Sachin Tendulkar to declare at 200

"It is a decision taken from the heart. It has nothing to do with my body or mind." This was Sachin Tendulkar's first statement on the phone once he had taken the hardest decision of his life. It must have been an emotional moment but the man was calm and composed. He even chuckled when asked if the impact of the decision had sunk in yet.

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"Anjali (his wife) and Ajit (elder brother) are both very emotional but I am okay", he said. "Let's talk about something else. I don't want to start leading a retired life even before I have retired."

The last statement sums up Sachin perfectly. He still has two Tests to play and one can be certain that he will treat them with the same seriousness that marked his preparation for the 198 he has played so far. That unassuming persona masks the fierce pride that makes him the champion he is, and he will be determined to give his very best shot as a career that defies comprehension finally winds to a close.

Ask him what he has lived for and the answer will be prompt, "To play for India". Somehow, when he says it, you know it's not just a platitude but a heartfelt truth.

Was retirement on his mind? Was he talking about it to his near and dear ones? Did the media reports about retirement bother him? Was he pushed to the decision? Such questions may and will be asked.

But the truth is that Sachin's decision is entirely his own and has come from the heart. He doesn't think that after the 200th Test he will enjoy playing the game as much as he has always done — and that's that. He will never give an iota less than 100% for India. Over the years, Sachin defied time, constantly reinventing himself to stay one step ahead of a sportsman's greatest enemy. Once he realized that it was becoming difficult to do so, he declared his innings closed.

What does one say about Sachin's career that has not already been said or written? Perhaps the only thing to say is it is a testimony to greatness that can never be challenged by even the most ardent critic. Cricket has always celebrated Jack Hobbs for scoring 100 first class hundreds. The difference between first-class and Test cricket is like chalk and cheese. Scoring 100 hundreds in international cricket is a feat that has once and for all set Tendulkar apart from his predecessors, contemporaries and probably even generations of future greats to come.

It would be no exaggeration to say that Sachin's landmarks put him among the very top echelon of sportspersons across diverse fields. His achievements rank alongside those of Usain Bolt, Babe Ruth, Mark Spitz, Michael Phelps and Nadia Comaneci. The only batsman against whom Sachin can truly be benchmarked is Sir Don Bradman. But Bradman never played with the pressure of carrying the hopes of a billion-plus people on his shoulders, never had to deal with a situation where a loss was similar to a criminal conviction with the world's second-most populous country sitting in collective judgment. Bradman played a sport. Tendulkar is the presiding deity of a nationally-unifying religion called cricket.

So how did he deal with all the pressure? Here's the man himself: "The most important thing in trying to deal with pressure is to evolve your own mechanism to cope with the situation. I have been fortunate that crowds, both at home and away, have given me a rousing reception every time I have stepped out to bat. There has been a build-up right through my career. At times, however, the crowd was so loud that it added to my nervous tension at the start of the innings. Finding it difficult to concentrate, I had to devise my own technique of trying to control the crowd. Whenever I found the crowd too loud I decided to walk down the wicket and tap it for a while, giving myself an extra 15-20 seconds to adjust. I'd be hoping that in this extra time the crowd would mellow a little and settle down."

He will have to perform this ritual in two more Tests. And it's certain that the crowd will not settle down in 15-20 seconds. The applause that will attend his last walks to and from the wicket will reverberate around the world. Sachin Tendulkar has made his peace with the fact that there is life after cricket. But millions of worshippers will be consumed by a feeling of hollowness as they try to come to terms with cricket without Tendulkar.

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