation of Indians, however, Tendulkar's name will always be synonymous with what came to be known as the Desert Storm. After a sandstorm disrupted play in Sharjah, India needed 276 from 46 overs to beat Australia. Failing that, they needed 237 to qualify for the Coca-Cola Cup final. Tendulkar went for glory, smashing 143 off 131 balls. No one else crossed 35 as India finished with 250. Two days later, on his 25th birthday, he made 134 off 131 balls as India won the final by six wickets. When Michael Kasprowicz asked Dennis Lillee if he had spotted any weaknesses, the answer was: "No Michael, as long as you walk off with your pride that's all you can do."
*Heart of the golden generation: March 2000 – April 2011
*
*India in Tests* 48-27-40; away: 23-20-20
*Tendulkar*: 8,656 at 58.09 (101), 29 hundreds scored
*India in ODIs:* 186-137
*Tendulkar:* 9,342 at 48.40 (216), 24 hundreds scored
After the years of struggle came a time of unmatched success. With Sourav Ganguly at the helm India set about ridding themselves of travel sickness. The mantle was passed on to Rahul Dravid in 2005, and then Anil Kumble and MS Dhoni, but it was Ganguly and John Wright, India's first foreign coach, that sowed the seeds of a decade of success, with Tendulkar at its heart.
Tendulkar made 126 in the final Test as Australia were beaten in an epic home series in 2001, and an imperious 193 as India won by an innings at Headingley in 2002 to square the series against Nasser Hussain's side. In Steve Waugh's farewell series in Australia in 2003-04 he shrugged off the worst run-drought of his career to script an unbeaten 241, playing not a single cover-drive until he neared his double-century. A few months later he made an unbeaten 194 as India won their first Test in Pakistan. They would win the series too.
A fourth-day collapse at Newlands in January 2007 cost India a series win in South Africa but Tendulkar returned four years later to score two centuries in a 1-1 draw. In December 2008, three weeks after the Mumbai terror attacks, he scored his most cherished hundred, as India chased down 387 against England in Chennai. An admiring Kevin Pietersen called him Superman afterwards. Few in India were inclined to disagree.
As the team soared, so did India's global profile. Its software companies were world leaders, and the Tata Group took over brands such as Jaguar and Tetley tea. The economy grew at such a rate that there was talk of India joining China as the next superpower. Shopping malls and multiplexes mushroomed throughout the land, as a newly affluent and assertive middle class started to splash its cash.
On the field Tendulkar's 146 at Newlands in 2011, against Dale Steyn in full cry, was one of the more memorable innings of our age, astonishing when considered that it came nearly two decades after his exploits on the Perth trampoline. That was his 51st, and last, Test century. At the end of the series India had also consolidated their hold on the No1 ranking. Tendulkar had been central to that rise up the charts, scoring seven centuries and 1,562 runs in 14 Tests in 2010.
In the one-day format he was the top scorer as India reached the World Cup final in 2003. When they were dumped out of the competition in the first round four years later – Tendulkar made a duck against Sri Lanka in the final group game – most assumed that his World Cup dream was over. Not so. Even as his contemporaries retired or were dropped, he stayed on, becoming the first man to score 200 in the format, against South Africa in Gwalior in 2010. A year later he scored sensational centuries against England and South Africa in the World Cup on the sub-continent. Though he failed in the final, the support cast was strong enough to ensure that the tears shed at the end of the final in Mumbai were ones of happiness.
*The slow fade to black: April 2011 – Nov 2013*
*India in Tests:* 11-10-4; away: 1-8-2
*Tendulkar:* 1,155 at 31.21 (22), no hundreds scored
*India in ODI:* 41-20
*Tendulkar:* 315 at 31.5 (10), one hundred scoredThe days and months following that World Cup triumph were taken up with the obsession over when Tendulkar would record his 100th century. The player was certainly aware of it and with each passing innings the media scrutiny became increasingly relentless. By the time it finally arrived, during an Asia Cup game against Bangladesh in Dhaka, India had been blanked 4-0 in consecutive away series in England and Australia. Dravid and Laxman would not play again, and Tendulkar managed only 357 runs in nine Tests in 2012. As his form declined, so did Indian fortunes. Instead of double-digit economic growth, there was nearly none, and in the space of a month in 2013 the rupee depreciated by as much as 20 units against the pound.
Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs at the end of 2012, after 463 matches and 18,426 runs, and was not even a topic of discussion when India went through the Champions Trophy unbeaten in England last June. A young, vibrant side, full of individuals who had grown up idolising him, was coming into its own and, with runs harder and harder to come by, the decision to walk away came as no surprise.
