Thursday, February 25, 2010

Tributes to Sachin Tendulkar

This is an email forward. Just had to post it. My office television usually beams news, but on India match days the whole office congregates near it. Yesterday, nobody could go away from the TV. Sachin crossed the first hundred, and rapidly moved towards the second. And everyone was just sure Sachin would create history, and no one wanted to miss the moment. He seemed to have decided that he won't give away his wicket, and he did not till the last ball of the 50th over was bowled.
_____________________________________________________ “Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it."

- Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a flight.




"Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job."
- Yaseer Hameed



"To Sachin, the man we all want to be"
- What Andrew Symonds wrote on an Aussie T-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin

“Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives"
- BBC on Sachin


But the finest compliment must be that bookmakers would not fix the odds - or a game - until Tendulkar was out.


"Tujhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?"
Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch.


“Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal.”
- Brian Lara


"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin"
- Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)


"The more I see of him the more confused I'm getting to which is his best knock."
- Former wicket-keeper-batsman ML Jaisimha



"The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility -all make for a one-in-a-billion individual"
- Aussie Glenn “Pigeon” McGrath

"I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play,"
- Wife Anjali on Sachin’s retirement plans.

"I HAVE SEEN GOD, HE BATS AT NO.4 FOR INDIA"
- Aussie Mathew Hayden

"Even my father's name is Sachin Tendulkar."
Tendulkar's daughter, Sara, tells her class her after the teacher informs them of a restaurant of the same name in Mumbai.

“I am fortunate that I've to bowl at him only in the nets!”
- Anil Kumble

Question: Who do you think as the most important celebrity?
Shahrukh: There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricket were invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachchan.
Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the GENIUS!!
-Shahrukh Khan in an interview.

“India me aap Prime Minister ko ek baar katghare me khada kar sakte hain..Par Sachin Tendulkar par ungli nahi utha Sakte..
- Navjot Singh Sidhu

“He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also.”
- Waqar Younis
A banner once said-
'I WILL SEE GOD WHEN I DIE BUT TILL THEN I WILL SEE SACHIN'

“Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the world.”
-- Allan Donald

“I was bowling to Sachin and he hit me for two fours in a row. One from point and the other in between point and gully. That was the last two balls of the over and the over after that we (SA) took a wicket and during the group meeting i told Jonty (Rhodes) to be alert and i know a way to pin Sachin. And i delivered the first ball of my next over and it was a fuller length delevery outside offstump. And i shouted catch. To my astonishment the ball was hit to the cover boundary. Such was the brilliance of Sachin. His reflex time is the best i have ever seen. Its like 1/20th of a sec. To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast u wont regret if he hits you for boundaries.”
- Allan Donald in a Cricket Talk interview

“On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!! “
- Australian cricket writer Peter Roebuck

"Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what (Mahatma) Gandhiji was to politics. It's clear discrimination."
- NKP Salve, former Union Minister during the ball tampering controversy

“There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others.”

- Zimbabwean opener Andy Flower

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