Cricket Autobiographies- 01
Playing it my way by Sachin Tendulkar
You guys know autobiography is my favourite genre, and cricket is my favourite sport. So, I love this sub-genre: Autobiography of cricketers. The first in the list is that of the God’s: Playing it my way.
I started watching cricket in 2005 when I was 6. And everyone around me wanted to become Sachin. His name was heard so much that I started hating him. Yes, you read it right. I thought calling a man ‘God’ due to his play was too much. This made me hate Mumbai Indians once IPL started. Instead, I started liking a young guy with flowing hair who had just scored 183 in a single ODI inning.
Once I started analyzing the game, I looked at his stats and got blown away. Then, I read this book. This completely changed my perception of him. He is indeed qualified to be called the God of cricket. Like Sidney Sheldon’s autobiography, which focused on his life around show business, Sachin entirely concentrates on his cricket career from his formative years to the day of retirement. No controversies, loose talks, and nonsense: An inside-out analysis of all the international series he has played.
The main thing that stood out was why he was so successful. It was due to his sheer commitment. Just like that, he mentions that he decided not to play a cover drive in Sydney and ended up getting a double hundred. In another instance, he says that to get the fell of the ball, he started practicing blindfolded. The other thing is that he doesn’t carry his stardom to his head. He could not have played at the highest form of cricket for nearly a quarter of a century if he had carried slightly a bit of that stardom. Instead, his head was full of cricketing thoughts to better his technique and score bucket loads of runs for his side.
The climax of the book is the world cup 2011 and his last innings in 2013. Only during those two occasions he talked less about his preparations and more about the Indian cricket fans. The way he described the feeling of the fans in the stadium made me weep. The 2011 world cup was not just a mere victory. It was a fitting send-off to the hardest-working servant of Indian cricket. This book made me look into some other lives of people who played this game at the highest level. As I started with the life of God, I knew that the other books won’t be that dramatic. That’s what I thought until I picked up Saurav Ganguly’s autobiography “ A century is not enough.”