There will be those who think he stayed on too long but, as the great West Indian batsman Brian Lara said at a function in Kolkata last weekend, no one should underestimate the impact he had on a young side. "Sharing a dressing room with Sachin has been a huge learning experience for me," says Virat Kohli, who will surely go on to take the No4 spot that belonged to Tendulkar's for so long. "One of the things I've learned is to have total dedication and passion for the sport." Suresh Raina spoke of how encouraging and helpful he was, though apparently he drew the line when it came to music. "The rest of us would be playing Sean Paul or something else but, when it was time for him to bat, Paaji [big brother] would insist on playing Kishore Kumar."
One of Tendulkar's favourite songs is Lehron Ki Tarah Yaadein (Memories Like Waves), from the soundtrack of a movie called Nishaan, released when he was 10. As he graces a cricket field for the last time, and millions of Indians find memories of his career cascading over them, it could just be the theme for a nation.
Dileep Premachandran is editor-in-chief of Wisden India Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 week ago.
When Sachin Tendulkar announced that the two Tests against West Indies, the 199th and 200th of a career without parallel, would be his last, he gave the merest hint of the void there will be in his life after 18 November. "It's hard for me to imagine a life without playing cricket because it's all I have ever done since I was 11 years old," he said, setting in motion a month of nostalgia unprecedented in the annals of sport.
His last bow, which begins on home turf at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, will be extremely special to him for another reason. It will be the first time his mother, Rajni, has come to watch him play, a full 25 years after he started his first-class journey with a Ranji Trophy hundred for Mumbai. Ajit Tendulkar, Sachin's elder brother and mentor, said on the eve of the game that the family had stayed away for fear of disturbing his focus: "We thought he was born to play cricket." Ajit, too, will buck the habit of a lifetime and come to the venue to watch his little brother play.
Tendulkar has asked for, and been given, 500 match tickets to accommodate family and friends. The average fan, though, can forget about watching the spectacle live. The Mumbai Cricket Association has given away 25 tickets to each of the 329 clubs under its control. More than 13,000 have been promised to its sponsors, and thousands more to various arms of the state government, from which the land for the 32,000 capacity stadium was leased.
With most of the 1500 seats in the upper tier of the Sachin Tendulkar Stand going to overseas fans – on a first-come-first-served basis – the general public has been left with a paltry 3,500 tickets. Those too could only be booked online, and not bought at the gate. The portal entrusted with ticket sales, kyazoonga.com, promptly crashed on Monday morning.
Such is the esteem in which Tendulkar is held that it would surprise no one if tickets changed hands for six-figure sums on the day he bats. His status and legacy are not simply about the many records. For a quarter of a century he was the repository of a nation's hope, its favourite son, and in so many ways the stages of his journey mirrored the Indian nation's own progress on the world stage.
*The Boy Wonder – November 1989 to October 1996*
Anyone who followed Indian cricket in the late 1980s would have heard of Tendulkar long before he went on tour to Pakistan aged 16. Sunil Gavaskar, who had retired in 1987 after becoming the first man to cross 10,000 Test runs, had written him an encouraging letter; Kapil Dev, India's finest all-rounder, had bowled to him in the nets; and such was the buzz in Mumbai cricket circles that the selectors were confident that they were not taking an outrageous gamble by sending over a teen to take on Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Abdul Qadir and Waqar Younis.
Tendulkar's advent came at a time when the country's economy, wedded to Soviet socialist principles, was in the doldrums. Even in the early 1990s a Ranji Trophy cricketer could hope to make only 400 rupees a day. If you did not have a job outside the game, there was no way you could put enough food on the table to stay in it.
The Indian side that Tendulkar came into was also a creature that thrived only with home comforts. In the subcontinent they were a match for anyone, walloping England 3-0 in 1992‑93 and drawing 1-1 with West Indies a year later. Outside the comfort zone, however, they were hapless. In Australia in 1991-92 Tendulkar – who had scored his first Test century at Old Trafford 16 months earlier – made sublime hundreds at Sydney and Perth. India lost 4-0. Even two decades on the Perth innings remains a marvel. "There was a big crack on the wicket," recalls Javagal Srinath, one of his team-mates on that tour. "They had great fast bowlers. None of the [other] Indian batsmen had any clue. The way he countered the bounce … he was so aggressive. That innings stands tall in my mind."
On India's first tour of South Africa in 1992-93 he made a superb 111 at The Wanderers in an innings where no one else went past 25. That boy-on-burning-deck theme was reprised on the next tour of England in 1996, when he made one of his finest centuries at Edgbaston – 122 off 177 balls. The next-highest score was 18 and India lost by eight wickets.
