25 years of Sachin Tendulkar: How the little master united India as a nation

Sachin Tendulkar retired from international cricket in November 2013

As limited overs cricket took over the reins from Test cricket, Tendulkar revelled and ended his career with a mind boggling 17,000 odd runs and 49 centuries. These numbers were never the cause for the adulation; the adulation came for the way he made them. Tendulkar was neither seen sledging nor showing dissent to every grossly unfair umpiring decisions he was subject to. With an understated personality, he stayed away from controversies, and the front pages were restricted to his on-field exploits. Opulence was something uncharacteristic of Tendulkar, and he largely distanced himself from the glitz and glamour, which have stifled many a promising cricketing careers. The integrity with which Tendulkar conducted himself on and off the field won as many hearts as did his centuries, transforming him to a hero in the truest sense.

Thus after 1989, the limping nation was made to gallop through the next two decades. With Tendulkar churning out centuries after centuries, breaking records after records, the economy grew and so did the sense of "Indianness". As the Tigers at home started becoming Tigers abroad, Indians dominated the academic sphere across the globe. As India won Tests in Australia and England, Indians were now heading the Research and Development wings of quite a few MNCs like GE and Philips. As India reached the top spots in Tests, Silicon Valley was being dominated by more Indians. India was now talked about in the corridors of world power, not only for its cricketing achievements but also for its economic dynamism, political stability, space programmes, nuclear accomplishments, the burgeoning English speaking class, the software experts and, last but not least, for its unity in diversity.

A nation that had been plagued by setbacks on every front was now brimming with optimism with the success story of the BCCI being the most gratifying one. Today, around 80 percent of the world's cricketing revenue comes through India, and in turn, BCCI is the richest board. The recently visible hegemony prompts me to draw parallels between the United States-the United Nations and the BCCI-the ICC. The IPL, a testimony to India's success story, is an example to the shift of power in the cricketing paradigm with the tournament being an annual event not just for India but for the entire cricketing globe, as well. None of the other cricketing nations have been able to host an event as rich as the IPL or even half of it. The going rate for a ten second advertising spot in the IPL was a whopping Rs.500,000, ten times greater than the London Olympics whose going rate was pegged back at Rs. 50,000. The BCCI's refusal to adopt the DRS when every other nation has ceded to it not only makes a big brother statement but also puts India in a spot seldom experienced in the political world.

Apart from the big bucks that narrate India's cricketing success story, another discernible achievement is the decentralization of Indian cricket. Bombay, the undisputed Ranji winner for close to 25 years, started facing defeats against states that were considered as cricketing backwaters. In the successful World T20 team of 2007, around 9 cricketers were from small towns and not from bustling cities. India's most successful captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni himself was from a middle class family from a tier two city of India. Most of these youngsters who made it from the rags have testified to the fact that it was watching Tendulkar that set the flames in them. These are subtler yet indispensable trivia on why Tendulkar was a better unifying force than democracy. One of the intended facets of democracy was representation and getting equal stakes in the success; however, close to two decades, Tendulkar, unknowingly, was outshining democracy.

Amid the corrupt and crony politicians, the voyeuristic and exhibitionist filmstars, Tendulkar was India's readymade role model. As he made his stride to stardom, he carried along a billion dreams, and, in a nation with close to 700 million people under 25, he was the conscience of a whole nation, an unadulterated one at that. He instilled in the nation a fresh sense of hope, thus a sense of coming renaissance. For a quarter of a century, he was the one common source of joy, of disappointment, of pride and of worldwide admiration. No community or group could stake undue praise for it, as the fame was truly and wholly India's.

The frenzied environment surrounding the 2011 World Cup, in all probability the last world cup for the master batsman, was the culmination of years of Tendulkar worship by this cricket crazy nation. As India was about to encounter Pakistan in the semi-finals at Mohali, a few hours from the Pakistan border, the entire nation was fevered, for once for the nation's cause, or its hero's cause as the hundredth hundred was impending now and nothing better than bringing it up against the country's arch rival Pakistan. All routes now led to Mohali with thousands of Pakistani supporters, taking a temporary visa, driving in to witness the grand encounter between the brothers.

The Muslims in India right royally rooted for India, outrightly for Tendulkar, while the Hindus wanted India to beat a cricket opponent, and not a Muslim country, called Pakistan. In the run up to this contest, in Kanpur, Hindu and Muslim priests held a joint prayer service. Muslims read verses from the Quran, while Hindus read from their holy texts, all for one common cause – India and, more importantly, Tendulkar. Juxtaposing this with a Pakistan captain's statement after the country’s loss to India in the 2007 World Cup final, where he apologized to Muslims worldwide for letting them down, you will understand the significant difference between the two nations and hence the economic prosperity and political stability of one.

Thus for a period of nearly 25 years, that sense of belongingness and brotherhood flashed into this nation's discourse. Through Tendulkar, I believe, India made a statement of what we, as a nation, collectively aspired to be.