Nearly a quarter of a century later, its time to let go. Its almost as hard for his fans. Cricket for a legion of them has meant Tendulkar. Plenty of Indian cricket heroes have gone quietly. Sunil Gavaskar went without warning, Kapil Dev was nearly elbowed out. Among Tendulkars own team-mates, Anil Kumble never came back from an injury, and Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman bowed out before what might have been their final home season. Only Sourav Ganguly announced it before his final match. Just one last thing lads, before I leave, he said having finished a press conference, this is going to be my last series. And that was that. But it would have felt inappropriate, almost discourteous, had Tendulkar gone without allowing his fans a suitable opportunity to bid him goodbye. Its hard to imagine a sportsperson, certainly any other cricketer, who has shared as profound an emotional bond with such a large number of fans. Some invoke reverence, some inspire awe, some draw affection. Tendulkar found adoration and worship in equal measure, and they grew so strong and so deep that it became, at times, impossible to make sense of. It would be fair to say that at some point Tendulkar became more than a cricketer: he became a faith. Its hard to imagine that there will be another like him. We know this first-hand. He made our website buzz. Consistently, and by a distance, his player page, has been the most visited of all. This year alone, it registered more than 2 million views. The next best was Ashton Agar, with 500,000. Tendulkar was, almost always, among the most-searched players on the site every month, and stories about him featured unfailingly among the most-read pieces year in, year out. When he was about to become the first double-centurion in one-day cricket in 2010, fans mounted such an onslaught on our servers that they took the site down. When his final Test comes around we will hopefully be ready for eventualities of that sort. Meanwhile, this microsite will be both a chronicler of and witness to Tendulkars final month in international cricket. Every day we will bring you tributes, memories, photographs, stats and trivia, archival pieces, quizzes and other nuggets. And it will also be a platform for you to participate by posting your own memories, creating video tributes, taking part in polls and the like.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 12:13:33 +0000
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