By then Tendulkar had become cricket's first millionaire, signing a five-year, $7.5m deal with Mark Mascarenhas's WorldTel. WorldTel recouped that sum in under three years, in an economy that had started to thrive after Manmohan Singh, then India's finance minister, introduced drastic reforms in 1991. By the mid-1990s cable television – a developing nation's window to the capitalist world – was becoming ubiquitous and Tendulkar was the face of half a dozen bluechip brands upon it.
Much of that appeal in a country still in thrall to the 1983 World Cup heroes stemmed from his exploits in the one-day arena. His fortunes there might have been very different but for Navjot Singh Sidhu hurting his neck on the eve of a match at Eden Park in March 1994. In the middle order Tendulkar had intermittent success without ever making the big scores expected from him. When Sidhu's neck sprain provided him with the opportunity, Tendulkar went and begged Mohammad Azharuddin, the captain, and Ajit Wadekar, the manager, to let him open. He smashed 82 from 49 balls. The first one-day 100 would soon follow, as would record after record.
But there was heartbreak, too. When the subcontinent hosted the World Cup in 1996 Tendulkar topped the run charts with 523. He played one of his best innings on a square turner in the semi-final against Sri Lanka. When he was second man out after making 65 from 88 balls, the score was 98. By the time rioting in the stands stopped the match, India were 120 for eight. Tendulkar's partner in schoolboy run-making feats, Vinod Kambli, left the ground in tears. Tendulkar sat in the dressing room stony faced.
*The captaincy years: October 1996 – March 2000*
*India's Test record:* 7-14-14; away: 0-8-9
*Tendulkar:* 3,125 at 55.80 (35), 12 hundreds scored
*India's ODI record:* 60-67
*Tendulkar: *4,380 at 45.15 (110), 15 hundreds scored
Tendulkar had two tenures as captain. The first started like a dream; with victory in a one-off Test against Australia and a 2-1 home series win against South Africa. But once they left Asia India were as clueless as ever. In Durban in December 1996 they were bowled out for 100 and 66. In Barbados a few months later they collapsed to 81 all out while needing 120 for victory. Tendulkar was sacked in January 1998 but returned soon after the 1999 World Cup. If anything, though, the second stint was even more miserable than the first. India were routed 3-0 in Australia, a tour best remembered for Jaywant Lele, then BCCI secretary, predicting just such a result – in what he thought was an off-the-record conversation – before the team departed.
Solace, as ever, came on home soil, with Mark Taylor's Australia beaten 2-1 in 1998. Between his two stints as captaincy and without the associated cares it brought Tendulkar stroked a magnificent 155 in Chennai and 177 in Bangalore, tormenting Shane Warne to such an extent that the Australian confessed to having nightmares about him. As leader, some of his most notable innings came in vain. At Cape Town in 1997, he made 169 and added 222 in just 40 overs with Azharuddin. India still lost by 282 runs. At the MCG nearly three years later, he made a fabulous 116 (out of 238). This time, the margin of defeat was 180.
His brother believes his 136 against Pakistan in January 1999 was his greatest innings, though he still rebukes him for the miscued loft off Saqlain Mushtaq that cost him his wicket. Set 271 for victory at Chepauk, India were 82 for 5 when Nayan Mongia joined him in the middle. When Tendulkar was out, India needed 17 with three wickets in hand. They added only four. Four months later the two countries would go to war in Kargil and India would win the most tense of World Cup games at Old Trafford, with Tendulkar making 45.
He had been absent in the early stages of that campaign after his father died. On his return he made an emotional century against Kenya, raising his helmeted face to the sky when the landmark was reached. India, despite the win against Pakistan, would go no further than the Super Sixes.
For a generation of Indians, however, Tendulkar's name will always be synonymous with what came to be known as the Desert Storm. After a sandstorm disrupted play in Sharjah, India needed 276 from 46 overs to beat Australia. Failing that, they needed 237 to qualify for the Coca-Cola Cup final. Tendulkar went for glory, smashing 143 off 131 balls. No one else crossed 35 as India finished with 250. Two days later, on his 25th birthday, he made 134 off 131 balls as India won the final by six wickets. When Michael Kasprowicz asked Dennis Lillee if he had spotted any weaknesses, the answer was: "No Michael, as long as you walk off with your pride that's all you can do."
*Heart of the golden generation: March 2000 – April 2011
*
*India in Tests* 48-27-40; away: 23-20-20
*Tendulkar*: 8,656 at 58.09 (101), 29 hundreds scored
*India in ODIs:* 186-137
*Tendulkar:* 9,342 at 48.40 (216), 24 hundreds scored
After the years of struggle came a time of unmatched success. With Sourav Ganguly at the helm India set about ridding themselves of travel sickness. The mantle was passed on to Rahul Dravid in 2005, and then Anil Kumble and MS Dhoni, but it was Ganguly and John Wright, India's first foreign coach, that sowed the seeds of a decade of success, with Tendulkar at its heart.
