Of Gods and Mortals

From the moment Virender Sehwag broke the record for highest score in ODI, there is a debate going on among all cricket experts from Chai –stalls to Salons to vegetable market (and yes not to forget the 24 hrs Breaking news channels !!)
The buck stops here - why Sachin Tendulkar is considered God while Sehwag is still a human being.
I am not qualified (rather statistically equipped) to contribute to the debate. But I take this proud moment to express my angle to this very interesting topic.

Generally speaking , most of the Gods, at some point in their lifetime had to resurrect themselves to show the light and lift the mortals from period of darkness.

People who follow cricket as fanatically as I do ( Hemant Dua are you reading this?) would agree if there ever was a dark period in Indian Cricket of modern times, It was between 1996 to 1999. Placed between two world cups of 50 overs format, I single out the period as dark age because that was the time when almost nothing went right for Indian Cricket.
The decline started with India’s semi final loss to Sri Lanka at the Eden gardens. It broke too many hearts. And ironically enough, while the cricket board should have engaged in the some kind of post-mortem of the sudden death, it rather started organising tournaments after tournaments to rope in the newly found moolah. The world cup was swiftly followed by the singer cup in Singapore, Sarjah cup , siyaram cup, Akai champions trophy in Colombo , Independence cup , bilateral series against Srilanka , another series against Srilanka , another Sarjah cup...what not and where not. If we ignore four- five sparks of brilliance – mostly orchestrated by Sachin Tendulkar, it was a deep sallow and dull period. Just as Sachin Tendulkar had single handedly carried India to Semi Final of the world cup’96 he did the same in all other tournaments but faltered painfully at penultimate stage. It was evident that India needed more than one Tendulkar. Certainly three more - at least.
Defeats after defeats followed. Others teams took full advantage of our ill fate. Saeed Anwar scored 194 , A kid called Shahid Afridi emerged to torment the modest Indian attacks, Sanath Jaysuriya started to re write the script of ODIs and unfortunately chose Made in India ink to do so. Can you forget Jayasuriya’s onslaught against Venkatesh Prasad & Anil Kumble?

All of a sudden it appeared the mother India’s womb had dried up from producing genuine talents. While Pakistan and Sri Lanka were producing modern day geniuses one after another , India had suddenly found some steadiness in producing plethora of mediocre personalities. Amay khurasia , Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Vijay Bharadwaj, Amit bhandari , S Ramesh (man with zero footwork and zero luck) , Abey Kuruvilla, Debasis Mohanty , Harvinder Singh Sr & Jr, Ritendir Sodhi , Nilesh Kulkarni , Noel David etcetera etcetera. They came and they went. Those who were batters served 5-wicket hauls to Vass , Muralidharans , shoaib Akhtars and Aquib Javeds. Those who could bowl helped Jayasuriya to notch one record or another Tournament after tournaments. The quest for more Tendulkars was yet to bear any fruit.

And then the inevitable happened. Sachin Tendulkar made his debut in 1989. By that time most of the middle class homes had started buying colour Television.
Suddenly there was a boy next door aged 16 , who looked 12 started hooking and pulling the bouncers showered by quickies. And when the generation who grew up watching one of their own dance down the wicket to hit spinners out of the stadiums was ready to sail into the big league, India finally had some answers.
Virender Sehwag is a phenomenon. He can do unthinkable with the bat. From run a ball triple century in test match to his latest carnage of Indore. One who was touted as a clone of Sachin in his initial stage of career , has now galloped ahead in the race for records.
Not long ago there was a jat from Punjab who hit 6 sixes in an over in a knock out game. He single handedly guided India to 2011 World cup victory. And there is a captain cool around who can do no wrong. The Rainas and Kohlis more often than not bail out India of difficult situation with ease. Mumbaikars Rohit sharma and Ajinkya Rahane look poised to take over the baton from their idol. When did the last time so many promising talents appeared simultaneously?
It’s correct that Rahul Dravid , Saurav Ganguly and Anil Kumble should also been given the credit but few would argue that it’s only one Man- the pied piper of Indian Cricket who has inspired the young bunch of self believers to produce amazing results at enviable regularity.
We are indeed witnessing a resurrection here.