A few months ago, I awoke from a disturbing dream. I dreamed of waking up. Of being woken up. By my mum. Who held a newspaper. Whose front-page headline announced that Sachin Tendulkar was dead.
I don't know what set the dream off. The details were fuzzy, but I saw clearly in the obituary that he had died aged 37. Which I guess was my mind playing around with a fact pulled from my memory - Victor Trumper's age when he died of Bright's Disease.
Once I'd properly woken up and reassured myself that Tendulkar was still around, I recalled something Ravi Shastri once said, sometime in the mid-90s, after Tendulkar had broken some sort of record.
I don't know what set the dream off. The details were fuzzy, but I saw clearly in the obituary that he had died aged 37. Which I guess was my mind playing around with a fact pulled from my memory - Victor Trumper's age when he died of Bright's Disease.
Once I'd properly woken up and reassured myself that Tendulkar was still around, I recalled something Ravi Shastri once said, sometime in the mid-90s, after Tendulkar had broken some sort of record.
"He is someone sent from up there to play cricket (pause) and go back."
Ravi Shastri can be very eerie sometimes. And the eeriness bursts forth without warning - against the run of play, he'd say - emerging unannounced from his usual stream of faux-testosterone-laden cliches.
Anyway, I can't picture a post-retirement Tendulkar. Can you? What do you see him doing?
Anyway, I can't picture a post-retirement Tendulkar. Can you? What do you see him doing?
