The prodigy who shook the game

Whenever talk veers towards the early excitement around Sachin Tendulkar's talent, I remember the words of Kapil Dev. I had broken the news to the Indian team in the dressing room aboutSachin making a hundred on Ranji Trophy debut. The first to respondwas Kapil, who immediately told his teammates,"Please don't go overboard overthis performance. We have also had our prodigies in Haryana. There was RajdeepKalsi. But he flattered to deceive."Kapil's Mumbai teammates, likeDilip Vengsarkar and Sanjay Manjrekar, sniggered. They had been followingSachin's performances since he was 12. They had played with and against him.They knew the buzz. They knew what happened with Kalsi would never happen withSachin. Mumbai cricket has its system of checks and balances and people with theright priorities usually let a talented young one sail through to the topseamlessly.Also, word spreads around Mumbai's cricket maidans veryfast. When Sachin scored his first fifty for Shardashram against Don Bosco hewas barely 11, but umpire DS Gondhalekar immediately told Sachin's coachRamakant Achrekar that his ward would one day play for India. InAchrekar's own words, Sachin was a "natural". He says: "By the time he was 12 or13 I knew he would reach the top. I had to tell him one thing just once, and hewould stick to it."Still, there were people not willing to getcarried away. Like for the semifinal of a suburban tournament, Sachin was leftout of the XI by the Hind Sevak skipper. When the skipper got a scolding fromAchrekar, Sachin was picked for the two-day final against Prabhu Jolly Young. Inthe first innings he was out first ball, for a duck off the back of his bat. Thebowler was a little known legspinner, yours truly! The members ofthe team cursed this bowler for denying them the pleasure of watching theprodigy from close quarters. In the second innings, Sachin hit three boundariesin a row off Ajit Pai, former India seamer, before being run out by his skipper.He went back crying to the pavilion.This is the 'check-and-balance'system. There were a few Doubting Thomases. The city had seen many youngtalents. Quickie Ramakant Desai played for India before he played for Mumbai andBudhi Kunderan did likewise. Madhav Apte claimed all ten wickets in the GilesShield and played for India as opening batsman. Ravi Shastri had been catapultedinto Test cricket within a year of his first-class debut.NadeemMemon was among the senior players when Sachin played for John Bright in the FDivision of the Monsoon tournament Kanga League, which is a test of batsmanshipbecause the deliveries rise off the drying pitches. Says Nadeem, "Achrekar Sirasked me to include Sachin, who was about 12. There were some who thought hemight get hurt but he got 16 not out. Vinod Kambli, Samir Dighe, Iqbal Khan,Dattaram Pandit were also there in the side."Two teammates who sawhim from close quarters at that raw age were Amol Muzumdar and Sairaj Bahutule.Amol Muzumdar was waiting for his turn during the world record 664-run standwith Vinod Kambli, while Sairaj Bahutule was in the opposition, in the St.Xavier's High School bowling lineup. Amol recalls,"We knew he would play Testcricket but not for 20 years. I was not in Achrekar's stable initially but withcoach Anna Vaidya. "But at Shivaji Park this buzz was there. Iremember once I was travelling in a bus with my mother. Sachin was in the samebus. I didn't know him then. I told my mom when we saw Sachin get off, 'That'sSachin Tendulkar, he will play for India.'"Amol adds, "He hadspecial talent. At that time the stress was more on correct technique andtemperament, less on flamboyance. But Sachin had this terrific ability to hitthe ball which we never saw in others. When one knows that one can hit anybowler it is a big plus point."Sairaj Bahutule is all praise forSachin's consistency, right from the U-15 level. "He hit big runs off me in thatworld-record stand but he played the bowling on merit even at that young age,which is remarkable."'Naresh Churi was another Achrekar chela likeAmol Muzumdar, who missed the international bus in spite of having performed andtaken the route that Pravin Amre did ��� Ranji trophy for Railways andDuleep for Central Zone. He says,"I had passed out of school when Sachin joinedbut when in town I would go to the nets and see him. Sir had a special net forthe extra-talented. Once I saw Sachin hitting in the air and asked him, 'Youtold us to keep the ball along the ground but Sachin is doing the opposite.'Achrekar told me, 'When he hits, he not only middles the ball but he clears theground. Plus he doesn't get out when he lifts the ball.' I appreciated the logicand I knew then that Sachin was special."Churi says at the same timethere were many who were pointing out that Vinod Kambli was the greater player."Once I took our Railways coach Vinod Sharma to watch a Shardasharam game. AfterSachin got out with some 250 runs still needed to chase down Anjuman's 500-plusscore at Azad maidan, it was Vinod who scored over 250 and earned us victory.Sharma was impressed more by Vinod. But I insisted that Sachin would be theone." Soon after, when we were in Delhi for a Ranji game, Sharmaknocked on my door in the morning saying,"Your Sachin has been picked forMumbai." When the late Raj Singh Dungarpur saw Sachin play at theBrabourne Stadium in the schools final, he remarked about his maturity. Abouthow when the field was spread out, Sachin would turn his boundary-bound drivesto long-on and long-off for twos. How he didn't hit the ball in the air fornearly two days. No wonder it took little persuasion for Raj Singh, as chairmanof the national selection committee, to pick Sachin for India ahead of the likesof Gursharan Singh and Praveen Amre. The rest, as they say, is history.