SUNIL ON SACHIN

Sunny releases Sachin’s biography14.26 IST 03rd Mar 2005 By Agencies It was a case of one legend releasing the biography of another, but Sunil Gavaskar expressed the hope that Sachin Tendulkar would one day come out with his autobiography detailing little known matters about his life and career."One day, hopefully, Sachin Tendulkar would himself sit down and write his story so that we will know exactly what made him tick," Gavaskar said after releasing a book titled 'Sachin Tendulkar: A Definitive Biography', written by Vaibhav Purandare in Mumbai on Wednesday.Gavaskar, who said a lot of biographies on Tendulkar have been written in various languages apart from English, also wanted to know some little known facts about the master batsman which no book so far had revealed."Like, for example, we would all like to know in which language does he converse with his wife Anjali, who is part Gujarati and part English, or with his children. Is it Marathi, Gujarati, English or some other language," the former India captain remarked."We all know that Tendulkar uses a heavy bat, but would like to be informed about the number of grains his bat has or the number of handle grips he prefers to bat with."Gavaskar sounded very emotional after having attended the funeral of former Mumbai all rounder Sharad Diwadkar, who died on Tuesday, and said the large turnout for the last rites of Diwadkar showed he was a well-loved man despite not having been a great player.Sanjay Manjrekar, senior to Tendulkar in the Mumbai and Indian team, elaborated on the distinctive qualities the latter possessed which have made him a legend in his lifetime."It's appropriate that one legend has released a book on another legend. Legend is a word which is loosely used nowadays, but there's no doubt both Gavaskar and Tendulkar are cricket legends," the former middle order technician said.Manjrekar listed some unique qualities possessed by Tendulkar."Tendulkar is a very quick learner which I found out on his debut Test and one-day series in 1989 in Pakistan. He did not score many runs in his debut innings, but in his very second knock for India scored a half century on a very lively Faisalabad pitch", recalled Manjrekar who was in great form on the tour."He also does not commit the same mistake twice. It's an amazing trait."Another great quality he shares with Gavaskar is that they both hate to get out. All batsmen hate when they are dismissed but these two hated it more than all others", the former India batsman said."Tendulkar is also a tremendous competitor not only in cricket but in other games too. I remember the time we played a Ranji game in Baroda. He defeated a reigning Gujarat state table tennis champion there after practising hard (in table tennis)," Manjrekar said."He also has the ability to keep his feet firmly planted on the ground though he's a child prodigy. We have had other great talents like Laxman Sivarmakrishnan and Maninder Singh not fulfilling their potential," Manjrekar pointed out.Going back to the dark days of match fixing charges in Indian and world cricket, Manjrekar said that Tendulkar's squeaky-clean image ensured that many followers of cricket in India did not get disillusioned."At that point of time Tendulkar was bigger than the game itself. One of the greatest contributions to the game during that period was his clean image," Manjrekar remarked in support of his point of view."Tendulkar's elbow injury and all reveals a very important fact of life that he's after all a human being", he added.