There is no pleasure greater than watching a genius at work. As a sportswriter for the last 30 years, I have been fortunate many times over, for one half of my 50 years on this planet have been spent following, reporting and savouring the exploits of Sachin Tendulkar, Viswanathan Anand and Leander Paes.
Statistics and mere numbers can never do justice to this trio, whose achievements will always remain awe-inspiring: a hundred centuries for Tendulkar; a baker’s dozen in Grand Slams for Paes; six Chess Oscars and a world title in every format for Anand. If these aren’t measures of greatness, what is?
Many other Indians have achieved extraordinary sporting success. Milkha Singh, P.T. Usha, Geet Sethi, Kunjarani Devi, Mary Kom, Abhinav Bindra: the list is not insignificant. But even in this elite company, the Sachin–Anand–Leander triumvirate stands tall – for sheer longevity and the ability to stand atop the peak for so long.
The cricket fraternity had been shifting its gaze from venue to venue in search of that ultimate century. From Lord’s to Trent Bridge to Edgbaston and the Oval. The search continued at home from Ferozeshah Kotla to the Eden Gardens to Sachin’s own home ground, the Wankhede. When the milestone finally came, it was in the neighbourhood: the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium at Mirpur, Dhaka.
A year ago, as Tendulkar approached his landmark moment, Leander Paes was on the threshold of achieving a career Grand Slam in men’s doubles, and Anand was on the verge of a hat-trick of world championships in the classical and traditional matchplay formats, after having won in the knockout and round robin formats.
It made sense then to examine Tendulkar’s achievements alongside those of the other two greats. Also, to see them in the context of the changing environment: the sometimes invisible, often overt connections between sport and politics, sport and technology, sport and culture, and yes, sport and violence.
Just over a year ago, when I began work on this book, a search for ‘Sachin Tendulkar’ yielded about 9 million results on the Internet. On the day I wrote this piece, a week after Tendulkar’s century of centuries, the same search yielded 27 million results. The astonishing popularity of the man is also a burden he must carry around. This is true of both Paes and Anand too. The world closely watches everything they do and the marvellous thing about all three is that they have never let themselves or their sport down on even a single occasion.
So, apart from all the statistics and joyful memories of games well played – sometimes won and sometimes lost – this book is a celebration of the sporting spirit and of our champions.
V. Krishnaswamy