An open letter ..

“Thank You” doesn’t even begin to describe what I felt for you .

It was the year 1998, and I was as interested in cricket as I will be from here on-  I acknowledged the fact that it exists, it is important to people around me, it makes people skip work and stay home, but it had nothing to do with me. Then I saw you play, albeit through the neighbour’s television set, and I fell in love. I fell in love with you, with the game, with the whole frenzy around it. I finally understood why people were willing to talk about it, breathe it, bleed it, live it.

Every run you scored, every single run, not just the innumerable centuries and half centuries, but every single run, made me fall in love with you even more. I started understanding the game, the rules, started watching every match, without missing a single ball bowled. It was the thing that brought me closer to my dad (me being the only one out of us 3 sisters and my mom, that he could talk about cricket with).

I remember the 1999 World Cup in England. I remember being woken up by my dad at around 5 in the morning, with a  cup of tea. I remember sitting  in the bed, watching the pre-match show hosted by John Dykes. I remember crying when I heard your father passed away. I remember boycotting the matches you did not play in, and then watching the India v/s Kenya match on your return after his funeral. Oh how I cried!

There are volumes in your praises, and this one doesn’t even hold a candle to any one of them. You are not going to read this, but I need to write this. I was one of those people, who never ever criticised you, never thought you had outplayed yourself, that you should quit. If it was left to me, today, would not have been your last innings. The whole Indian cricket fraternity, the players, the administrators, and the viewers, exists because of you. If you hadn’t been there all these years, making sure you carried the burden of less than exceptional players , single-handedly, who is to say Indian cricket wouldn’t have suffered the same fate as Hockey? And I apologize to you on behalf of the people, who, despite all this, turned their backs on you when you faltered just a bit from the exceptionally high standard of performance you had set for yourself.I also apologize on behalf of all those , who on this day, are complaining about “too much” being done for your farewell. How can any form of respect be too much after what you have done, and the way you’ve done it?

Now that this day, this dreaded day, has finally come and gone by, all I have left to say is cricket for me was Sachin, is Sachin and will be Sachin. No other definition would do!