Sachin Tendulkar - Giving Joy and Tears to the Nation

What do I say? Where do I start? Let me begin by talking about myself. I have always been interested in sports right from my childhood. Cricket, Table Tennis, Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis…just a few of the sports that I have tried my hand at. I was not very good at most of these sports and you could say that I was average in a few and a bit more than average at a few others. But that did not stop me from grabbing every opportunity that I got to play a sport, be it at the school, in college or even later in life. 

The adrenaline rush that one gets on scoring a point, hitting a run, smashing across the court cannot be written and can only be experienced. And then comes the high of a victory which cannot be guaranteed every day, especially if you are not very good at the sport, but whenever it comes, it brings emotions of elation and achievement. 

Long back, I had realized that any individual who reaches a certain level in any sport has gone through lot of discipline, practice, training, sacrifices, sweat and persistence. For me, this realization is enough to give respect to every sportsman. And when a sportsperson reaches a stage where he is playing for the nation, it is clear to me that he/she deserves great admiration and respect for where they have reached and I have no authority to question or critique their game unless and until I have reached a similar stage. I cannot be an armchair critic. Period. I would rather celebrate the joy of sport than to question someone’s talent. 

A sport is a sport and every sport brings with it a certain amount of happiness, pain, climax and disappointment. Who am I then to judge whether someone who enjoys watching hockey is not cool or someone watching football is cool. It is a choice they have made and we should not be questioning their choice.

The problem is that not everyone understands what I said above. And if the sport happens to be as widely followed as cricket, then you can expect to have experts all around you. Comments like “He should have let go of that ball”, “What is he doing? Does he not know the run rate needed?”, “What is wrong with Dhoni. Why is he handing the ball to Ishant?” are heard quite frequently. When these statements come on the spur of the moment, one can understand the emotion behind it, knowing well that there is no serious intent behind such questions. 

Now if the sport happens to be cricket and the man in question tends to be Sachin Tendulkar, then you can expect people of all hues and age to have an opinion on him. Everything from his shot selection, his ability to win matches, his form and his retirement date gets discussed threadbare and that is what is happening for the last 24 years. Many a times, critics and former cricketers have had to eat humble pie as soon as they made a statement as Sachin would prove them wrong as if he had an epiphany of this and he was waiting for the right moment to silence them.

The mind boggles at the thought of a single person amassing 34,000 runs on the back of a hundred hundreds and 164 half centuries. It is no mean feat! Statisticians may question some of his greatness by bringing averages into discussion but life is not only about numbers. It is also about consistency, rigour, temperament, values and much more. If one were to put the lens of perspective, then one will also realize that no other cricketer has faced the pressure and burden of 1.2 billion people or the entire nation the way Sachin has. To go out there in the middle, with such loud noise all around you, knowing well that a few bad innings could lead to people baying for your blood and despite knowing all this and yet go ahead and deliver for 24 consistent years requires the determination and skill of someone special.

Playing 200 Tests, 463 ODIs and 310 First Class matches mean that one has been on the road for atleast 1750 days, which means that 5 years of one’s life has been spent on the field. This is without counting the days spent on practice or the days spent for IPL. How many of us can think of staying away from family for so long just to pursue our passion?

With another sublime innings of 74 runs that Sachin Tendulkar played in his 200th test to bring joy to the nation, one thought that one had seen it all till the time he took that final walk back to the pavilion in the middle of the Guest of Honour given by his team mates. The entire nation had a heavy heart on witnessing that scene. 

But it was not over as yet. The best was yet to come. He spoke and he spoke with the purest of heart, giving the world a glimpse into his soul and bringing a lump to the throat of millions across the country. His farewell speech can be counted as one of the most genuine and heart-felt farewell speeches given by anyone. To acknowledge almost everyone and recounting incidents from the past just shows the humility of the giant. He bound the nation with his words and left them all teary-eyed. Every heart was booming with the words ‘Sachin Sachin’ even though the eyes were moist. 

Sachin is a legend and we are proud to have lived in the same era as him. 

He batted. We prayed. He scored. We rejoiced. He lost. We lost. He won. We won. He cried. We cried. #ThankYouSachin

Here is the video of Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfCBWUkWzXM&feature=youtube_gdata

Given below is the text of Sachin’s farewell speech:

Friends please settle down, I'll get more emotional! It's hard to believe my wonderful journey is coming to an end. I've a list of names to thank. The first is my father, who passed away in 1999. Without his guidance I wouldn't be standing in front of you. he said 'chase your dreams, don't give up, the path will be difficult.' I miss him today. My mom, I don't know how she managed a naughty child like me. She just prayed and prayed from the day I started playing the game. For four years I stayed with my uncle and aunt when in school, they treated me like their own son.