Tendulkar made 126 in the final Test as Australia were beaten in an epic home series in 2001, and an imperious 193 as India won by an innings at Headingley in 2002 to square the series against Nasser Hussain's side. In Steve Waugh's farewell series in Australia in 2003-04 he shrugged off the worst run-drought of his career to script an unbeaten 241, playing not a single cover-drive until he neared his double-century. A few months later he made an unbeaten 194 as India won their first Test in Pakistan. They would win the series too.
A fourth-day collapse at Newlands in January 2007 cost India a series win in South Africa but Tendulkar returned four years later to score two centuries in a 1-1 draw. In December 2008, three weeks after the Mumbai terror attacks, he scored his most cherished hundred, as India chased down 387 against England in Chennai. An admiring Kevin Pietersen called him Superman afterwards. Few in India were inclined to disagree.
As the team soared, so did India's global profile. Its software companies were world leaders, and the Tata Group took over brands such as Jaguar and Tetley tea. The economy grew at such a rate that there was talk of India joining China as the next superpower. Shopping malls and multiplexes mushroomed throughout the land, as a newly affluent and assertive middle class started to splash its cash.
On the field Tendulkar's 146 at Newlands in 2011, against Dale Steyn in full cry, was one of the more memorable innings of our age, astonishing when considered that it came nearly two decades after his exploits on the Perth trampoline. That was his 51st, and last, Test century. At the end of the series India had also consolidated their hold on the No1 ranking. Tendulkar had been central to that rise up the charts, scoring seven centuries and 1,562 runs in 14 Tests in 2010.
In the one-day format he was the top scorer as India reached the World Cup final in 2003. When they were dumped out of the competition in the first round four years later – Tendulkar made a duck against Sri Lanka in the final group game – most assumed that his World Cup dream was over. Not so. Even as his contemporaries retired or were dropped, he stayed on, becoming the first man to score 200 in the format, against South Africa in Gwalior in 2010. A year later he scored sensational centuries against England and South Africa in the World Cup on the sub-continent. Though he failed in the final, the support cast was strong enough to ensure that the tears shed at the end of the final in Mumbai were ones of happiness.
*The slow fade to black: April 2011 – Nov 2013*
*India in Tests:* 11-10-4; away: 1-8-2
*Tendulkar:* 1,155 at 31.21 (22), no hundreds scored
*India in ODI:* 41-20
*Tendulkar:* 315 at 31.5 (10), one hundred scoredThe days and months following that World Cup triumph were taken up with the obsession over when Tendulkar would record his 100th century. The player was certainly aware of it and with each passing innings the media scrutiny became increasingly relentless. By the time it finally arrived, during an Asia Cup game against Bangladesh in Dhaka, India had been blanked 4-0 in consecutive away series in England and Australia. Dravid and Laxman would not play again, and Tendulkar managed only 357 runs in nine Tests in 2012. As his form declined, so did Indian fortunes. Instead of double-digit economic growth, there was nearly none, and in the space of a month in 2013 the rupee depreciated by as much as 20 units against the pound.
Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs at the end of 2012, after 463 matches and 18,426 runs, and was not even a topic of discussion when India went through the Champions Trophy unbeaten in England last June. A young, vibrant side, full of individuals who had grown up idolising him, was coming into its own and, with runs harder and harder to come by, the decision to walk away came as no surprise.
There will be those who think he stayed on too long but, as the great West Indian batsman Brian Lara said at a function in Kolkata last weekend, no one should underestimate the impact he had on a young side. "Sharing a dressing room with Sachin has been a huge learning experience for me," says Virat Kohli, who will surely go on to take the No4 spot that belonged to Tendulkar's for so long. "One of the things I've learned is to have total dedication and passion for the sport." Suresh Raina spoke of how encouraging and helpful he was, though apparently he drew the line when it came to music. "The rest of us would be playing Sean Paul or something else but, when it was time for him to bat, Paaji [big brother] would insist on playing Kishore Kumar."
One of Tendulkar's favourite songs is Lehron Ki Tarah Yaadein (Memories Like Waves), from the soundtrack of a movie called Nishaan, released when he was 10. As he graces a cricket field for the last time, and millions of Indians find memories of his career cascading over them, it could just be the theme for a nation.
Dileep Premachandran is editor-in-chief of Wisden India Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 week ago.