Saluting the sublime skills of Sachin Tendulkar

Unless you have visited India, particularly his home town Mumbai, it is impossible to appreciate the true celebrity of Sachin Tendulkar. He is, by far, the most famous person in the country and also the most revered. That is no small achievement in a huge nation which is characterised by regional, religious, cultural and ethnic divides.

And cricket in India being what it is (simply the most important thing in a billion people's lives), for Sachin to have calmly sailed through almost 20 years at the top with his integrity intact is an astonishing achievement.

Both in public and private Tendulkar is polite and unassuming - as far removed from the superstar prima donna as it is possible to imagine. It may be that this air of diffidence has contributed to Sachin's rather moderate record as captain of his country - a job which he refused again recently when Rahul Dravid stood down. But his inner calm, which can appear almost spiritual at times, has been one of his greatest assets as a batsman.

Are his powers waning?

Notwithstanding Sachin's extraordinary record, there are some in the highly charged world of Indian cricket who are asking whether Sachin is quite as good as he was. It is now two years since Tendulkar scored a century against a major Test nation and he has been out in the eighties and nineties quite often as well.

It is also nearly a year since Sachin scored a One Day hundred - although he has been out in the nineties six times over this period. Is the technique, the concentration or the raw ambition fading a bit?

The statistics suggest that it might be. I saw Sachin in England earlier this year and whilst there was the usual sublime stroke making at times he looked just slightly out of tune.

Having said that, his 82 in the first innings in the recent Kolkata Test scored off only 109 balls was pretty impressive! Since his debut Tendulkar has played an astonishing 626 international innings and this has clearly taken its toll on his fitness - the knee injury which kept him out of the Bangalore Test is just the latest in a long line of niggling problems.

There can life up to and beyond 40

There are few records left for Tendulkar to break - he will surely pass Lara's Test run total soon and will then stand clear on top of both the One Day and the Test standings. Fitness aside there is no reason why Sachin should not play on for another five years - up to and beyond his fortieth birthday.

But it is a competitive world at the top of the Indian batting order and someone will soon have to give way to make permanent room for the brilliant Yuvraj Singh, who demonstrated his ability in Sachin's absence in Bangalore with an imperious 169. Whilst it is more likely that there will be a readjustment of the batting order when Tendulkar is fit again - with perhaps Ganguly or Laxman opening the innings - Sachin cannot be absolutely sure of immediately regaining his place.

Only he and those very close to him will know how ambitious he is to carry on - but with India in Australia soon I doubt that the challenge of adding to his seven Test hundreds against the Aussies in Test matches will be turned down.

Can Sachin have an Indian summer?

Next year it will be 10 years since Tendulkar's Annus Mirabilis - in 1998 he scored 16 hundreds in all forms of cricket including 12 in internationals. He has now achieved just about everything in the game - but does the fire for more still burn?

Tendulkar's hero Don Bradman scored 1,903 Test runs at an average of 106 after the age of 38 and many other batsmen have had high scoring years at his age or older. The Boxing Day Test at the MGC is only a couple of weeks away and there are three more to follow in this much anticipated series.

It would be a great opportunity for Tendulkar to launch a great Indian summer to his career.

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