Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Genius unplugged and in print



Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul dravid and Anil Kumble were honoured for their individual milestones by Dharam Singh, the Karnataka chief minister, India v Pakistan, 3rd Test, Bangalore, 4th day, March 27, 2005
The book includes essays by Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, who have played most of the careers alongside Sachin Tendulkar


"I shudder to think what today's coaches would have done with Sachin Tendulkar." So begins Sanjay Manjrekar's contribution to Sachin - Genius Unplugged, the latest book on the game's most prolific batsman, launched in Bangalore on Wednesday. It is a statement that underlines Tendulkar's most defining characteristic - his endurance. Tendulkar has been the only constant through 21 years (and counting) of the game's metamorphosis, and excelling in every format. After all these years at the top, with his every move analysed to death, is there anything more that can be written about Tendulkar? The answer, going by Genius Unplugged, seems to be a yes.
The book, edited by eminent cricket journalist Suresh Menon, comprises 18 essays by writers who have watched Tendulkar's career, and, in the cases of Manjrekar, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid, been a part of it. Seventeen of the 18 essays are freshly commissioned - "I was the only lazy one," says Menon with a chuckle. Yet, as the editor of the book, his contribution is to have taken it from conception to paperback in just over seven months. Fittingly, it includes a foreword by the man who is to bowling what Tendulkar is to batting - Muttiah Muralitharan.
It was also fitting that Dravid launched the book, and Kumble received the first copy: Kumble and Tendulkar held the record for the most Tests played by two cricketers together (122), until the Dravid-Tendulkar combine (currently 135) broke it. Kumble marveled at Tendulkar's ability to master every aspect of the game he set his mind to. "Sachin just rolled his arm over, and turned the legspinner and the googly by the same huge width, while I was struggling to spin the ball," he said. Menon recalled Kumble once saying that if Tendulkar took to legspin, he himself might have never played for India.
Kumble also remembered his debut at Old Trafford in 1990, in which Tendulkar scored his first international century. "Kiran More had ordered me to keep standing on the balcony, since Tendulkar was batting well when I was there," Kumble said. "I was allowed to sit down only after he reached his hundred, and the match was saved."
Both Kumble and Dravid also spoke of Menon's contribution to cricket writing. Dravid recounted how he used to preserve, and be inspired, by Menon's newspaper articles on him when he was a schoolboy cricketer. He believed this book would stand out from the crowd thanks to the sheer quality of contributors, including Peter Roebuck, Greg Baum, Harsha Bhogle and Barney Ronay. "The book is a great reflection on Tendulkar's accomplishments, and is something youngsters taking to cricket will enjoy reading," he said. "Chronicling good writing is not something we do very well in India, and this book is a very good start."
Sachin - Genius Unplugged, published by Krab Media and Westland, is priced at Rs. 599 in India, and $16 everywhere else

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