Four reasons why Sachin is Sachin

“Imagine Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath combined! That is Sachin Tendulkar,“ were the proud words of a man who was one of the first to realise the true extent of his precocious talent. Dilip Vengsarkar, a batsman from the traditional Mumbai school, was skipper of the Mumbai team when he was called in early by the respected cricket nut and talent scout, Vasu Paranjpe, to come and check out a 14-year-old who was making waves in the Harris shield and other inter-schools cricket in 1986-87.

“I could not believe my eyes when I saw him. I really believed in that first special assessment net that I set up that we were seeing a wonderful talent. He looked so comfortable and I loved the confidence with which he batted. And mind you, the special net bowlers that day at the CCI, on my invitation and coaxing, were Kapil Dev, Chetan Sharma, Manoj Prabhakar and Arshad Ayub,“ Vengsarkar recalled fondly .

It was years later that the former chairman of the Indian team selection committee was to make the comment about seeing a combination of Gavaskar's stoic, defensive solidity and Viswanath's artistic ability to play strokes. With a sound base formed on sheer industry in the nets under coach Achrekar's I watchful eyes and a flair that was all natural being the cream on the cake, I Sachin went on to conquer the modern cricket world like none other, scoring more runs and centuries in Tests and One-Day , Internationals, the two pre mier forms of the game in his era.

“They said he was too . young when we discussed his inclusion in the Mumbai team. I said keep him in the squad at least and give him the confidence. I had not seen him in an Under-16 camp in Indore that I was supposed to visit since I was playing an office game then. The net session was better since I saw him against India's best bowlers of the time. The rest is history as they say when he played the match against Gujarat and made a hundred on debut. He had already repaid the faith we reposed in fast-tracking him into the game,“ Vengsarkar said.

The batsman once tipped to take over the mantle of Gavaskar and Viswanath in the Indian batting order was to regret only one thing in his life -that he chose not to go on the tour of Pakistan in 1989. “The circumstances were difficult. The Board had banned me and a few other players for going to USA to play cricket after the tour of the West Indies.

Srikkanth was named captain to succeed me but even before that I had decided to skip the tour. I might have made the biggest mistake of my career as I was not with Sachin on his maiden tour. How I would have loved to be there,“ Vengsarkar explained.

A delay in courier delivery saw him miss out on the MCA function to honour Sachin three days ago but he would not miss the opening of the Test for anything in the world. The Bombay school of cricket may have helped in bringing a prodigy so quickly into the first class game but Vengsarkar has to be given a lion's share of the credit for instantly recognising the depth of the youngster's talent. As chief selector, his contribution to change in Team India has been significant. It's not to be forgotten that he chose M.S. Dhoni as captain of India even if he did so only after Sachin turned down the job offer.

“But if there is one thing I would like to take credit for it is for being able to see Sachin's talent. A cricketer would have to be blind not to see it but to stick one's neck out does not come easily in India,“ Vengsarkar said.

Asked to pick how Sachin stayed on course for 24 years while many talented have fallen by the wayside or failed to attain their true potential, Vengsarkar said, “Four factors -Passion, focus, determination and discipline. Sachin had them all.“