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An incredible journey

We doff our hats to the Little Master whose insatiable appetite for the game matches his limitless capacity to reinvent himself. It seems miraculous that even as he sets his sights higher and higher, he is still able to achieve his goals. This only makes us wonder whether he is really only a couple of months away from his 37th birthday?

A world record ODI double hundred might seem the work of an inspired young man just short of his 30th birthday, which is about the age everyone believes a batsman is at the peak of his mental and physical prowess. Sachin may have aged beyond the mid-30s but there is no telling which other peaks he will scale in the game before he quits.

The innings that fetched him his latest world record was, however, not that of a young man frenetically clobbering the bowling in a limited-overs situation. There was majesty in the thought process behind the compiling of the innings that only a senior pro could bring about. Initially, the strokes flowed logically from calm thinking, silken touch more than power sending the ball scooting to the ropes.

The first impression I had from the opening over was it was a 350-run pitch. By merely tapping the ball into gaps after allowing the ball to come on to the bat Sachin showed how quickly he had assessed the conditions. Only the young and the hot-blooded would have tried to hit the cover off the ball when it was coming on so invitingly off a good pitch on a fast outfield and to short boundaries.

There was a supreme economy of effort to the early strokes that paid its own rich tribute to the form that Sachin is in this season. In fact, this rich lode of form has been his since the tri-series in Australia in 2008 from when he has had only one poor series, which was the one in Sri Lanka last year. That was when critics, pretty unfairly one must say, were beginning to murmur about him on the count of his age, etc.

There has never been any doubt over the fact that it was not the chronological counting of years that would guide Sachin in the matter of retirement when he finally does give it a thought. I believe he will call it a day when his mind runs dry of motivation. His physical reflexes and his thought processes controlling his batting are so much at their peak that they are unlikely to let him down in the near future.

Maybe, he will struggle between the wickets as he did in turning for the second that actually took him past the existing record of 194 shared by Saeed Anwar, who used a runner for a major part of his innings, and Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe. But the sheer enthusiasm for the job carries him pas that line most of the time, but only narrowly as it did once when the double century was close enough at hand to make onlookers nervous.

The fact that he was in a far emotional state when he acknowledged the cheers for his 200 than when he reached 195 showed which landmark in his mind was the more significant. For those who have harped on Sachin being a chaser of records just for their sake should please note that. Sure, the double century is also a record. But, much more than a record, it represents a signal achievement that has done a nation proud.

We will never cease to wonder from where he derives his inspiration to keep producing quality cricket day in and day out. But then would we not say the same of all great sportsmen? In Sachin's case, it has been an incredible 21-year journey, which perhaps makes him stand out even more as he nestles with the true giants of the game.

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