Sachin the best??

Anwar's 13 year record had been surpassed. The master had achieved yet another milestone(i think it is unassailable.. or i strongly hope it to be). So many Pakistan hating people were overjoyed by the fact that a Pakistani's record had been broken by an Indian(tongue in cheek). But the master wasn't done yet. His eyes gleamed for the first ever double ton by a human being. MS Dhoni was in no mood of stopping his own rampage over the proteas. Would Sachin have to avoid getting a double ton for the teams sake (remember Rahul Dravid's decision to declare the innings?? Whatever .. That was a test match). Finally Sachin got strike. Charles Langeveldt with the ball in his hand and Sachin 1 run away from history, he guided the ball to point and there it was, (a Kodak moment would be an understatement), it was something absolutely supernatural. A heartfelt experience, I couldn't stop feeling tears under my eyes to see an icon whom I have followed right from my childhood days achieve something that big. I experienced an adrenaline rush just by sitting on the sofa and munching on a packet of chips, all thanks to the visuals which were right there in front of my eyes. And I dont think my feeling was any different from the feelings of the entire nation.

At this moment, I would refrain from speaking about his failures, and the extremist criticism(ill start abusing these extremist) that he has been subjected to. Sachin has often been compared to the great Sir Donald Bradman. His batting style and his technique is also revered as the best in the world. Tendulkar has often been compared to his counterparts like Lara and Ponting. But his achievements(and a thorough gentleman like projection of himself) has managed his name to stand out in todays era atleast, without any doubt. One would argue that Sachin's achievements are more significant than Don Bradman's anyday, plus the high level of fielding standards that teams have today and the span of time for which Sachin has played, he should be called the greatest batsman the world has ever seen, without an iota of thinking. But, at the same time we must not forget that in those days there used to be much lesser safety equipments guarding the batsman, much lesser matches that were played and much lesser medical facilities(imagine if Sachin never came out of his million injuries). Considering all these things it wouldn't be fair to compare batsmen of two completely different eras. Moreover, there was not much of Media coverage during Bradman's era, who would play "Yaha ke hum Sikandar"," Apni jeet ho unki haar haan" and play the footage of his achievements all day long. Its really fascinating to realize the magnitude of Bradman's achievements which have absolutely stood the test of time and are fresh in people's minds even today. This also gives me an optimistic feeling that Sachin's achievements will never be forgotten.

But the bottomline is, as far as the current era of cricket is concerned Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and his outstanding records are unassailable and he can be rightly called the Tiger Woods of Cricket(minus the sex scandals :P)

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