Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar cannot even fathom.
It is not the footwork, not the muscles but in the mind that victory is planned. When Muhammad Ali lay back against the ropes and let brutal George Foreman pound him during their fight in Zaire in 1974, pandemonium reigned. It so violated conventional boxing wisdom that writer George Plimpton turned to author Norman Mailer at the ringside and screamed, “ It’s a fix.” Ali instinctively knew after one round he could not dance for 15 rounds; but he knew too that Foreman would punch himself out and tire. Ali won but not even his corner had realised his deception.
Similar seductions are manufactured in the head of Sachin Tendulkar, his grey cells gathering together to plan a majestic conspiracy against some unwary bowler. One measure of Tendulkar’s genius is his immaculate judgement of length, to know by the trajectory of the ball whether to step forward or back. This is not merely a gift of a man with a hawk’s eyes, but of a batsman who must have been a crystalball gazer in a previous life.
“It’s about reading the bowler’s mind,” he says.
Anticipation? “ Anticipation, yes.
But it also depends on the previous 4- 5 deliveries and what you’ve done and what the bowler feels about it and what he’s going to do. And accordingly you react. And because you’re ready it looks like you had a lot of time.” And then he hits you in the solar plexus with the ultimate deception.
“It is not just that I expected him to do this. Sometimes I compel the bowler to do this. I play in a particular fashion intentionally so he does something and I am prepared.” Is it possible that he knows Jack Fingleton once wrote of Sir Donald Bradman, “ Bowlers bowled to him the way he made them”? Tendulkar is in an expansive mood, he illustrates his point.
Many years ago in a one- dayer, he tells you, Kiwi Gavin Larsen bowled the first few balls of the over pitched up and Tendulkar played them on the front foot straight to the fielder’s hands.
Larsen’s next three balls were pitched short but still Tendulkar played them on the front foot. At this point Jadeja came to him and asked, “ You were batting so well. Why are you now playing predetermined shots?” Replied Tendulkar: “ I’ll speak to you after the over.” So what happened on the last ball? “ Larsen pitched it short again, except this time I was waiting on the back foot. And I hit it for six. I told Jadeja this was what I was trying to do.” He is a modest genius, he says it doesn’t work every time.
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