Super Sachin buried under the Stats

"When I was 10 years old, I used to sleep with my bat under my pillow. I used to visualize myself waving my bat at a cheering Indian crowd after scoring a century. I believe in childhood dreams."

Sachin Tendulkar said the above line in an interview to the Times Of India on the completion of 20 years of international cricket for India. It's now March 2012 and Sachin Tendulkar is into his 23rd year of living his childhood dreams. Tendulkar's comment above is one of the most inspirational lines ever. Tendulkar's statistics are even more mind-boggling - 15470 runs in 188 Test matches with 51 hundreds at an average of 55.44, 18260 runs in 461 ODI games with 49 hundreds at an average of 44.64. I wouldn't go into the world records. They are far too long to type out and there are far too many to cover. In a nutshell, Sachin Tendulkar has done everything a man made out of flesh and bones holding a piece of willow in his hand can do on a 22-yard-long piece of land.


But Beside The Point, Sachin Tendulkar's super-stats quite often tend to become bigger than the man himself, leading fans and followers to forget the man behind the big figures.


On reaching his 100th international ton against Bangladesh at Dhaka (that's 10000 runs in hundreds alone!), Tendulkar looked up into the sky, symbolically dedicating yet another milestone to his long-gone inspiration - his father. And as he lifted his bat in the air, the exasperation of 370 days of going century-less showed rather clearly on his face. At the end of the innings, Tendulkar made himself clear - 

"It's been a tough phase for me. I was not thinking about the milestone, the media started all this, where ever I went, the restaurant, room service, everyone was talking about the 100th hundred. Nobody talked about my 99 hundreds."

Tendulkar has often been compelled to change his natural game in order to break records. He's never enjoyed batting in the 90s. He's never enjoyed batting 10 runs short of a world record. 100 often seems twice as good as 99. 10000 seems thrice as good as 9999! Tendulkar's career has often been reduced to numbers. Often, the number-chasing not just bogs down Tendulkar, but it also hurts the team. 


Sample this -


Tendulkar, apart from his 100 international hundreds, has been dismissed in the 'nervous 90s' 10 times in Test matches and 18 times in ODI cricket. That in itself is a world record! Out of the 49 hundreds that Tendulkar has scored in ODI cricket for India, the team has gone on to lose 27% of the time. That compares rather poorly when contrasted against Ricky Ponting (Australia has won 86% of the time when he scores a 100), Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka has won 86% of the time) and Virender Sehwag (India has won a whopping 93% of the games in which Sehwag scores a 100!).


There seems to be no doubt that number-chasing hasn't worked too well for Tendulkar. It's led to a lot of turmoil! So why can that be? Well, he said it himself! "The media started it." Tendulkar's performances have very often been blown beyond the team. The country and its people often look at the player as an individual rather than a team-man. Indians don't really care if India loses the game in case Tendulkar breaks records in it. There is constant pressure on the man to go from 10000 to 15000 to 17000 to 18000 to 20000 and beyond. It's all about numbers. It's all about stats.


When the records don't come, he is out of form. When the team loses, it's because of him. For many, Tendulkar is Team India. His stats are the stuff of legend and he is buried under them. But how many times have we looked at Tendulkar, the team player? How many times have we looked at the man behind the numbers? Allow him play his natural game while he's at it. Because that's why he's there!