Sachin Tendulkar’s double century in one day cricket was a unique achievement. By touching the magical number -200, he reached in a position where even god himself could not do anything against his greatness. The way one day cricket is changing, there is a high chance to break this record in less time. We can’t say who will do it, whether another Indian or an Australian or any player from cricket playing nations. But, Sachin will remain as the first player to get a double century in one day cricket. Even god will be helpless to make an amendment in his achievement. So, he is immortal.
I don’t remember who said it? He said that we Indians love only three things –Cricket, Movies and Politics. That time, I tried to challenge but he countered my arguments with examples and I surrendered. When India’s Sachin Tendulkar hit double century, I was thinking about his observation, again he proved his point. In fact, his double century literally killed the 2010 railway budget. Quiet interestingly, railway is another link, which connects the length and breadth of the country as a unifying component.
Next day, newspapers celebrated the victory of India against South Africa with colour photographs and several columns news in the front pages. Sachin’s record was undoubtedly unique and those who love the game were happier to see that it was done by Sachin only. In the peak hours of telecasting time, entire media shifted their focus from railway budget discussions to the day and night match happened in Gwalior.
As a player, Sachin completed two decades in International cricket and achieved almost everything in his name. He is the player who have maximum runs in both test and one day cricket, maximum number of centuries in both one day and test cricket and he was the Indian record holder of the highest Indian one day score of 186 runs. I appreciate his dedication for the game and patience to achieve the optimum position. In one day cricket, there were many promising batsmen did blasting knocks and crossed 100 in less balls. But, reaching another hundred requires few more things. Sachin showed patience, temperament and determination to achieve the highest level in the game.
Yes, my friend was right. Cricket has the magical power over the Indian people and Sachin, as a person, has the magic potion to do the mesmerizing influence on a large Indian crowd. Mamata Banerjee’s railway budget was evaporated from the primetime media and replaced by his innings and appreciations followed by. In fact, railway budget is the test dose on Indian economy and the dressed rehearsal for the Union budget which was followed in another few days.
One Sachin Tendulkar is enough to keep hold of Indian minds from high level political or economic actions. Thank god, Sachin was a very small boy during the days of emergency of 1975. That was the time Indian political leadership was looking for some item which can keep hold entire attention of the nation from the political developments especially engineered by the opposition. Kapil’s Devils took another 8 odd years to bring the cricket world cup to India and to propagate the game in Indian soil. Then information and broadcasting minister, V.C. Shukla, was looking for an effective remedy to divert attention of Indian public from the doings of political opposition and he ended up in Cinema. He choose the box office Hindi movie “Bobby” to show it in the only TV channel Doordarshan to keep the common people in front of television and divert their attention from the political opposition. Then, there was no Tendulkar to perform with his bat and keep entire India in front of television. His performance in Gwalior was good enough to show he has all such abilities to keep the nation on hold and draw its entire attention towards him.
Now I remember who told me that Cricket is one among the three components which really influence Indian people. It was my friend Tushar Kant, a fanatic fan of Indian cricket and a scholar in political science. I don’t know about his interest in Cinema but his observation is quiet relevant.
