Given that cricket is a sport driven by numbers. But 69 is indeed a mind-boggling figure. 100 hundreds in international cricket, 15, 847 Test runs, first to score a double hundred in ODIs, most runs in World Cup (2278 runs in 45 matches). The list goes on and on.
He has made his fans fall in love with numbers because he kept clocking them one after the other, with each figure seeming more incredible. For the success-deprived Indian sports fan, who didn't have many World Record holders to boast about, he was a revelation.
So what made Tendulkar a record-making 'factory' that functioned non-stop for almost 25 years? What made him the sensational run-machine that hardly malfunctioned?
To decode why this 'Super Man of cricket,' kept going on and on, we need to deconstruct Tendulkar's phenomena bit by bit. The first mantra that the maestro stuck to throughout his career was simple: Stay focused. By 15, Tendulkar had become a sensation in school and domestic cricket. At 16, he made his India debut.
It's an age where youngsters are more bothered about where the next party is. For this 'Boy Wonder,' though, life began and ended with cricket.
It's difficult to keep your feet on the ground when all you hear from a young age is how good you are. Tendulkar's best friend Vinod Kambli found it difficult to handle fame and stardom and went astray. Tendulkar though didn't let distraction in at all. It was almost as if he was in a zone.
Even as 'Tendulkar mania' gripped the nation, engulfing every Indian cricket fan, the man in the middle of it all remained least affected. All he cared about was: How do I tackle the next ball?
While staying focused kept him on track, it was an exceptional ability to bat in all conditions that made Tendulkar doubly lethal.
Technically, he was as good a batsman cricket ever saw. The unusual concoction of a bottom-handed grip and an unusually heavy bat didn't stop him from scoring runs on bouncy, seaming tracks, earning him praise from even the staunchest of critics from England and Australia, who would often scoff at the Indians' ability to play outside the sub-continent.
To keep scoring heavily, one must possess strokes though and Tendulkar possessed an array of them. To a ball of fuller length, he could drive all day. If the bowlers pitched it short, he had the cut and the pull to deflate them.
Against spinners, he would either dance down in a flash or cut or sweep them ever so gracefully. But what makes Tendulkar arguably the 'greatest' is his ability to improvise and innovate.
In 1992, he employed the 'upper cut' to score 111 against Allan Donald & Co while the South Africans gunned for him on a bouncy Johannesburg pitch. It was a brilliant idea to counter the short-pitched stuff being dished out to him.
Six years later, he took Aussie leg-spin wizard Shane Warne apart in India by taking guard outside the leg stump and smashing him repeatedly over deep mid-wicket.
Tendulkar's great allies were a terrific eye and an uncanny ability to pick length early. He also was willing to puncture his ego and play according to the situation when the bowlers were on top, the conditions testing and the team position grim.
The all-conquering warrior could easily metamorphose into a pugnacious batsman who would wait for his opponent to tire before pouncing on his prey.
Add to this his ability to soak in pressure and immense mental toughness, and you had an 'Ironman,' who could only be conquered if he pressed the 'self-destruct' button. In Sachin's case that just wasn't going to happen.
Having played international cricket for 24 years, Tendulkar was bound to break a few records. It was, however, a bunch of rare features which allowed him to stay in the game for that long. Perhaps, someday, someone will better his records.
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