My eldest brother Nitin doesn't like to talk ,much but he said, whatever you do, I know you will give 100%. My first cricket bat was presented to me by my sister Savita. She still continues to fast while I bat. Ajit

my brother - We have lived this dream together, he sacrificed his career for me, he took me to Achrekar sir first. Even last night he called me to discuss my dismissal. Even when I'm not playing we will still be discussing technique. If that hadn't happened, I would have been a lesser cricketer.

"The most beautiful thing happened to me when I met Anjali in 1990. I know that being a doctor there was a big career in front of her. But she decides that I should continue playing and she took care of the children. Thanks for bearing with me for all the nonsense I've said (Anjali wipes tears). Then the two precious diamonds of my life Sara and Arjun. I've missed out on several birthdays, holidays. I know for 14-16 years I've not spent enough time with you. But I promise you I will spend the next 16. 

"My inlaws - I've discussed several things with them. The most important thing they did was allow me to marry Anjali. In the last 24 years my friends have made terrific contributions. They have been with me while I was stressed. They have been with me even at 3am when I was injured. Thanks for being there for me.

"My career started when I was 11. I was extremely delighted to see Achrekar sir in the stands. I used to ride on his scooter and play two matches a day. Sir took me along to make sure I played. On a lighter note, Sir never said 'well played' because he didn't want me to be complacent. You can push your luck now, Sir, 

since I'm not playing cricker anymore.

"I started my career here in Mumbai. I remember landing from NZ at 4am and playing a Ranji game the next day. The BCCI was fantastic from my debut. Thanks to the selectors. You were right with me making sure my treatment was taken care of.

"Thanks to all the senior cricketers who have played with me. We see on the screen Rahul, VVS, Sourav, Anil who is not here. All the coaches. I know when MS presented the 200th Test cap, I had a message to the team - I said we are all so proud to be representing the nation. I hope to continue to serve the nation with

dignity. I have full faith that you will serve the country in the right spirit.

I will be failing in my duty if I didn't thank the doctors who have kept me fit. Given the injuries I have suffered. They have treated me in odd hours.

My dear friend the late Mark Mascarenhas. I  miss him. My current management team WSG, for continuing what Mark has done. Someone who has worked closely with me for 14 years is my friend Vinay Nayudu.

"The media has backed me a lot, since my school days. Even today. Thank you. Thanks to the photographers for capturing those moments. "I know my speech has become long. I want to thank people who have flown in from different parts of the world. I want to thank my fans from the bottom of my heart. "Sachin, Sachin" will reverberate in my years till I stop breathing."

 (Followed by loud cheers)

IPL – Its Web is wider than you think

Now that the Indian Premier League 4 has been done and dusted with, putting out a blog on IPL is as risky as facing Lasith Malinga without a helmet as you don’t know how the ball will respond. Well, this blog was supposed to be out during the IPL itself but due to laziness, inertia, and the IPL itself, was not able to put it together though the thought kept swimming in the mind all through. As you all know, you can’t hold back thoughts beyond a certain time and they have a tendency of wanting to come out once they get germinated, so here-on I present to you my thoughts on the IPL.

This blog is actually not about how great this IPL tournament was or how well some of the teams played or any of those other compliments and brickbats that have already been seen and read in print and online through various tweets and status updates. This blog is actually about stepping back a bit and noticing how the IPL is a big revenue generator (for BCCI, franchises and players – yes, we already know that) for people/industries that we tend to overlook as part of getting affected through the IPL.

Let me illustrate the people/industries impacted by the IPL through a web:

Let us talk about each one of them one by one so as to understand how they get impacted by IPL:

1. Airlines: The revenue of airlines who are the travel partners for the entire IPL tournament grows manifold as on a daily basis, some sectors (sectors between which travellers are travelling) have a confirmed 25 – 30 seats booked (business + economy) per team, which includes the players, the team management, the support staff. etc. Moreover, all these bookings are done well in advance so what that means is that the airlines is getting confirmed bookings across key sectors for a decent number of seats for a period of 48 days at one shot itself, which is a huge cash amount accumulating through a single booking (could possibly be the largest block booking).

