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Saturday, July 10, 2010
Sachin Tendulkar Completes Two Decades in International Cricket
Sachin Tendulkar rates wearing the Indian cap for the first time his prized moment in cricket history.
As Tendulkar completes twenty years of international cricket on the 15th of November, 2009, he is not sitting back lauding on the past laurels. His plans will be set for the series against Sri Lanka, beginning tomorrow.
Exactly twenty years ago, as a sixteen year old, Tendulkar faced up to the likes of Pakistan in 1989, making his debut for India.
As people recall his favourite moments, Tendulkar believes the day he earned the India cap was his most memorable moment because according to him, it was a “dream come true”.
A dream run that even the late Sir Don Bradman was impressed about to even liken Tendulkar’s style to his own.
Sachin Tendulkar with children at Giveindia media meet
Indian ace cricketer Sachin Tendulkar with children at Giveindia media meet at MIG club, Bandra in Mumbai on June 3, 2009
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Sachin Tendulkar named UN Goodwill Ambassador
UNITED NATIONS: India's cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar has been named a Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Tendulkar, the first player to score 10,000 runs in one-day internationals, will use his massive global popularity to raise awareness and harness support for environmental action in his home country of India and around the world, the UNEP announced on Friday.
"I have played and enjoyed my cricket across the planet. Now it's also time to do something for the planet, which is our only home," he said.
"Being part of the effort to save the planet is an immense undertaking but it is a challenge I am ready to undertake. Working with UNEP and cricket fans across the globe, I am in good company. Together we can do it."
The agency's Executive Director, Achim Steiner, voiced confidence that Tendulkar's "character, personal integrity, intellect and profile will catalyze widespread environmental action."
With 2010 being the UN's International Year of Biodiversity, the cricket legend will work with the agency to boost the global and grassroots response to the loss of animal and plant diversity worldwide.
Tendulkar is no stranger to the work of the UN, having lent his voice to a UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) campaign in India on the importance of personal hygiene.
As one of his first duties as Goodwill Ambassador, he will lead a Green Pledge to save the planet when the Indian Premier League (IPL) kicks off its third season tomorrow night in Mumbai.
The vow to be made in front of the millions of fans expected to be watching live on television, YouTube or at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai reads "the Earth is our home and together we must conserve our precious wildlife, forests and oceans. I am proud to pledge that I will play my part in caring for our natural heritage."
Along with Tendulkar, team captains from the Deccan Chargers to the Kolkata Knight Riders will sign a giant globe made out of recycled materials.
Noting that as a rapidly developing economy, India's consumption and production patterns could define the planet's future, Steiner said: "We need to make the right choices in terms of how best to manage energy and natural resources."
"To borrow a cricketing metaphor, these choices will define whether the world is running or soon will be run out."
Tendulkar, the first player to score 10,000 runs in one-day internationals, will use his massive global popularity to raise awareness and harness support for environmental action in his home country of India and around the world, the UNEP announced on Friday.
"I have played and enjoyed my cricket across the planet. Now it's also time to do something for the planet, which is our only home," he said.
"Being part of the effort to save the planet is an immense undertaking but it is a challenge I am ready to undertake. Working with UNEP and cricket fans across the globe, I am in good company. Together we can do it."
The agency's Executive Director, Achim Steiner, voiced confidence that Tendulkar's "character, personal integrity, intellect and profile will catalyze widespread environmental action."
With 2010 being the UN's International Year of Biodiversity, the cricket legend will work with the agency to boost the global and grassroots response to the loss of animal and plant diversity worldwide.
Tendulkar is no stranger to the work of the UN, having lent his voice to a UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) campaign in India on the importance of personal hygiene.
As one of his first duties as Goodwill Ambassador, he will lead a Green Pledge to save the planet when the Indian Premier League (IPL) kicks off its third season tomorrow night in Mumbai.
The vow to be made in front of the millions of fans expected to be watching live on television, YouTube or at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai reads "the Earth is our home and together we must conserve our precious wildlife, forests and oceans. I am proud to pledge that I will play my part in caring for our natural heritage."
