Another Roger Bannister?

By CAM

Who is that - you may ask. For the longest time, no one believed that it was humanly possible to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. Many even came up with scientific reasoning as to why it was simply not possible to achieve the feat. Then, in 1954, a virtual unknown from Harrow, England broke the humanly constructed mental shackles and ran the sub-4-minute mile in front of 3000 spectators in Oxford. Ironically, after this feat by Sir Roger Bannister, several have achieved this 'unachievable goal'.

“Whatever the mind and conceive and believe, it CAN achieve!!”

Since the limited over format was introduced in cricket back in 1971, numerous players have scored hundreds, many have gotten past 150, a few have scaled 180 runs, and a notable couple have gone past 190. In all this no one, mind you, no one has reached that elusive double hundred. It almost seemed that many had resolved in their minds that this could never be achieved.

Until who else but Sachin Tendulkar, the one who has broken almost every possible record in the game, came to party in Gwalior and did just what no one had done in almost 40 years.

For the longest time…

Saeed Anwar    194

And the rest…

And now…

SR Tendulkar 200

And the rest…

Accomplishing the feat is one thing, but the fact that Tendulkar opened the innings and batted on for 50 overs, facing 147 balls was truly incredible. This is another among numerous instances where Tendulkar has raised the Indian flag high in cricket. In a country where cricket is not just a passion, but a religion, where fans eat, breathe and live stats, not much else has been the subject of discussion over the past couple of days.

Much like Bannister in running, now Tendulkar has done something very special in cricket. It somehow just gives me the feeling that the flood gates are now open. There will be others that will cross the once unassailable 200 mark in ODI cricket.

For the good of the game, let us hope that sure is the case…