2. Hotels: The hospitality partner for the tournament also sees a surge in their revenues similar to the airlines. Every day/alternate day, one team or the other is reaching the city and staying there in the hotel with each person allotted a single room (executive or superior and not deluxe). Once again, all of these bookings are done well in advance and at one shot, so this block deal boosts the revenue of the hotels involved, in a significant manner.

3. Printers: Local printers of a city who are involved in printing all the posters, banners, the 4s and 6s placards are able to do business equal to 3 – 4 months by being involved in the IPL hype, publicity and promotion.

4. Security Agencies: As we all know, IPL involves celebrities, parties, events, etc.. and all of this calls for additional security over and above the state security. All the big security agencies of the city in which the IPL matches are being held get involved in providing security to these people and events and thereby becoming one of the key beneficiaries of the tournament and its largesse.

5. Event Management Companies: Becoming the chosen partner to host and hold the IPL parties and events is an ambition that each and every event management company of the city has but only a select few are able to really get lucky and strike the deal. The scale of these parties are seen and known to all and any company involved in organising such events is making a killing and adding a few zeroes to its balance sheet.

6. Restaurants and Pubs: The joy of watching a cricket match gets multiplied when you are watching it with a group of friends on a large screen and there is food and drinks to keep the merriment going. The duration of the IPL tournament sees pubs and restaurants running special offers, putting up giant screens, making specific IPL dishes, special discounts for a group of 10 people and above and various other innovative ideas with the sole purpose of earning much, much more than what is being spent to pull the crowds in. This is a win-win for all as guests feel pampered and the restaurants get their cash registers ringing.

7. Liquor Companies/Cola Companies: Till a few years backs, liquor and cola companies used to look forward to the summer season as the sale of beer/colas would go up tremendously. Now, the summer party begins a month or two earlier as soon as the IPL Chairman declares “I declare the IPL tournament open” as what this also implies is a huge fillip to the sales of these companies through alcohol/colas bought at the restaurants/pubs as well as that bought for home consumption.

8. Local transport: Match days are days of extra income for drivers of local transport – autos and cabs. Not only do they tend to get a large number of people heading to the stadium using their means, they are also able to charge extra later in the night once the match is over, knowing very well that the exuberant mood and the desire to get home soon will make people loosen their pockets a bit and won’t mind paying a few tenners extra.

9. Food Vendors: With the kind of security checks and drills in place these days, everyone is apprehensive that if they do not reach the stadium on time, they will not be able to enter before the match starts and they will miss out on lot of action. As a result of this, people land up at the stadiums 4 – 5 hours before the match time, get into queues and slowly make their way to their seats. What this means is that they would get hungry and thirsty much before the match starts and even during the course of the match. This is the right opportunity for the local vendors to be present outside the stadium and inside (licensed vendors) with items like water bottles, cola cans, chips, biscuits, chocolates, etc. which people want and for which they do not mind paying a rupee or two extra. Regular food vendors always keep a track of match days and stock themselves accordingly as these are the opportunities to earn more than what they earn on a regular day.

I am sure when the IPL was envisaged by Lalit Modi, he would not have thought of how it will change the fortunes of a number of other people and other sectors over and above the fortunes of the players. 

The sectors and people listed by me in the web above may not be all comprehensive as I believe that there might be a number of other sectors and people who also make a killing during and through the IPL and either I have missed them while putting this blog or I am oblivious to their existence also in this web of the IPL.

Would be great to know if you, my reader knows of any other sector/people who gain a lot due to the IPL.

Thank You Team India

Dear Team India,


I would like to take this opportunity to thank you not only for myself but on behalf of the entire nation. With such a sensational World Cup victory, you have brought joy and pride to each and every Indian living in every part of the world. You gave all of us a moment that has allowed us to forget our worries, our sadness, our struggles, our mundane lives for some time and given us the opportunity to be a part of this celebration.

Your World Cup victory was celebrated in every house, every street, every corner, and every intersection of the country with great chutzpah, zeal and energy. I was out on the streets of Delhi after the victory and I saw people in big cars and small cars, people on bikes, people on foot, people in autos and people on trucks with each one having a glow on their face, a smile on their lips and just one word to say ‘Indiaaaa… Indiaaa’. When I saw a guy standing on his cycle without a shirt dancing and waving to every car passing by and people stopping by to hug him and dance him, I knew then and there that victory is sweet without any ifs and buts. It also told us once again that victory has no caste, no colour, no creed and no regional bias. The sight of young guys and girls on the bonnets of their cars, standing out of their windows, holding the flag of India was a sight of a lifetime. Even the cops did not want to spoil the party and they let people just be. There were some joyous and amusing moments also when I noticed two guys standing out of the windows of a car, wearing the T-shirts of ‘Dhoni’ and ‘Tendulkar’ mentioned on it and the guy on the front holding a big trophy in his hand. It could not have got more symbolic than this.

