On 16th November, 1989, a 16 year old boy walked out to bat against Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. He scored 15, but no one had the slightest of idea of what was coming. One month later that same kid walked to play an ODI against the same team. He scored a duck. No one still noticed and the boy moved on. Sachin was not even old enough to get a driving license but was facing the best bowlers in the business. There is a funny story which goes by in Pakistan that when Sachin came to bat out in one of the matches during his first series here, the standing umpire asked the kid (Sachin) to leave the field and play in the next ground where the other kids were playing Cricket. I laughed hard at this one but today, when I see picture of that kid back then, I think maybe the story was true. Today, when I hear that same boy is retiring from all forms of Cricket, I could not help myself from writing and I realize that it’s been 24 years, which is almost equivalent to my age. On paper, 24 is just a number, in reality, it is someone’s life.

Childhood figures or people who were a part of the sport when you started to follow it are always very important to you, since for you, they’re the face of it for some time. Sachin was definitely one of those who was there when I started watching Cricket, in fact, he was already a legend then.

The way in which Cricket in sub-continent is followed by most of its average fans is probably very unique as compared to the professional and scholarly approach that is used by fans of England, Australia, South Africa and maybe even New Zealand. In that part of the world, an England fan would know the bio data of every Australian player who is about to play an Ashes test, his first class record, his attributes etc. And same goes for all counter-part Australian fans. But in India and Pakistan, the team is considered to be 3-4 prominent figures from the team, who rule an era in their respective teams, and who are the face of the team for that particular period of time. For example, before the 90’s, for an average Pakistani fan the Indian team would be Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath and Dilip Vengsarkar. That average fan would never care about Kris Srikkanth because when a competition as heated up as an Indo-Pak match would start, an average follower doesn’t have the time to think about the minute particles. He always keeps his eye on the gold because they’re enough to cause him tension. Post 1990, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has been a distinct part of the face of Indian team for every Pakistani Cricket fan. In the 90’s it was Sachin, Mohd. Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble. In the early part of first decade of 2000’s it was again Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid now accompanied by Virender Sehwag and Irfan Pathan. In the late part of the decade, Pathan was out and in came MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh as the new prominent figures. Therefore, the current face of Indian team for an average Pakistani fan is now Dhoni, Kohli, Yuvraj and still, Sachin. For 24 years, one figure has remained constant for us when playing against India. Finally, that face is going to change by the end of this year.

Let’s quickly get over the stats of Sachin against Pakistan to start off. Sachin’s average in both formats is pretty good against Pakistan but lesser as compared to his standards in both formats. In figures, his ODI average against Pakistan, 40.09, is less than his overall average of 44.83, whereas the Test average against Pakistan, 42.28, is way more less than his overall average of 53.86. In my opinion, this may have been because of three factors which are firstly due to the better quality of Pakistani bowling, secondly due to India’s nightmare run against Pakistan during 90’s when Sachin used to be their lone warrior, and thirdly added pressure of an Indo-Pak match. Due to this added pressure, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the top Indo-Pak batsmen had less averages against each other than their overall averages.

A regret that I share with Waqar Younis is that Sachin never played a Test against Pakistan when they both were at their peak i.e. the early 90’s. How the Cricket world was denied of such a mouthwatering contest is a question for the concerned authorities to answer. We missed what could have been a distinct part of history no matter who would have had the upper hand. However, there was one competition during the later part 90’s between Sachin and Saeed Anwer which I remember was the battle of scoring centuries. Anwer was on 15 centuries when Sachin was on 13, as both were eyeing for Desmond Haynes record of 17 centuries, which at that time was the highest number of centuries for any individual in ODIs. After that what happened, it’s not even worth mentioning. This number is now a mockery since Kohli already has 16 as on today.

The first memory that I recall of Sachin was him playing in Dhaka during the Silver Independence Cup final in 1998 when he thrashed Aqib Javed all around the park while playing a cameo of 41 off just 26 balls which set up a painful defeat for us. That Tendulkar was much more brutal than he was during the latter part of his career. Aqib was injured and went off without completing his final over. Rumors are that he had enough and didn’t want to continue.

