Tendulkar and his bats
Because I am Batman
Like every top-class batsman, Sachin Tendulkar is particular about his bats. Veteran cricket journalist Sunandan Lele, who has known him for 25 years, says: "One of Sachin's favourite pastimes is to switch on music, put on his earphones, and sit with a bat in his hand, fiddling with its grip or knocking on it with a mallet. He carries his own toolkit and if he is on his own in a room, he is bound to be working on his bat like it is some piece of art."•AFP
He has to see what the grain feels like.•Associated Press
Ram Bhandari, a batmaker who has worked with Tendulkar, said that in 2006 he reduced the weight of his bat from 1350gm to 1250gm.•Associated Press
Tendulkar's team-mates must love talking bats with the maestro.•AFP
There are times, however, when even legendary batsmen will happily trade their bat for a guitar. Tendulkar and his wife meet Dire Straits lead guitarist Mark Knopfler in Mumbai in 2005. Dire Straits was one of Tendulkar's favourite bands growing up.•Associated Press
A lot of fuss is made about cricket balls, but for a batsman, the right bat is like being comfortable in your own skin.•AFP
And the number of grips he would like to have.•AFP
It's not just batsmen who earn their living from their bats. Here, a worker puts stickers on Sachin Tendulkar bats in a workshop in Hyderabad, hoping for better sales.•AFP
Greg Chappell, the former India coach, recalls how Tendulkar looked after his bats. "He was very fussy about his batting and his bats and he used to spend hours and hours with a scalpel just cleaning and scraping his bat," Chappell told the Courier-Mail. "It was all about the visual to him. When Tendulkar batted in the middle, he didn't want to see a single blemish on his bat. If his bat didn't look exactly right or feel exactly right, then he didn't feel right. His attention to detail was amazing."•AFP
Here he examines the toe-end of his bat.•Indranil Mukherjee/AFP
And the bat's weight. In 2004, after recovering from a career-threatening tennis elbow injury, Tendulkar switched to a lighter bat. •Associated Press
That edge alone can carry a ball past the boundary for a six.•Associated Press
But when you are a run-machine like Tendulkar, you can't prevent your bat from looking cherry-kissed.•Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP
In another two weeks, Tendulkar won't need to pick up a bat ever again. But is there any way to keep him away from it and the game?•Associated Press