Along with Tendulkar, team captains from the Deccan Chargers to the Kolkata Knight Riders will sign a giant globe made out of recycled materials.
Noting that as a rapidly developing economy, India's consumption and production patterns could define the planet's future, Steiner said: "We need to make the right choices in terms of how best to manage energy and natural resources."
"To borrow a cricketing metaphor, these choices will define whether the world is running or soon will be run out."
Sachin Said It
Memorable Day Beating Pakistan in the 1992 World Cup
Worst Day Losing the first ODI in RSA in 1992.
Heroes Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Imran Khan, Sandeep Patil
Greatest Influence My family
Current Players Admired Vinod Kambli, Brian Lara, Jonty Rhodes.
Ambition To be number one in the world.
Favourite Ground Sydney Cricket Ground.
Least Favourite Ground Bangalore.
Biggest Complaint None.
Changes to Improve None. I enjoy the game!
Funniest Moment Batting with Vinod Kambli in a school game. Vinod dropped his bat and started to fly a kite.
Other Sports Followed Tennis in particular
Hobbies Collect CD's.
Other Stars Maradona, Boris Becker.
Favourite Actors Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Nana Patekar.
TV Show None in particular.
Film Coming To America.
Spare Time Listening to peaceful music, with friends
Embarrassing moment People asking for my autograph and then asking me my name!
Music Pop.
Hates Rumours
Car Maruti
Food Steak.
Drink Orange/Apple Juice and Water.
Favourite Restaurant Bukhara, Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi
Holiday Resort Yorkshire, Headingley.
Hotel Park Royal Darling Harbour, Sydney.
Clothes official - jacket and tie; else jeans and t-shirt.
Wildest dream Listen to loud music and watch movies. And then in the evening, go for a very long drive.
Newspapers Times of India, Mid-day, Afternoon Dispatch.
Authors Haven't started reading books yet.
Magazines Sportstar
Career Too early to decide - Cricket for the moment
Motto Be true to yourself.
Worst Day Losing the first ODI in RSA in 1992.
Heroes Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Imran Khan, Sandeep Patil
Greatest Influence My family
Current Players Admired Vinod Kambli, Brian Lara, Jonty Rhodes.
Ambition To be number one in the world.
Favourite Ground Sydney Cricket Ground.
Least Favourite Ground Bangalore.
Biggest Complaint None.
Changes to Improve None. I enjoy the game!
Funniest Moment Batting with Vinod Kambli in a school game. Vinod dropped his bat and started to fly a kite.
Other Sports Followed Tennis in particular
Hobbies Collect CD's.
Other Stars Maradona, Boris Becker.
Favourite Actors Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Nana Patekar.
TV Show None in particular.
Film Coming To America.
Spare Time Listening to peaceful music, with friends
Embarrassing moment People asking for my autograph and then asking me my name!
Music Pop.
Hates Rumours
Car Maruti
Food Steak.
Drink Orange/Apple Juice and Water.
Favourite Restaurant Bukhara, Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi
Holiday Resort Yorkshire, Headingley.
Hotel Park Royal Darling Harbour, Sydney.
Clothes official - jacket and tie; else jeans and t-shirt.
Wildest dream Listen to loud music and watch movies. And then in the evening, go for a very long drive.
Newspapers Times of India, Mid-day, Afternoon Dispatch.
Authors Haven't started reading books yet.
Magazines Sportstar
Career Too early to decide - Cricket for the moment
Motto Be true to yourself.
At 33, a fighting Tendulkar is still surprising us
Tendulkar's true gifts lie in his mind, but it is his body which is the instrument of his genius, writes Rohit Brijnath
Six months before Kuala Lumpur, before he advertised he could run 50 overs even at 33, before an innings against the West Indies that was like some national reassurance, before a century impressive for its unhesitancy, for a moment, even he was visited by doubt.
In late March, as surgeons poked around his shoulder in search of a cyst, mid-procedure, as he lay there semi-awake, they told Sachin Tendulkar that his bicep tendon, well, that had ruptured, too.
