So Sachin has announced his retirement and tributes will flow from various quarters, from fans, from devotees and from critics. But let me tell you this, I was never his fan.Talking in statistical terms if we take a distribution from Indian population of the people who are Sachin fans it will be highly skewed distribution where no general statistical technique will apply.
But that is what sachin is, he is an outlier. Pardon me for talking so much in technical terms but this is my lingo these days. For those who have read Malcom Gladwell's Tipping point, you must be familiar with the "Ten thousand hour" rule, I came across a book on Sachin which had an essay by Rahul Dravid on Sachin in which he mentions about the no of hours which Sachin had spent at the ground by the time he was 16 was more than Rahul had spent by the time he was 23. If you apply the ten thousand hour rule in this case, it aptly justifies the heights Sachin has reached in his career.
So coming to the point, what does retirement of sachin mean to person like me, born in 80's.
All the cricket that I have seen in my life has involved sachin but I was never a fan like some of my friends are, I never understood why. Its not like I dont like his game, I dont think he was selfish and was playing for records, so when I heard this news the same thought came in my mind, why am I not a Sachin fan? Why am I not sad like others are?
After pondering about it over a night I realized this, you never become a fan of something which is obvious. Since I have watched cricket Sachin has been the lone warrior. I did not want him to score, I expected him to score always. I had taken Sachin for granted, he was someone who will always be there, someone you can always fall back to when team needs to qualify or win, he was there with the ball or with the bat, he was there. Sachin's presence for me was so obvious that I failed to appreciate it. If we talk in terms of Christopher Nolans dark kngiht, this dialogue would aptly suit him (with modification)
"Because he's the hero India deserves. But not the one it needs right now. And so we'll criticise him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A dark knight"
Yes, he was the guardian who had taken care of Indian cricket when there was no ganguly, when there was no dravid and no laxman. He was the one who inspired millions of Indians to play cricket. He was the one of the first ones to make us believe that we can be aggressive.
People call him God, it seems a bit too much, but is it?
Statistically there have been players who have had better averages than him, who have won more matches than him but what is it that separates him. Is it the manner in which he scored runs, no I don't think so, Vivian Richards was much more authoritative than Sachin and also against top class bowlers. Is it the way he has conducted himself outside the game, again the answer is no, there have been players in the past and in present who have led an ideal life. The only thing I think that separates Sachin is his connect with the masses. Obama has won an election in US by selling his theory of hope, Sachin has won our hearts by giving us that hope.
There is a dialogue in the movie JodhaAkbar in which Jodha asks Akbar to win the hearts of his people if he wants to rule them for a long time, in Sachin's case no one had to tell him, he had already done it and on numerous occassions. From sharjah in 1998 to Chennai in 2008 he had made sure that this faith and trust was never broken. I call him God for giving a billion people this joy because I feel only God has this power. No one in this world can claim to make a billion people happy with his work only Sachin can.
So, I wish him all the luck for his swansong and hope that he brings joy to all of us again which somehow or other always eludes us.