Next year, in 1999, Pakistan went to India after a gap of eternity to play three tests, two in a bilateral series, and one in the Asia Test Championship. The stage was set at Chennai and after 3 days of see saw Cricket; the play had boiled down to the point where either it was going to be Pakistan or Sachin. India was 82-5 when Sachin created a partnership along with Mongia that took the game away from Pakistan. What seemed impossible on a square turning track with huge amount of reverse swing which Wasim was extracting, Sachin made it possible and reduced the target to mere 17 runs. Sachin and Mongia played rash shots and India couldn’t complete those runs, but the world witnessed one of the most amazing Test matches ever played. Had Sachin not been there, we might have had a very ordinary Test match.

Undoubtedly the most magnificent innings of Sachin against Pakistan in ODIs was not even a century. It was the 2003 World Cup league match in which Sachin turned on his destructive mode. He was dropped by Abdul Razzaq early in his innings, but the form he was in, he absolutely blew Pakistan away. Cuts, upper cuts, cover drives, that innings contained all shots in the book against the likes of Wasim, Waqar and Shoiab Akhtar. India chased a steep target very convincingly and Sachin was man of the match.

The second and last Test century of Sachin against Pakistan came in 2004 during Sehwag’s triple ton at Multan. Sachin was left stranded at 194 when Dravid declared but it was an innings Sachin not only scored his own runs, but at that time most people believed that he calmed Sehwag to set up a big one. Today, many of us do realize that Sehwag can never be calmed nor controlled, but if Sachin achieved that, it is worth mentioning.

A big topic of contention in Pakistan is Sachin’s centuries which have been probably discussed way more in Pakistan than in India throughout his career. A very popular saying goes by, “Whenever Sachin scores a century, India loses.” which obviously isn’t true but it’s a favorite for all naïve Cricket fans. I remember, when we were about to play in semi-final of World Cup 2011, most of the people from Pakistan wanted Sachin to score a century and I being a regular Cricket follower asked them to stop making such awful prays. Today I checked the stats, and I am actually shocked. They were right. Sachin scored 5 centuries against Pakistan and India lost 4 out of them in ODIs. In Tests, that record is 50-50. Now I do wish that had Sachin scored a century that day, we might have been in the final of the World Cup 2011. But you understand I am kidding. The truth is, Sachin was man of the semi-final and India won not only the match but also the World Cup – Period.

Since Sachin was a great player, he was bound to have some battles with the Pakistani bowlers which I was lucky to be a witness of. There was an absolute gem of a contest between him and Saqlain Mushtaq during the 1999 Test series when Saqlain picked him up 3 times out of the 4 innings he played. Later, the Sachin – Akhtar battle emerged after the Calcutta test which became pretty famous till the very end of their respective careers. A 90+ mph pacer bowing to an elegant little man that used to be some contest.

And it was all due to this greatness of Sachin that whenever we had an upper hand against him, we always felt we conquered the world because he was such an out of world talent. Whether it was Shoaib picking him for a golden duck at Calcutta, or Wasim bowling him up with a disguised slower delivery at Sharjah, or even when young Mohammad Amir dismissed him in Champions Trophy after saying on an interview that he hoped he could pick up his wicket, those were moments that always felt special because Sachin was a force, he was a batsman of another kind.

One of the greatest attribute about Sachin is his humbleness and on-field calmness even when he was thrashing the oppositions. I for instance, never remember a moment of absolute madness of Sachin sledging or abusing against Pakistan, on or off the field. May be some words here and there, but even those were so unnoticed and insignificant that even I don’t remember any of them.

Sub-continent fans are very emotional about their rivalry Cricket. Never believe them no matter how much they say it’s just a sport, deep down inside they’re all are the same. A loss against India is never welcomed well in Pakistan, and I assume same goes for the other part. Hence, there are two kinds of players in an Indo-Pak match for opposition fans, the hated ones and the much hated ones. But Sachin was probably in the third category, in which very few players have existed since the birth of Indo-Pak Cricket, which is slightly liked by the opposition. I write slightly because when we emotional people face each other, we hardly admire the opposite bunch.

Fittingly and unexpectedly, Sachin played his last ODI against Pakistan as well. Obviously, he wouldn’t be able to play the last Test against us, but it would have been nice to see him play against Junaid Khan and Saeed Ajmal in the longer format. From a Pakistani fan perspective, the most prominent figure of an Indian team is about to be erased which will obviously make us feel that something is missing. But time doesn’t stop and the world goes on. I have seen some crazy fans of many cricketers, but Sachin even had believers. In my opinion, the only person who can challenge the fan base of Sachin in India is MS Dhoni. If he can’t, then there may be no other player who can ever even get close to the fan following of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.