The play is the thing

His nickname is ‘Gherkin’ (Tendlya). But there is nothing either pickled or vegetative about him, except perhaps his batting record, which has kept growing luxuriantly like an enormous tropical vine in the 21 years that he’s been at the crease.

And he keeps getting better as he gets older: He’s 37. To get that in proper perspective remember when Sachin Tendulkar first toured, bowlers like Dale Styen were small kids. “That he’s still around when they brought their own young families to the cricket grounds almost defies belief,” comments Dileep Premachandran in his blog.

At a time when a similarly gifted rival (and admirer) like Brian Lara has hung up his bat, Tendulkar is going on like he did at the beginning of his scorching reign at the top: in the last 12 months alone he scored 1,539 runs. This works out to a rate of 85 in 13 Tests with seven hundreds and five fifties. If there’s a batsman in the world who can dream of a centurion of centuries, it is he and he alone.

As for the mind-set that makes it possible, Sachin himself said after the epic knock that he wasn’t really bothered about statistics — 50 is just another number, he said, and 200 (in a oneday international) is just four times bigger. He plays for the love of the game rather than being motivated by an overwhelming desire to set up one monumental record after another.

However, in saying ‘play is the thing’ he seems to be echoing Shakespeare’s phrase from Hamlet. But the Prince of Denmark is hoping to catch the conscience of a king, while what the New Don (pun intended) of this age wants is nothing more sinister than entertaining and enthusing billions of his admirers around the globe. Sachin’s home-grown philosophy — doing your very best and leaving all the rest — echoes what was originally expounded in the Bhagvad Gita and enlarged upon by Sri Jnandeva, the 13th century mystic-poet of Maharashtra.

Sri Jnandeva was a figure much loved by Sachin’s late father, Prof Ramesh Tendulkar. Your columnist has in fact many fond memories which were garnered over some Sundays spent in his company along with other aficionados in a study-circle at Shivaji Park; this was devoted to the Jnaneshwari, Jnandeva’s matchless Marathi commentary on the Gita.

His essence of the Gita found in the final 18th chapter focuses on action with complete serenity of surrender. That enables the aspirant to play.