SRT: Now That The God is Gone....

Person X: “The Indian cricket team sucks! You lot are useless. (Insert team name here) are much better.”
Me: “Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Enough said.”
Person X: (silence)

This is probably my nth blog post on the maestro, but as a fan, you can never get enough of his brilliance. And then he goes and retires on you only to crush you. But no one will ever come close to Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. No one.

I refuse to sit here and speculate as to why he chose to retire from One Day Internationals. I don’t know if it was a personal decision, a board decision or even a decision made under pressure. All I know is that without jersey number 10, the Indian team is incomplete. In the land of cricket, we lose a god; a man who spoke less with his words but more so with his bat. As a young cricket fanatic, the amount of times I’ve stayed up late watching him bat with my mouth open only to fall asleep in school, are countless. But nothing was more important than watching SRT play his master strokes.

To call Tendulkar talented is an understatement; he defines Indian cricket. Yes, he’s has his share of blows – physical and personal, but he’s always jumped right back into the game. It doesn’t matter how big the blows – his father’s sudden demise, tennis elbow injuries and simply being out of form, he proved his critics wrong by getting back in and hitting like the master he is.

Perhaps it is too early for him to retire; many will say so. But it doesn’t matter what we think, believe or claim. The fact of the matter is that we have bid adieu to one of the finest cricketers in the history of the sport. Never again will we witness such beautiful cricket and for that, we must thank him for a treat that lasted over twenty years. While we sit and watch Sachin reruns, reminisce over our favorite SRT moments and tell stories of his brilliance to our children, we also know we will never see anyone quite like him ever again. There will be some who come close but no one will ever match the man to the T.

And while this will definitely not be my last Sachin Tendulkar post, it will be the only one I wrote with teary eyes. SRT, you will, are and will always be India’s number one son. We love, respect and salute you for your contribution to the country, the sport and our lives. The crease will seize to be same. That, I assure you. Alvida Master, Alvida.