I am bowing in admiration with hats off, Supreme Master Sachin. I have replaced the prefix ‘Little’ with ‘Supreme’ – though ‘Little’ it signifies his height, it really takes the shine away from his ‘supreme’ achievements.

This pinnacle performance in his glorious career has unified the world to hail him to be the greatest ever, even greater than the Great Bradman himself – ask Nasser Hussain for that matter. As Sanjay Manjrekar puts it – no one else deserved this first ever double ton in ODIs than the Mumbai Maestro himself.

No doubt this record will be erased by someone sometime soon, but the fact remains, Sachin appears to be in a form that defies logic for any other cricketer, or any other sportsman for that matter. Don’t mistake me, I am not referring to his age, I am referring to the amount of cricket he has played in the last 20 years and the level of competence that he has maintained that seems to get better as days go by.

In a way, Sachin’s career is more like the much talked about reverse swing – certainly that clean bowls his critics - a career that retains perfect shine on one side (his performances) as the other side (his body) takes a toll slowly. Yes, he is not getting younger and it is not physically possible for anyone to defy age to keep performing forever, but what Sachin has achieved in his latest part of the career is mind-boggling to say the least.

I know when we speak of Sachin, we don’t need to show records, because records speak themselves about this great man. He keeps saying that he does not play for records either – a statement that may be difficult to believe – yet, what we know is that Sachin was born for cricket and to set records. There is no doubt about it. Some of these records will not be surpassed for sure, at least the longevity records in test matches – no. of tests played (will be his, shortly), and the no. of runs scored – which is more likely to be the case with lesser no. of test matches played of late and the players playing continuously over different versions of the game.

I used to be a critic of Sachin on occasions, especially when cricket fans were giving him excessive adulation without noticing the yeoman service rendered by our own Rahul Dravid (in tests and ODIs), Saurav Ganguly (in ODIs) and some others at each time and occasion. It was annoying for cricket fans especially when Sachin used to fail in 4th innings of test matches that would have been won by India had Sachin contributed even 25% to his potential. That made some fans ignore his massive records and blame him for India’s lack of success in the past.

Then I had to realize that it is just a bitter coincidence of sorts for Indian cricket that the law of averages had to hit Sachin’s streak just when India wanted it to continue just for one more match! And then the records indicate a different story: only 26% of the test matches in which Sachin played have been lost, some of which were despite Sachin’s heroic performances (one of them in Chennai against Pakistan). So, Sachin’s career has been as blameless as much as his chanceless double ton in the last ODI.

Though I said there is no need for Sachin’s records to be reviewed, I am tempted to show his last one year achievements (from Jan 2009 till date) v/s any best single year of his career – just to prove that Sachin is like that elite French Wine that gets better with age! Let us see:

Tests Runs Average 100s HS
Jan 2009 till now 10 1018 78.3 6 160
1999 10 1088 68.0 5 217
2002 16 1392 55.7 4 193
2004 10 915 91.5 3 248*

Just goes to prove that the latest 10 test matches have been the best without any doubt (Previous high scores and the higher average of 2004 due to 5 unbeaten innings notwithstanding). What is incredible is his conversion rate for 100s. There was a time when Sachin missed a few tons repeatedly and now he has made amends to that by improving his conversion rate and has 6 centuries in his last 10 tests.

In ODIs too, Sachin has scored heavily in the last one year, comparable only with 1998 or 1996. He scored 9 centuries in 34 ODIs in 1999 with a total score of 1,894 compared to the 4 he has achieved in the current period from 23 matches with an aggregate of 1,176 runs. He had an average of 65.3 in 1998 against 61.9 in the current period which is so easily comparable though these strong performances have come 10 years apart in his career. And Sachin has topped the current period with this amazing double century this week.

Isn’t it clear that Sachin is having a dream time now? That he has only got better than before, if not at least matching his past performance? Yes indeed, the wine is getting better with age…

He is also proving that whether he is in 1999 or 2009, whether he is 16, 26 or 36 – nothing matters, but cricket does and so are runs, centuries and records. Guys who propogate forced retirement due to age (some ex cricketers included) have got a fitting reply. Hope we see Sachin (and our own, Rahul Dravid) continue to serve India for many years to come - yes, at the expense of many talented youngsters, so what? We now feel perhaps Ganguly and Kumble went out a bit too soon.

Note from a RCB standpoint – RCB-SA stock nosedives:

As a RCB fan though, our South African connection has just taken a heavy beating in the second ODI. Steyn would have just realized that every Indian pitch is not like Nagpur, and every day is not a Monday (the day he ripped through Indian innings at Nagpur)! The fact that Van Der Merwe, Boucher and Kallis all suffered a heartbreak along with Steyn should now make captain Anil bhai’s task easy, whenever he wants to ‘rest’ any South African member in favour of the talented White, Smith, Morgan and the likes. Provided they all arrive in India to play without security worries of course.