One would expect that a century against minnows Kenya wouldn't rank highly among Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar's many achievements in international cricket. Yet, this one did. For the innumerable times that Tendulkar was unfairly criticized for playing for himself and not for the team, this may be the only one holding any semblance of truth. Yes, it was personal, it was emotional. Those 140 runs were for his father, his inspiration. Midway through the 1999 World Cup in England, Tendulkar had to rush back home due to the demise of his father. A highly emotional Tendulkar was sent back to England with his family saying that his father would have wished for the same.
The moment came in the 43rd over of the Indian innings, right after Tendulkar drove Maurice Odumbe to the right of the deep-extra cover to bring up his century. The helmet wasn't yanked off, the arms didn't go up like they usually did when he got to three figure scores. Instead, he looked skywards and there were tears in his eyes. Time appeared to hang suspended, mindful of the private conversation between a man and his father. The 17,000 strong crowd in Bristol cheered even as they watched a cricketer pay respects to his father with an emotionally charged hundred, a perfect Thank you.
Unpause. The Indian dressing room and the Bristol crowd hadn't stopped the applause. A quick acknowledgement and he was back to his guard. The next delivery from Odumbe, drifted onto the pads, was flicked past the short fine-leg fielder for four. The emotions were high, but well hidden. Sachin Tendulkar had come through, yet again. For himself, for his father and for India.
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