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See, ideally you shouldn't worship any cricketer. But if you have to, Sachin and dhoni are both in the top tier. Let me explain why Sachin. And you should watch 90s cricket matches for reference. Sachin, at that time, was hope personified for people. If Sachin was standing, India could win a match. If Sachin got out, no chance. You need to remember, this is a period where India had a very weak batting lineup and people hadn't finished matches, so there was no self belief as well. This is pre 2002 Lord's final, pre 2007 T20 WC. This is an Indian team mired in both politics and corruption. Sachin was the only knight in shining Armour amongst this team. You had coaches (Kapil) offering bribes to players, captains (Azhar) fixing matches, anti-social characters (Dawood) mingling with players. And amongst all these things, you had a 16 year old boy, facing, arguably the most skillful bowling duet in cricket history (Waseem, Waqar), with a bloodied and broken nose, saying "Mai Khelega". There are many and more anecdotes where Sachin's individual brilliance even brought the best teams to their knees (You should see the highlights of Desert Storm). In mid 1 90s, India triseries with SL, NZ, 3-4 Indian players agreed to drop the match. Sachin, who was also the captaincame to know about it and singlehandedly won us the match. But Sachin is not just this. The longevity of his career alone make him one of the best, if not the best batters to ever exist in the game. 1989-2012/3, where any other team would need at least three world class batters to cover the space, India didn't have to worry, because they had Sachin. And he would have had to transform his game each time to suit the occasion. All this, while maintaining his average of 50+ in tests, 45+ in ODIs with Strike rate of 80+. These are staggering numbers. Also, he was, in all essence, India's first sports superstar. His story, was the middle class to riches story. The "Indian dream", if you may.
If you work hard, persevere hard, you can also become Sachin. And you don't need to be brash about it. Show your aggression in the game, in your batting. Not off the field. Marry, have kids and stay loyal to your partner. His squeaky clean image combined with his immense talent made him a success with advertisers. That's how all the money came into cricket.
And then of course, you have the records, right. Sachin is the true Sharma ji ka ladka. Most runs, most centuries, most half centuries, most matches played, most runs in a calendar year, most MOTM, first to ODI 200, and so on. He played a crucial role in ensuring we don't have to be submissive to the white folks, we are actually better than them. They don't have a Sachin. All of them want a sachin in their team, but only we have him. And we had this feeling for 25 years
Today, whatever craze there is for cricket in India, a major reason for that is Sachin Tendulkar. He is called GOD for a reason, and mind you, that is before the social media era. He gave rise to so many top cricketers in India. One of the many reasons why even the greatest of cricketers, including Kohli, idolize Sachin.
With time, the fame will gradually decrease, but for the likes of Sachin, he will always be once a legend, forever a legend.š
