Memories of a Hundred

AS THE ACTION SHIFTS to the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, it is a timely remind­er that the last hundred scored by an Indian in a Test match at the venue does go back 35 years. Yes, it was Sachin Tendulkar’s first-ever international hundred. Little did he know at the time that there were 99 more to follow. It was a fantastic century in a match-saving cause and added much to the making of the Tendulkar persona. Frankly, that’s what India will need in abundance at Manchester. With rain predicted as always, India will need a lot of Sachin’s pluck and resilience that defined his innings of 119 not out in 1990 in Manchester.

In the second innings, Tendulkar came out to bat with India reeling at 117-5, which soon turned into 183-6 with Kapil Dev getting out. With two sessions still remain­ing, England were smelling victory and the bowling attack of Chris Lewis, Devon Malcolm, Angus Fraser and Eddie Hemmings had taken control.

In Sachin’s words, “At Old Trafford, luck seemed to be with me. I batted patiently un­til I finally played a punch off Angus Fraser through mid-off when on 98. Chris Lewis chased down the ball, but by the time he threw it back to the bowler, I had run three, completing my first Test hundred.”

What followed was rank funny. While we see many batters punching the air and expressing themselves, Sachin, by his words, was extremely uncomfortable acknowledging the crowd after getting to three figures. “The crowd stood up to applaud but I was extreme­ly uncomfortable about acknowledging them. I had never been in that position before and was acutely embarrassed about raising my bat to the stadium. Every time I look back at the footage of my first century, I realise that celebrating was not something that came naturally to me. It was only with time that I became more confident of my presence in the middle. ‘Presence’ is actually very important in international sport. It is one thing just being there in the middle, but it is another making people aware of your ‘pres­ence’. It is about body language and radiating confidence, something that the West Indian batting legend Viv Richards would personify. With me, it happened after I had scored a few hundreds and felt more established in inter­national cricket,” said Sachin.

He thereafter went on to say, “As I grew more assured of my presence, I came up with my own signature style of celebrating an achievement by showing the bat to the dress­ing room. Most cricketers develop their own style of celebrating. For example, the way Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne showed the ball to the crowd after picking up five wick­ets in an innings was something they evolved over the course of their careers.”

At Old Trafford, Sachin continued to bat on after reaching his hundred and with every passing over, it was becoming apparent that the match would end in a draw. When the match was finally called off with two of the 20 mandatory overs still to be bowled, India had reached 343 for 6. Prabhakar and Sachin had put together an unbeaten 160-run stand.

“I remember walking back to the pavilion to a standing ovation. Both umpires, John Hampshire and John Holder, congratu­lated me on my hundred and all the England players walked up to me to offer some kind words. In the dressing room, my team-mates congratulated me—not just on my maiden Test hundred but also for batting through the day and saving the game for the team, mean­ing that it was all to play for in the third Test. It was the second occasion I had done so. This one was more satisfying, though, because this time I played a central part in the effort, un­like in the fourth Test in Pakistan, where I had a supporting role.”

But the story doesn’t end here. Rather, the second-half is perhaps more entertaining than the first. Sachin was now Man of the Match and received his first bottle of champagne in international cricket. More importantly, he had to attend the mandatory press conference with the media. “Just when I was about to relax after a good day’s work, I was informed that I had to face the media. It was going to be the first time I addressed a press conference. I asked our manager Madhav Mantri, a former Test cricketer who toured England with India in the 1950s, if it was compulsory or if I could just skip it. He assured me it was a routine matter and said that the journalists would only ask me questions about my perfor­mance and about the match. My teammates, however, started pulling my leg, saying they’d ask me questions I couldn’t answer and that it was going to be a really difficult session. Looking back, I must admit that I quite enjoyed the experience. I was uncomfort­able to start with, but it was quite straightfor­ward really. I just needed to share my thoughts and it wasn’t such a daunting task after all. Most of the questions were pleasant and it felt good to receive compliments from well-known cricket writers.”

Each time you speak to Sachin, it is this humility of the man that endears him to you. He was still cutting his teeth in inter­national cricket and was a humble young man with a burning desire to be the best. He was indeed chasing a dream knowing well that with hard work dreams do come true. “I was declared Player of the Match—my first such award—and once again felt awkward at the ceremony. I was handed the bottle of champagne but, not being 18, I didn’t drink at the time. I just wanted the presentation to be over and to hurry back to the dressing room with the award as soon as possible. In the end, I brought the bottle home with me to Mumbai and finally opened it on the oc­casion of my daughter Sara’s first birthday in 1998.”

As the fourth Test match gets under­way, the best thing that the Indians can do is draw inspiration from Sachin. Yes, this happened three years before Jasprit Bumrah was born, something he reminded me of when I mentioned it to him, but then Sachin Tendulkar is still an everyday pres­ence in Indian cricket. To try and do what he had done and go one better should al­ways be motivation enough for a current-day batter. If that happens at Old Trafford, India will certainly be in business in what has been a fascinating series.

EnglandIndian cricketmaiden test centuryManchesterOld TraffordSachin Tendulkar