Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the greatest of them all?

I've been a fan of Sachin Tendulkar for longer than I can remember. Since the day I started watching cricket, I remember switching to the cricket channel just to watch the genius at work. And then I would turn it off if he got out, god forbid. Back when I was around ten years old, I didn't even know the difference between a cover drive and a square cut but I was in this love with this character. Diminutive and humble, the man exuded a confidence on the field unparalleled by any other. Absolutely still at the crease, runs flowed from his bat like water off a cliff. It didn't matter if he was scratching around for a dozen runs for a single run, but when he hit that one shot which reached the fence, damn it felt good.

The guy has faced a lot of flak over his twenty years in world cricket, and most of it undeserved. He has shouldered the hopes and aspirations of a nation for the better part of the last two decades and he has come through a better player than ever before. Over 87 centuries in International cricket, leading run scorer in both formats of the game, over 400 One Day Internationals and 150 Test matches...and not to mention one of the highest catch takers in both forms and a pretty nice handful of wickets in Test matches. Yet, people have questioned his commitment and talent at every phase of his career. If he fails in two successive innings, he's out of form and if he scores four centuries in four tests, he's just "good" but could be better. Maybe it's because he's already performed so well that anything less than sterling is frowned upon. Critics have predicted his downfall for years now starting from his back injury, to his tennis elbow problem to as recent as the 2007 World Cup debacle. Every time, Sachin has managed to come up with an amazing string of performances to throw the brickbats right back at them. Purple patches seem to come with amazing regularity, don't they?

On 24th February 2010, Tendulkar indeed proved that he is in fact the greatest of them all. Scoring an unbeaten 200 runs in a One Day International is a feat no other player has achieved. What makes it all the more special is that the little man has proved once again that at 36 years of age and 400+ matches under his belt, he still has the hunger, fitness, drive and stamina to see through an entire innings from start to finish. 

I have great respect for the great Donald Bradman, but really, did his body face as much wear and tear as the Little Master has gone through? 20 years of gruelling season after season and he looks as fresh as ever. The comparison is tough for Don too faced some true great bowlers and bowling attacks (Bodyline anyone?) who probably aren't as well remembered nowadays because the amount of cricket played back then wasn't as much as it is now. In any case, Tendulkar can now truly claim to have broken away from the ranks of the Lara's, Gavaskar's and Ponting's to be talked of in the same breath as Donald Bradman, and Donald Bradman only. Maybe that is why the only player Don Bradman said reminded him of himself was Sachin Tendulkar.

All hail.