In a brilliant article, Paul Farbrace, Yorkshire’s current second XI coach and a former assistant coach with Sri Lanka, writes in depth about what makes the retiring Sachin Tendulkar stand out from the crowd.
When you think of Sachin, you think balance, straight bat, strong wrists, genius, the Little Master!!
Yorkshire’s second XI coach Paul Farbrace is a huge fan of Sachin Tendulkar. He is not alone!
It got me thinking as a cricket lover and coach, as the great man is close to his final Test match innings, was he born with the high level of skill or has he been developed by a series of inspirational and keen eyed coaches during his 25 years at the top of the game?
I have met Sachin Tendulkar, watched him practice, watched him play, watched hours of him on TV and have never been anything other than massively impressed by everything I see.
He is humble man, a strong and brave competitor, a seriously talented batsman, a model for any young batsman to follow.
His record as he approaches 200 Test matches is so impressive. He scores runs in all conditions, in all countries and in all forms of the game. For any player to stay at the top of their game for that long is remarkable. To stay at the top of the game in such a cricket mad country as India is even more remarkable.
The discussion of the late 1990s and 2000s about Tendulkar or Lara. Well for me, it’s an easy one. It has to be Tendulkar.
Great players like Sachin Tendulkar go out of form just like club players do. But the better, simpler and easier the technique, the sooner players get back to form. Sachin’s technique has been, and still is, so simple. He stands still, is balanced and plays back to the short ball and forward to the full ball.
You hear coaches at all levels talking about trigger movements, pre delivery movements. And yet the great man stands still, eyes level and looking like he has all the time in the world to do the most important thing when batting - that is to judge length.
That’s what makes the difference between the good players and the very best players - the ability to determine where the ball is going to land from the cues they pick up from the bowlers hand.
The great coach of recent times, the late Bob Woolmer, always felt that was the only weakness in Sachin’s game.
The fact he stood very still and was very side on, that bowlers who had the ability to hit the seam and nip it back at Sachin early in his innings, had the best chance to get him out, either LBW or bowled.
In one conversation with Sachin in his home city of Mumbai, he talked to me and a couple of young players about the importance of focusing solely on the other end, not on himself when at the crease.
He reasoned that one per cent concentration on his feet, or his hands, or his head meant that he had 99 per cent concentration on the ball. That meant there was a one per cent chance that he would get out to that delivery.
Many players will have tried to copy his technique, his ways of playing. But to be honest, nobody has succeeded in mastering the craft of batting as Sachin has.
He lands his front foot with a heel strike, then as he transfers his weight into the front foot, he rolls the weight through the left foot and makes it look so simple. To other players, that causes nothing but problems.
So back to my initial question. Was Sachin born with the high level of skill, was he born to be great or has he developed those high quality skills through practice, through hours of coaching and people telling him how to play?
He credits his brother with being a strong influence in his early days. There is a fantastic and romantic story you get told in Mumbai, that at the savannah in the centre of the city there is a cluster of cricket pitches, with the cricket crazy people of Mumbai playing cricket from first light to darkness.
It is said that Sachin’s brother used to take him from game to game. Once he was out in one game, still wearing his pads, he was taken to the next match. Such a fantastic story, I really hope it’s true.
I honestly think the great players in any sport are born with a special talent, but talent alone will not bring about a 200 Test match career. This guy must be so mentally strong, so focussed, so driven to be the best he can be.
Paul Farbrace shares a joke with Jason Gillespie, Yorkshire’s first-team coach, on a pre-season tour of Barbados
John Wright, who coached the Indian national team, told me Sachin was a pleasure to work with. He was always wanting to talk about the game, talk about how he could improve and how he could develop his game.
He did provide me with a hugely disappointing occasion during my time in international cricket. I had been so lucky to be in Kandy when Murali broke the world record for Test match wickets.
That came during a Test match against England, which was the first Test of a three Test series, and our first Test match victory during our time with the SL national team.
Sachin Tendulkar came to Sri Lanka with the Indian team to play a three Test match series, needing 98 runs in six possible innings to become the highest run-scorer in Test cricket. Amazingly the new kid on the block at that time, Ajantha Mendis cleaned up, we won the series and the great man fell about 20 runs short in his quest.
Delighted we had beaten a fantastic Indian team that had such players as Sehwag, Gambhir, Laxman, Dravid, Ganguly and Tendulkar as their top six, but just a tinge of disappointment that I hadn’t witnessed him break the record for Test runs.
A genius who has set records, played many match-winning innings, raised his bat to crowds all over the world and has thrilled, excited and delighted cricket lovers like me for nearly 25 years.
We can only salute this cricketing legend, and I’m sure we all secretly hope there is one more hundred to cheer before he packs his kit bag for the last time.
James Buttler
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
He is also the presenter of the Cricket Badger Radio Show on Radio Yorkshire every Tuesday evening between 7-9pm UK time.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author, a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications and a complete cricket badger!
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