Toe. Finger. Back. Elbow. Shoulder. Now bicep. Sachin Tendulkar's true gifts lie in his mind, but it is his body which is the instrument of his genius. And it was failing him. Still, stoic, he told the doctors, "do what you have to do''.
Later, the pain was so pure, so cruel after even the slightest movement, that he thought "what is happening, it was like someone still cutting through your arm''. It was the only time when, understandably, he admits, "you always wonder if it's going to get better''.
Testing time
For much of his career Tendulkar has batted with such assurance that he spins the illusion he is unfamiliar with struggle. But he knows struggle. Well. He knows it because pressure arrives every morning, and just because he manages it with serenity hardly means he doesn't feel it.
He knows struggle because his form has dipped in recent times and the criticism hasn't always been pretty, but he keeps working; he knows struggle because he's missed 77 one-day matches because of various ailments since 1998-99, and as the years accumulate on his joints every comeback must be more testing.
Rehabilitation is slow, steady; great athletes are anything but. They are conditioned to push. Tell them recovery takes six months, and they think four. Sometimes it works, sometimes it makes for moments so deflating they'd rather be erased from the memory.
Tendulkar's moment, the worst one, came he says ''when I was trying hard to go to the West Indies. I was told by the doctors it was tough to make it. At one stage, I was the only one who said I was going there. Others said after this sort of surgery (shoulder and bicep) there was no way to recover in four months.''
''(But) I was pushing myself. And there was a setback. I felt a twitch in my bicep, it started hanging like a hammock. I got scared." So there he was, Tendulkar, mind flown to the Windies, but body on the couch in front of the TV in India.
Did he weep? "No," he laughs. "But I felt bad, I felt frustrated, I felt extremely low." He also felt desperately driven to come back. So he struggled on, leaning on wife Anjali, saying, "I spoke a lot to her, she's a huge supporting factor. She has a balanced mind, (offering both) a wife's opinion and a doctor's opinion."
But through this battle, gradually restoring his shoulder, muscle after muscle, stroke at a time, one thing he didn't doubt. His form.
Surely he was anxious; surely after another injury, another year older, he frets. But no, if Tendulkar didn't believe in himself, he couldn't play. "I wasn't worried," he says, "I don't need to convince myself. I know it (that I could reclaim my form).''
Addiction to attention
Were we surprised that he scored a century in his first full match back? Should we have been surprised? He says he wasn't, insisting he had laboured long to be ready, but maybe it's more than that. Champions, like him, seem to suffer from what might be light-heartedly termed an addiction to attention, finding the limelight irresistible, constant stealers of headlines.
Only the special can do this. Can score 93 off 96 balls as he did last year against Sri Lanka after returning from six months out because of elbow issues. Can return after making a duck in Multan on February 16 and score not just 141, but stay unbeaten, and last 50 overs. If he was making a statement, we heard it.
If it's been hard for Tendulkar, and annoying, because from 16 he's been a man of action and now he's condemned to these periods of idleness, he continues because cricket still infects his being. When he turned to heaven after the West Indies century, he may have thought of his late father, but he was also "thanking God'' that he was simply able to play, "to do what I enjoy doing''.
"I dont mind pushing myself. Every time you push yourself it's a torture only if you're not enjoying it, but I am (enjoying it). I look forward to even the practice sessions.'' At 33, Tendulkar's iron will is carrying a patched-up body forward.
His form, he admits, these past two years "has been good in patches". The injuries, all pertinently to his upper body, have stolen momentum from him, but time, too, has robbed his batting of some luminosity. No man is the greatest forever; but some men, like him, just remain great for longer.
I ask him, forget the scores, how does he know when he's batting well. He says: "When I see the ball early enough and move the way I want to move. To commentators and experts, they may feel I'm not moving, but the batter (knows best). If I want to do something and am able to do that, then there's nothing to worry about."
Six months before Kuala Lumpur, before he advertised he could run 50 overs even at 33, before an innings against the West Indies that was like some national reassurance, before a century impressive for its unhesitancy, for a moment, even he was visited by doubt.