What also amused me was the same people who were abusing the style of playing of the Indian team during the qualifying stages and criticizing Dhoni’s captaincy, his strategic decisions and his form on Facebook and Twitter after every inning, every session and every match had suddenly done a volte face and were now tom-tomming the same team and captain calling him a great leader and a true strategist. I remember telling my mother how quickly people change their stance and colour surprises me and she summed it up beautifully by saying ‘Ugte hue suraj ko sab salaam karte hain’. I always knew India is an emotional side when it comes to cricket but not only are we extremely emotional, we are also extremely impatient as we expect results instantly and cannot control the urge of lambasting you guys even when the match is not over as yet.

To further add to the drama, there was the Indian media playing its role of Narad-Muni to perfection, building full hype around every player and every match, with complete background music, interspersing movie dialogues with scenes from earlier matches of India and getting everyone from an ex-cricketer to an astrologer to come and give their two bit of what will happen in the next match and who will be the key. Some of the people giving all the tips had never every played cricket or picked up a bat in their lives but that is India, where every person, be it an auto-driver, a fashion designer, a corporate guy or a normal middle-class businessman with a paunch has his own expert comments on what you guys should be doing and what you should not.

Team India – you showed us all how it is done in style despite 2.4 billion eyes watching you like the eagle watching its prey, ready to swoop down on it when there is one wrong move. Achieving the victory through a six was a statement to the world that we have arrived and arrived in style and now we will dominate like never before. Each and every one of you - Sachin, Yuvraj, Virat, Gambhir, Raina, Zaheer and of course Dhoni showed why India is such a formidable opponent.

There was a lot to learn from you guys in terms of team work, handling pressure, delegation of responsibility, managing and leading from the front, never-say-die attitude and I already know that over the next few years, every corporate AV, every new launch, every team-building workshop and every leadership seminar will have pictures and videos of the quarters, semis and the finals telling each and every one of us how it is done.

While it is good to use all these visuals to motivate working people like us, I also feel that there was lot more that the corporate world can learn from you guys. They can learn that one does not have to be made to work for years and years before being given the command of a team. It is not always about experience. Sometimes it is also about the ability, capability, killer instinct and passion that an individual possesses that should decide who should lead from the front. Corporates should also learn from you guys that it is perfectly fine for even a 15 year old senior to work under his junior without the senior feeling any insecurity about it or the junior feeling a sense of over-achievement about it.

Dhoni, by staying behind a few paces and letting Sachin get all the limelight post the victory, you also told us that credit should be given where it is due and a leader should know when to step back and yet enjoy the success of his team. By shaving your head off immediately after the victory, you also taught us that staying true to your word is far important than looking good from the outside.

I can go on and on about what all was there for us to learn but I would leave that part to the HR people and motivational speakers at this point of time as this blog is really not about picking what I learnt but rather about what I saw during the entire duration of the tournament all around me.

One of the things that struck me during the course of the World Cup was that surprisingly China has not picked up this sport as yet. Could it be because cricket is still not included in the Olympics and so it does not hold the same charm to them? I am not ready to believe that China is not capable to play cricket as today they are playing each and every sport, including Volleyball and Basketball, which earlier was not the key sports of China. I would not be surprised if over the next few years, seeing what you guys have been able to achieve, they pick up this sport and we see them participating in the World Cup of 2019. I would surely be keen to see a battle between India and China on the cricket field. It would also allow us to avenge for the Indo-China War. Well I guess there is no point of talking about this as right now China is not a cricket playing nation so there is no point in discussing that further.

From a corporate stand point, being a marketer, I can vouch for the fact that this victory of yours has got a large number of people of my fraternity extremely excited and they have already started discussing new campaigns and new brands having one or lot of you in that. As I had said earlier ‘Ugte hue suraj ko sab salaam karte hain’. You guys deserve it as well and you should it enjoy it to the hilt. After all, a wait of 28 years has been brought to an end. You have brought rains to the land suffering from the drought of the World Cup victory and so once again, I would like to thank each and every one of you with utmost gratitude and with great pride.

Cheers Team India!