Sachin's pranks as effortless as his cricket

Playing with Sachin Tendulkar was a dream come true but getting to know him as a person was a humbling experience, writes former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta.

By Deep Dasgupta

For us mere mortals, it is difficult to even imagine how it feels to become a man at 16 with a million eyes scrutinising your every move.

Now, as a 36-year-old, having played for India, I sit back and find there are two categories of cricketers - one is Sachin Tendulkar and the other group is like us, who were certainly "Not Sachin Tendulkar."

I am not Sachin Tendulkar and here is why.

When I was 16 and played those age-group national level tournaments, I came back home after my matches and had to diligently complete my homework before being sent to bed.

When Tendulkar was 16, he was facing Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Imran Khan!

At 17, I was able to share a laugh with my friends and stand for a plate of 'fuchkas' (Kolkata's version of the popular Indian snack paanipoori) by the roadside and break into the junior state side besides sneaking in a Valentine's Day card for that beautiful girl in school.

But Tendulkar had no such luxuries. At 17, he was scoring a Test century and saving his country from defeat in rather hostile English conditions.

The differences are stark and way too many.

But that is precisely the reason why all of us, who were fortunate enough to wear that India crest at some point of time, take so much of pride in it.

When my kids grow up and start to understand what Sachin Tendulkar means to our country and the impact the great man had on cricket the world over, they would be probably proud that their father played with the greatest of them all.

As a kid myself, I would fantasize batting with Sachin on the non-striker's end on my roof-top and we would win matches for India. And then came that moment, that moment when I first met the legend for real and in flesh. Everything seemed so surreal.

The memories are still fresh, just like they were from yesterday.

It was just before my first Test series in South Africa back in 2001. I had walked in to one of the nets, without realising that 'Master' was having a knock at the adjacent net. Also I did not realise, that he was keenly observing the way I batted.

A little later, Tendulkar walked over to me and for the next one hour spoke to me on various facets of batting, even feeding me balls in the areas he wanted me to work on. That one hour with the greatest batsman in the world was priceless.

Trust me, he did not need to do that but then true greatness makes you humble and I was certainly not the only one who gained from the legend's magnanimity.

In my debut Test at Bloemfontein as I awaited my turn to bat, Tendulkar gave a lesson in batsmanship. Against a potent pace attack, 'Master' cracked a stroke-filled 155 as I watched transfixed from the dressing-room, observing and realising how he executed the basic tenets of what he had explained to me in that training session and what a knock to witness in my first appearance for India.

Tendulkar made batting look easy, even against the fiercest of attacks. That was for everyone to see and admire. But as his teammate, I also saw another side to him, that left me floored. There was this little child in Sachin, that wanted hos share of fun without being rude or bratty.

Being loud and funny is very easy but pulling off a prank with a poker face is really a task. And trust me, Sachin can do it as effectively as he hits a sharply turning delivery out of the park.

Flashback 2002. In Trinidad.

Sachin joined me and Shiv Sunder Das for lunch. We took a cab and Sachin decided to sit at the front with the driver while Das and I sat at the back.

When the driver asked us, where we had come from, Sachin told him, "We have come from the US for a holiday" and guess what, the cabbie believed him!

Sachin and the cab driver started talking about sports in the Caribbean and he asked our new friend about which game to follow in the West Indies.

"Cricket," pat came the reply from the cabbie.

Sachin replied: "Cricket? What is that? Back in the US, we only follow baseball." By then, we had had enough and were about to burst laughing but Sachin was not done yet and proceeded to ask the driver about the rules of the game and the guy explained that a cricket game needs two teams with 11 players in each side and so on and so forth.

Sachin was relentless and he asked the driver about the best player in the sport. "Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar," the totally unsuspecting 'victim' replied and went on give us a brief about both these gentlemen. S.S and me were were in splits but the Little Master was just as focused as he is on the field.

The driver recommended the India-West Indies Test match highly and insisted we watched out for this guy called Tendulkar and the battle with Lara.

Master saved the cabbie some embarrassment by not revealing his true identity

As Sachin retires and my beloved 'City of Joy' braces up to give him a fitting farewell, a part of me has suddenly become void. With a clamor for tickets and various other requests, yours truly's cell phone is going kaput. I only want wish that he walks into the sunset with all the flair, dignity and poise he has shown all these years.

For us, who love to give the red cherry a thwack, Sachin's cover drives were the colours of Holi while his picture perfect pull-shot was like watching that beautiful Goddess Durga at a South Kolkata pandal.

The sixes Sachin hit off Shane Warne were liking bursting rockets during Diwali. He was a part of me and I don't know whether my romance with cricket will ever be the same, come November 18th.