“His square cut is best, his game is artistic, he is man of crisis, he scores when required ” all that we used to argue about G.R. Vishwanath , perfect number 4 for India in seventies.
“But Sunny plays against new ball with great technique, he scores hundred at will and his records will never be broken” somebody used to counter. We all friends used to fight day and night about these two masters in college days , We even used to get personal many a times.
“We would stop watching cricket when these two retire “ It was no non-sense statement at that time.
Then this man (sorry kid) arrived in 1993, Sachin Ramesh Tendulakr. He looked like combination of both Sunny and Vishy. We stopped fighting amongst us. Genius made us forget us all those angry exchanges. Sachin came and he started ruling. He was never a prince, he was king from day one.
“Now , a man, who has ruled 3 generations , is retiring “ that day news came on some channel.
“Who will be no.4?” my son asked me. “Somebody will come” I said. “No way” son shot back. “Any way . it will be greatest moment of Indian cricket . Lets salute him dad”
“We can’t give him 21 gun salute” I said
“But we can give him 200 guns salute” Son replied
“You talk sense sometimes” I pulled his leg.
“Don’t make fun dad. Let us start today” my son (Pratik , sorry fan of Sachin is his better introduction) and I started thinking. ‘Two hundred slogans on Sachin ‘ was our target. It became difficult and uphill once we were nearing hundred (like any new comer scoring century)
“If Sachin can score hundreds in tons at-least we should aim at completing hundred slogans , if not 200” I told my son.
We struggled to reach 100 and after that it became impossible to find words. Then we decided to take sachin’s each hundred as a theme and complete another 100. Ultimately we could make it.
We would like to bestow 200 slogan salute to Master blaster Sachin , un-arguably greatest batsman of Indian cricket on behalf of millions of fans all over world .
“Sachin please accept our salute, we would be grateful.”
- Aju Deshpande