In late March, as surgeons poked around his shoulder in search of a cyst, mid-procedure, as he lay there semi-awake, they told Sachin Tendulkar that his bicep tendon, well, that had ruptured, too.
Toe. Finger. Back. Elbow. Shoulder. Now bicep. Sachin Tendulkar's true gifts lie in his mind, but it is his body which is the instrument of his genius. And it was failing him. Still, stoic, he told the doctors, "do what you have to do''.
Later, the pain was so pure, so cruel after even the slightest movement, that he thought "what is happening, it was like someone still cutting through your arm''. It was the only time when, understandably, he admits, "you always wonder if it's going to get better''.
Testing time
For much of his career Tendulkar has batted with such assurance that he spins the illusion he is unfamiliar with struggle. But he knows struggle. Well. He knows it because pressure arrives every morning, and just because he manages it with serenity hardly means he doesn't feel it.
He knows struggle because his form has dipped in recent times and the criticism hasn't always been pretty, but he keeps working; he knows struggle because he's missed 77 one-day matches because of various ailments since 1998-99, and as the years accumulate on his joints every comeback must be more testing.
Rehabilitation is slow, steady; great athletes are anything but. They are conditioned to push. Tell them recovery takes six months, and they think four. Sometimes it works, sometimes it makes for moments so deflating they'd rather be erased from the memory.
Tendulkar's moment, the worst one, came he says ''when I was trying hard to go to the West Indies. I was told by the doctors it was tough to make it. At one stage, I was the only one who said I was going there. Others said after this sort of surgery (shoulder and bicep) there was no way to recover in four months.''
''(But) I was pushing myself. And there was a setback. I felt a twitch in my bicep, it started hanging like a hammock. I got scared." So there he was, Tendulkar, mind flown to the Windies, but body on the couch in front of the TV in India.
Did he weep? "No," he laughs. "But I felt bad, I felt frustrated, I felt extremely low." He also felt desperately driven to come back. So he struggled on, leaning on wife Anjali, saying, "I spoke a lot to her, she's a huge supporting factor. She has a balanced mind, (offering both) a wife's opinion and a doctor's opinion."
But through this battle, gradually restoring his shoulder, muscle after muscle, stroke at a time, one thing he didn't doubt. His form.
Surely he was anxious; surely after another injury, another year older, he frets. But no, if Tendulkar didn't believe in himself, he couldn't play. "I wasn't worried," he says, "I don't need to convince myself. I know it (that I could reclaim my form).''
Addiction to attention
Were we surprised that he scored a century in his first full match back? Should we have been surprised? He says he wasn't, insisting he had laboured long to be ready, but maybe it's more than that. Champions, like him, seem to suffer from what might be light-heartedly termed an addiction to attention, finding the limelight irresistible, constant stealers of headlines.
Only the special can do this. Can score 93 off 96 balls as he did last year against Sri Lanka after returning from six months out because of elbow issues. Can return after making a duck in Multan on February 16 and score not just 141, but stay unbeaten, and last 50 overs. If he was making a statement, we heard it.
If it's been hard for Tendulkar, and annoying, because from 16 he's been a man of action and now he's condemned to these periods of idleness, he continues because cricket still infects his being. When he turned to heaven after the West Indies century, he may have thought of his late father, but he was also "thanking God'' that he was simply able to play, "to do what I enjoy doing''.
"I dont mind pushing myself. Every time you push yourself it's a torture only if you're not enjoying it, but I am (enjoying it). I look forward to even the practice sessions.'' At 33, Tendulkar's iron will is carrying a patched-up body forward.
His form, he admits, these past two years "has been good in patches". The injuries, all pertinently to his upper body, have stolen momentum from him, but time, too, has robbed his batting of some luminosity. No man is the greatest forever; but some men, like him, just remain great for longer.
I ask him, forget the scores, how does he know when he's batting well. He says: "When I see the ball early enough and move the way I want to move. To commentators and experts, they may feel I'm not moving, but the batter (knows best). If I want to do something and am able to do that, then there's nothing to worry about."
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