1993
A Century at Home
Strange as it may seem now, the 1992–93 three-Test series against England was Sachin Tendulkar’s first proper series at home since he made his Test debut in 1989. He had in the meantime played 21 Tests, of which only one – the one-of Test against Sri Lanka at Chandigarh in November 1990 – was at home and he had made just 11 runs in 92 minutes in that Test.
He scored two centuries during the year, both in Test cricket. The first was at home against England, the other against Sri Lanka at Colombo. By the end of the year he had six Test centuries at 20 years of age. But he was yet to reach three figures in the 59 ODIs he had played.
Century at Home at Last As England are Pounded into Submission
‘Although he is still two months short of his 20th birthday, Sachin Tendulkar formally announced at the Chepauk Stadium yesterday that he has long outgrown the brief impetuosity of his teenage years. The serious business has now begun in earnest, as if anybody ever doubted that it would… Tendulkar, even at such an early stage of his career, can anticipate nothing less than his eventual coronation as the most prolific Test run-scorer in history…
‘Illness, injury, even sheer boredom could intervene over the course of his next 20 years. But there are fewer doubts about Tendulkars durability than the survival of Test cricket itself… Indian cricket became synonymous with Sunil Gavaskar as he set his record of 10,122 Test runs. Tendulkar s talent is such that he could score 15,000…’ - David Hopps in the Guardian, 13 Feb 1992
THE SITUATION
The first Test at Eden Gardens saw Tendulkar oblige fans with a fifty in the first innings and he was at the wicket with Test debutant and childhood friend Vinod Kambli when the eight-wicket win was achieved.
In the second Test at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, Tendulkar achieved his first home ton. It was also the first time he had a century in a winning cause.
He got another score over fifty (78) in the third Test at Mumbai and Vinod Kambli got a double hundred in the same match.
RELIVING THE CENTURY
England were already battered and bruised by the time they came to Chennai for the second Test. Ted Dexter, the Chairman of the England selection committee, quite infamously and to the mirth of many, declared that the poor health of some England players had prompted them to commission a study of air pollution in some Indian cities.
Just before the Chennai Test, skipper Graham Gooch pulled out due to sickness that was presumably caused by Chinese food and extra prawns. Alec Stewart took over as the captain. As the Test progressed, Mike Gatting and Robin Smith had to leave the field just as India began their batting domination.
The illnesses also prompted England to set up what came to be known as ‘Bob’s Bistro’. Manager Bob Bennett, physio David Roberts and chaplain Andrew Wingfield Digby began to prepare the team’s food. The menu comprised corned beef, baked beans and naan.
Mohammad Azharuddin won the toss and elected to bat. It was a fine start, as Navjot Sidhu (106) and Vinod Kambli (59) put on 108. Then Tendulkar joined Sidhu, who got his century before the end of the first day. Tendulkar ended the day’s play on 70.
He duly got to his hundred on the second day after batting for six hours and hitting 24 fours and one six. By the time Sidhu left, the pair had put on 147 runs, more than two-thirds of those coming from Tendulkar’s blade. Then Tendulkar put on 118 with Praveen Amre. The Shardashram School trio, Tendulkar, Amre and Kambli, had two century partnerships between them. India declared at 560 for six after two days and 165 overs.
Tendulkar was stunning in his stroke play. As he neared his century on the second day, he seemed to have shifted gears. Facing the music was Devon Malcolm, who in a space of five balls was dispatched to the boundary three times to bring up Tendulkar’s first century at home. The strokes were textbook perfect in their execution, causing the bowler to despair. At one point, he literally swatted Ian Salisbury for a six.
England made 286 and 252 and lost by an innings. Indian spinners Anil Kumble, Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan took 17 of the 20 wickets as England suffered their heaviest defeat and only their second by an innings. Tendulkar picked up the Man of the Match award for his hundred and the two catches he took in the second innings.
Did you know…
» Kapil Dev, when he reached 35 in the course of his 66 not out, became the first to score 5,000 runs and take 400 wickets in Test cricket.
This was Sachin Tendulkar’s first century in an Indian win.
