Great career that had a modest start

It is interesting to recall now that Sachin Tendulkar's Test career came very close to commencing, not in November 1989, but in March 1989. His precocious talent if one one went by his early record - the 664 run stand with school chum Vinod Kambli, century on Ranji debut at the age of 15 vs Gujarat - was evident and there were some who thought that Tendulkar was ready for the India cap. There was much lobbying for him to be included in the team which toured West Indies under Dilip Vengsarkar's captaincy. A couple of newspapers in fact started a debate whether Tendulkar ``should be thrown in the deep end of the pool'' by being selected for the tour. Some former cricketers were in fact scandalised at the prospect of sending a 15-year-old on what was obviously going to be a tough tour and having to face a quarter of fearsome world class fast bowlers at such a young age.

Perhaps it was just as well that Tendulkar did not make the trip. There were too many factors against him coming out of the tour unscathed. First, it was an unhappy tour in that the series was lost badly with the batting, in the face of a battery of fast bowlers, being particularly vulnerable. Secondly, straight from the West Indies most of the players went on an authorised tour of the USA to play some `masala' matches. The Board of Control for Cricket in India came down heavily on the players for this act of `indiscipline'. Taking the stand that making the tour of the USA and playing in these games was against the terms of the contract signed by the players, the BCCI slapped a ban on the cricketers concerned.

Granting - for the sake of argument - that Tendulkar would have done well against the fearsome West Indian attack even at that tender age, he could not have escaped unscathed from the ban. And Tendulkar most certainly would have made the trip to the USA, knowing his hold on a cricketing audience even at that nascent stage of his career. The cricketing Gods would seem to have been with Tendulkar right from the beginning of his career. The Indian selectors by tradition, have been rather conservative rather than bold in their approach and after flirting with the idea of blooding Tendulkar on the trip, decided against it. Overall, there is little doubt that it was the right decision.

When the team to tour Pakistan was to be announced, Tendulkar's name was on everyone's list, something surprising for a 16-year-old yet to make his debut. He was not a headline grabber from the start for he did not make a century in his first Test innings like some of his predecessors had. He had a modest start scoring only 15. Even here, he was like Don Bradman who had made 18 and one in his first Test and was promptly dropped for the next game. There was no question of Tendulkar being axed though and in his next Test got his first half century, taking part in the process in his first century partnership. Scores of 41, 35 and 57 followed and he finished the four match series with 215 runs at an average of 35.83. Good figures these, but hardly the kind you would associate greatness with.

And yet even at that stage, Tendulkar was marked for greatness. His first duck came early - New Zealand's Danny Morrison was the bowler at Christchurch in February 1990. And despite a strokefilled 88 at Napier, when he missed a chance of becoming the youngest Test century maker ever, he finished the three match series with 117 runs at 29.25. And yet there was no talk about him being over rated.

It was in England in 1990 that the first signs of Tendulkar's talent really ripening were seen. And this came in the second Test at Manchester when he notched up his first Test century. At 17 years, 112 days he was just 30 days older than Mushtaq Mohammed was when against India at New Delhi in February 1961 he became the youngest player to score a Test hundred. Even oldtimers watched in disbelief as they saw the teenager display strokes of the highest class along with ice cool temparament. He ended that three match series with 245 runs at an average of 61.25 and from that moment he was Tendulkar, the super star.

His career graph after that has just shown a continous upward curve. The runs and centuries have just kept coming in a spectacular flow in both Test cricket and the one day game. The aggregate and the averages just keep climbing. One achievement that seemed to elude him - a double century in Tests - is now behind him. Yes, he missed Sunil Gavaskar's record at Ahmedabad but surely, crossing 236 is only a matter of time. He is not one to go after records but they just seem to follow him. It's still a long way to go but landmarks like Allan Border's 11,174 runs and 156 Tests and Gavaskar's 34 hundreds are well within his reach, given the fact that he is only about halfway through his career. Perhaps the one record that will elude even Tendulkar will be a career average of 99.94. Other than that, no record is safe as long as Tendulkar remains at the crease.