There is something about Sachin… that only my generation will understand !!

Sachin Tendulkar (Photo credit: R@VITH)

May be this generation would not understand the Importance of Tendulkar to our generation – those who started following Indian cricket before the Ganguly era.

There was an era before Ganguly started swinging his shirt from the Lords balcony .. An era before Indian won a test match after conceding a follow-on … An era before the advent of Ganguly, Dravid and VVS

Today even I do not switch off TV after Sachin gets out cause I know there is Kohli, Raina, Dhoni, Yuvraj … But there was a time when I used to. This was the time when we thought Manoj Prabhakar or Nayan Mongia was good enough to open batting for India…

I understand the relief that this generation feels after Sachin’s retirement from ODIs… There is logic to that.. There is a lot of young talent waiting in the wings. That was not the case when Azar was captain of the Indian Team.. This was the pre-96 era when Dravids of the world were still making their debut.. That was the reason why Tendulkar had to wait for so many years to win a world cup cause we never had a good enough team to play around him..

Tendulkar gave me and every Indian cricket fan hope and pride in a time when there was none… He was the only good thing about an Indian cricket team with an aging Kapil and a pedestrian bowling attack.. And that is where the term of ‘carrying the weight of an entire nation’ started .. He literally was the Indian Cricket team and he did make us proud numerous times be it the desert storm or the 117 against Pakistan..

He was the one who always stood between India and Defeat .. He was also the one who stood between embarrassment and Indian Team…. There were others who showed talent but never had Sachin’s discipline ; a case in point is Vinod Kambli … So that is why my generation just had Sachin… We did warm upto Ganguly, Dravid , VVS and now Yuvi, Kohli, Pujara but for my generation Sachin was always the First Love and I am sorry but you can never forget your first love

Thank you for all the Memories Sachin

Just a cricket fan
Surendra Phatak