Tendulkar’s Sixth Century Ends India’s Seven-year Itch
‘Without question, he is the most unifying figure in the entire country. Arguably, he is the most universally popular Indian since Mahatma - Nick Bryant, BBC South Asia Correspondent, 23 March 2006
THE SITUATION
India had never won a Test abroad with Sachin Tendulkar in the team. In fact, it was seven years since India had won an away Test, the last being way back in 1986 at Leeds. Tendulkar came into the Indian side in 1989. Of his 26 Test appearances, 21 were outside India, yet he had never experienced the joy of seeing India win a Test abroad.
The first Test of the series at Kandy saw just 12 overs of action as rain washed away the match. India won the second Test, drew the third, and took the series 1-0.
RELIVING THE CENTURY
In the second Test, at Colombo’s Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC), Mohammad Azharuddin won the toss and elected to bat. After the early loss of Manoj Prabhakar, Vinod Kambli, intent on matching Tendulkar century for century, as it were, scored his third century (125) on the trot as India piled up 366. Tendulkar made just 28 but shared a 68-run stand with Kambli.
Sri Lanka made 254, thanks primarily to skipper Arjuna Ranatunga’s 88. Anil Kumble, with a haul of 5 for 87, destroyed the hosts, giving India a 112-run lead.
Armed with a handy lead, India were of to a record start of 171 between Navjot Sidhu (104, following his 82 in the first innings) and Manoj Prabhakar (95).
In came Tendulkar and added Sri Lanka to the list of teams he had scored a century against with a 161-ball 104 that helped India set a target of 472 in nine hours in the last innings. Despite Aravinda de Silva’s 93, Sri Lanka managed only half the target - 236 - leaving India victorious by 235 runs.
Tendulkar was just past his twentieth birthday, but he already had six Test centuries in 27 Tests, five of them on foreign soil. More importantly, he had realized that expectations from him had risen manifold. He began to cut out risky shots and adjusted his game to stay at the crease longer. In three innings during that series he scored 203 runs at an average of 101.50.
Did you know…
» Kapil Dev went past Sunil Gavaskar’s record of 125 Test appearances in this Test.
» Vinod Kambli followed up his two hundreds in his previous two Test innings with a century against Sri Lanka.
PARALLEL LIVES
Viswanathan Anand: By 1993, Anand was among the most sought-after chess players in the world. Playing in both the FIDE and the rebel Professional Chess Association cycle, he won the 1993 PCA Interzonal event, which was then the strongest Swiss tournament. He went on to top the cycle and reached the PCA final, where he played and lost to Garry Kasparov in the famous 1995 PCA title match at the World Trade Center in New York.
Leander Paes: Paes and the Davis Cup seem to have been made for each other. Barely 20 years of age, he played way above himself as he and the seasoned Ramesh Krishnan carried India past Switzerland, who were runners-up the previous year, in 1992. The Swiss team included Jakob Hlasek, a former top-10 player, and Marc Rosset, the 1992 Olympic gold medallist. Paes and Krishnan scored their singles point against Hlasek and then beat Hlasek and Rosset in the doubles. India then stunned France 3-2 in the quarter-finals in Frejus, France. Paes beat Henri Leconte, a former top-10 player and 1988 French Open finalist, and also scalped Arnaud Boetsch as India scored its famous 3-2 win, with the third point coming from Ramesh Krishnan’s singles win over Rodolphe Gilbert.
THIS ALSO HAPPENED IN 1993
It was a rather diffcult year for India. On 12 March, Mumbai was rocked by a series of explosions. The terrorist attacks took more than 250 lives and caused injury to more than 1,000 people. Later in the year, on 30 September, Latur, also in Maharashtra, was hit by an earthquake between 6.4 and 7.4 on the Richter. More than 30,000 lives were lost and the area was completely ravaged.
On the first day of the Colombo Test, where Tendulkar got his sixth Test hundred, Microsoft released its Windows NT 3.1, the first in the line of Windows NT Operating systems.
In the sporting world, Olympic TV rights were sold to NBC TV for a whopping US$456 million, setting of a trend that would see TV rights fees going through the roof all over the world.