Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Sachin Tendulkar's Burden - How to Get the 100th 100

As he draws closer to the hundredth hundred, the burden on Sachin Tendulkar is clearly showing. It is no mean feat, a first of its kind, and would naturally weigh heavily on his mind each time he prepares for the next match, the next inning. Without doubt he would visualise the achievement, the applause, his own actions, his reactions later and all this clutter would add heavily to his burden. After a couple of decades of playing in a certain manner, preparing and implementing his strategies on bowling sides all these years, it is time now for Tendulkar to perhaps rethink his preparation. To perhaps lighten up a little and go back to enjoying the game. The century will come, if he does not get in the way which he is right now.


For starters- to turn all his preparation upside down - he could just forget about the hundredth hundred. (And that goes for the team as well.) He could make it all a big joke and get on with his game. He could just go and enjoy every moment of the game he loves so much. And as he gets closer to his hundred, it is important for him to just stay intensely in the moment, and not ahead of the moment i.e. the hundred. It will come when he is ready for it and right now, in his tense manner, he is not. He must do what he probably believed in all these years, that the game is bigger and that he must allow it to happen - not control it fully. Control, true control, comes when you let go.

It is another record and one that could be broken as all records are sometime or the other. It is easier to be happy and to continue doing what gives the most happiness to him - playing the game. If the pitch is any indication to go with, his big chance is  in this Test and I suspect that if he just lightens up a bit, he could do it right here.

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