Passion. Nothing more, Nothing Less.

Very often I am plagued by the question of how a certain Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is able to achieve such dizzying heights of success. I know many people, including you perhaps, who are looking for an answer to this. I will attempt to de-mystify the enigma that Sachin is.

First of all, I don't believe that people are born with a natural flair for something. The phrase, 'it's in his genes', is just another way of saying 'I don't know how'. There are no born geniuses in this world. What you are is a direct function of what you set out to achieve. In other words Sachin was not naturally endowed with the fine art of batting. In fact, I would say that Sachin as a child was not endowed with anything special. He had a typical middle class upbringing, no rich and influential parents as well. So what made that small kid from Mumbai achieve so much when stars around him (Ganguly and Dravid) shown brightly once but faded away slowly. Why was he alone able to survive, despite passing though rough phases and career-threatening injuries? It’s passion; a kind that is pure, undiluted by stardom and fame. It's the same kind of passion that Shakespeare would have felt when he visualized Romeo falling in love with Juliet. It's the kind that Gandhi had for this nation.

Vinod Kambli and Sachin Tendulkar are two glaring examples of this passion. While the former lost his passion half way through his career, Sachin sustained his. And this is a hard job to do also. The mere job of padding up all your life and not knowing anything but batting will scare most of us. It's that mind of his that I wish to salute. How on earth does he get the drive to do it? It's a spot that none of us have a clue about, because we have never been there. And that is why a certain MS Dhoni is the next best thing we have to Sachin. I genuinely believe that Dhoni has the strongest mind after Sachin.

Dhoni, more starkly proves that talent and flair are highly over rated. With highly questionable wicket-keeping and batting skills, he has taken the world by storm. His grey-matter made Dhoni a great captain. And Tendulkar's grey-matter made him a class batsman.

In hindsight, it's cricket's fortune that Sachin chose batting as his passion. It's certainly been a gift to live in his generation and watch him for real. There will be a time, not too far in the future, when people will regret for not having seen him at work.