Book on Tendulkar. Film on Tendulkar. Tendulkar on Tendulkar. At the end of an interview, he once asked me, “How much are you going to write on me.” I replied something like, “Enough is not a word to be associated with your cricket.” The master blushed.
To get him to talk on his batting was not easy. It was not complicated either. He would respond with a dismissive frown. It was thus some achievement when I got him to pick his five best centuries for a Sportstar special.
Tendulkar’s fans were happy when noted cricket author and historian Gulu Ezekiel came up with an exhaustive biography on Tendulkar, who later launched his autobiography in 2014.
Now, Devendra Prabhudesai, offers a feast for his fans with a seminal biography titled “Hero”, published by Rupa, and set to be launched in Mumbai on April 28. It is a welcome addition to any cricket library and encapsulates Tendulkar, who turns 44 today, in a comprehensive must-read narrative.
A keen student Sachin Tendulkar with Sunil Gavaskar; (below left) seeking blessings of Ramakant Achrekar in rare photographs from the book; with the author
Why a book on Tendulkar when so much has been written on him? Prabhudesai explains, “Sachin Tendulkar is a fascinating subject that can be explored and examined from different angles, a multiple number of times. Mine is not the first book on him and neither will it be the last. Having written the biographies of Rahul Dravid (‘The Nice Guy Who Finished First’ – 2005) and Sunil Gavaskar (‘SMG’ – 2009), my publishers and I were keen to complete a trilogy of sorts with a book on the third Indian to score 10,000 Test runs.”
Well researched
It is a well-researched effort by Prabhudesai with a flow that matches Tendulkar’s style at the crease. “I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of writing a biography of someone who has already inspired so much diverse content. I have known Sachin as a fan since February 1988, when he and Vinod (Kambli) made history in an inter-school game with a stand of 664. I have followed his career since then. Like him, I also played my initial ‘formal’ cricket at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, so we have something in common! Of course, that is where the comparison ends. In later years, I had the fortune of interacting extensively with Sachin during my stints at Professional Management Group and the BCCI respectively. I found him to be an epitome of grace and humility. It was an honour to write a book on a Bharat Ratna.”
The book is replete with anecdotes, most of them unheard, and Prabhudesai excels in culling information from various sources, friend, scribes and fellow players. “This book is as much about Sachin as it is a veritable history of Indian cricket in the 1990s and the first decade of the new millennium. It starts where my biography of Gavaskar, which was in a way, a history of Indian cricket in the 1970s and 1980s, ends. Researching and writing the book gave me the opportunity to go down memory lane and revisit the remarkable developments that occurred not only in Indian cricket, but in the country itself, in the 1990s and new millennium.”
Constantly learning Sachin Tendulkar with Sunil Gavaskar; (below left) seeking blessings of Ramakant Achrekar; the author
Prabhudesai divides the book in three sections — Prodigy (1984-91), Peerless (1992-99) and Preceptor (2000-13) — with in-depth interactions with his predecessors and some former greats. The 1992-99 is brilliantly sketched by the author as he takes the reader on a fascinating journey with his lucid pen. He sums up Tendulkar so well, “Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar led Indian cricket ‘formally’ for only 2 of the 24 years of his international career, and ‘informally’ for the other 22.”
How would he compare this book with the ones on Dravid and Gavaskar? “All three books were different. The Dravid biography was written in 2005, when his career was at the halfway stage (he made his international debut in 1996 and retired in 2012). On the other hand, my work on Gavaskar and now Sachin spotlight their entire careers and are accordingly more extensive.
“ ‘SMG’ was a salute to my childhood idol, an individual who instilled self-belief in Indian cricket. ‘Hero’ is a tribute to an individual whose evolution from a schoolboy sensation into a living legend, my generation had the privilege of witnessing. For ‘SMG’, I combined research with a whole lot of interviews. I interacted with Gavaskar’s friends, mentors, teammates, opponents, neighbours and fans, among others. For ‘Hero’, I have relied less on interviews and more on my research, recollections and interpretations of significant happenings during the Sachin era.”
It is the splendid research that stands out as Prabhudesai is able to present various aspects of Tendulkar in a delightful tribute. There is a story behind Prabhudesai ensuring ‘Hero’ saw the light of the day. “My parents, grandparents and other seniors always gave me a free hand to do what I wanted. My father took the lead in this. This book took a while to complete and my father would regularly ask me how it was progressing. We had a telephonic conversation (my parents lived in Pune) on the afternoon of 19 January 2016, in which he exhorted me to pull up my socks, burn the midnight oil, if need be, and complete the book and do a good job, of course. A few hours later, my mother called to inform me that he had suffered a cardiac arrest and was no more. It was a big blow to the family. I will never forget what he said to me in what was our last conversation. I am happy to have fulfilled one of his last wishes. The ball is now in the reader’s court.”
