‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Anjali..Tum nahi samjogi !!’ says Master.

A well-known and Legendary Marathi poet, Mangesh Padgaonkar, describes the beauty of love in two sweet lines:

प्रेम म्हणजे प्रेम म्हणजे प्रेम असतं,

तुमचं आणि आमचं अगदी सेम असतं!

Those who were not able to understand the lines, it means, ‘Love is love, be it yours or mine, it is exactly same!’ Actually, it’s a complete poem but these two lines are enough to convey the message what I want to say through this article.

I am talking about the Great Master Blaster and his love story but it is nothing different than many of ours because Love is Love…!!

Year 1990, somewhere in September, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, then called Mumbai Airport witnessed the first meet of Sachin and Anjali Tendulkar, the charming couple and this place marked the beginning of a fairy tale. It so happened that the Indian team was returning from the Tour of 3 match-series with England. In this series, Sachin had scored his maiden century. But obvious, he was the centre of attraction of everyone at the airport. At the same point of time, Anjali Mehta, the daughter of Gujarati Industrialist Anand Mehta, was waiting at the airport to receive her mother Annabel Mehta, who is British and a philanthropist. Anjali was completely unaware of the happening around her on the airport. Sachin was first introduced to her by their common friend. Anjali didn’t even know that the person she is meeting was a cricketer, who was going to be a big star in future and her husband, too. 

Now you can imagine that how God plays his cards and make people meet. She must have never thought that her wait on the airport would make her meet the man made for her, her better half as we say.

     

Was it love at first sight? I don’t know but I tell you I am so excited penning down this meet. It looks very filmy, isn’t it? Yes, I should say it is very filmy, whose director is sitting up above somewhere, who scripts each ones story in his style.        

      

Their first meet turned into friendship. The romance was in air. ‘Kuch Kuch hone laga tha…’ for sure. Unknowingly, slowly they fell in love with each other. They didn’t even realize it when the two hearts became one. Love doesn’t tell you when it will happen, it just happens. I tell you my friends; it is your best friend most of the time which turns into your life partner. It is said that, “Love is Friendship.” It’s my belief and not necessary it’s same for everyone. 

      

Love is still possible with an unknown girl but it may take some time to develop. Only thing important in love, be it your best friend or any other girl, understanding each other, very important factor to balance the ship of love.  If that happens, the relation sails long distance.      

     

One more thing to tell you, Love is not restrained by age of any person. Yes, Love sees no barriers and it’s true. Age is merely a number. What matters most is the bonding and understanding between each other, as I said earlier. Love is a strong emotion between two people which makes them come together to live a happy life. Strong example is in front of everyone. Anjali Mehta, born 10^th November, 1967 is almost five and half years older than Sachin but still holds a strong relationship with him.      

     

The distinguished quality which Sachin liked about Anjali when he first met her was that she was totally ignorant about him and the most hyped game of Cricket. That’s what made Sachin get more close to her. Whenever they both use to be together, they used to talk on various things except Cricket. It is seen, Sachin usually doesn’t like discussing Cricket at home, so that was major plus point in their relationship. Otherwise, whenever Sachin met anybody, he was forced to talk Cricket. Obviously. But with Anjali, that was not the case. Sachin felt relax and refreshing in company of Anjali. That’s how love slowly evolved between them.

     

They kept meeting each other for around five years. Before they could take any decision on marriage, they had decided to spend some time with each other so that they get to know each other well. That’s the important part of any relationship, i.e. to get accustomed with one another’s way of living and try to find a balance to lead a better life ahead. One who fails to achieve mutual understanding in the relationship, fails in love. But with Sachin and Anjali, everything was going smoothly and they seemed very happy in each other’s company. And so, finally in the year 1994, they decided to get engaged. This auspicious ceremony took place in New Zealand in presence of few of their close friends and family members without much hype. Exactly one year later, on 23^rd May, 1995, in Breach Candy Club, Mumbai, party was arranged for celebrating their engagement. Two days later, 25^th May, 1995, the lovebirds got married and thereupon Sachin began his new inning. Inning of love with Anjali has his partner.

     

What a Love Story!

     

Simple and Sweet! Just like both of them.

     

Now, just for fun sake, try to look at the strong bonding between Sachin and Anjali from scientific angle. You all might know the scientific theory, ‘Opposites attract.’ Yes, in case of love also it’s true. And Sachin-Anjali love story is a result of this theory. I tell you how? If we compare the likes and un-doings of Sachin and Anjali, they stand completely apart, which actually is the reason for their affection towards each other. From childhood, Sachin has always remain away from studies, not at all studious which was not the case with Anjali, she was totally into studies, was studying her medical when she met Sachin. Secondly, Sachin has tremendous craze for sports, be it Lawn Tennis, TT, F1, Football and offcourse Cricket. On the other hand, Anjali is totally away from sports, not at all sporty. She is practical in nature, thinks straight and to the point whereas Sachin is totally creative, imaginative in nature. I can just keep on writing their likes and dislikes which makes them bond together. Science and spirituality, both together help form their relation and a successful one. In this year, they will be completing their 17^th year of partnership but looking at them you can still feel that they are just newly married couple. They haven’t lost the charm of an ideal couple over the years. Touch Wood.

    

‘Rab ne bana di Jodi’…Don’t you think so? 

Successful Leader needs a good team or a good luck or a combination of both..?

Leaders! Some are born, some are made, wherein some succeeds long-time, some fail big-time.

After losing the semis of Wills World cup 1996, the then captain Mohammad Azharuddin was asked to hand-over the reign of captaincy to some other player. Considering the performance in the gone season, the obvious choice in front of the team management was Sachin Tendulkar. He was handed over the charge of Indian team on August 28^th, 1996 in a hope to bring back the team’s lost morale due to the loss in the World Cup.

     

As the year 1996 was touching down, the team’s performance went on to touch new lows with every match.

       

Under Sachin’s captaincy, the team’s performance was not turning out to be that impressive as expected. Though the team managed to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and Titan Cup ODI matches under Sachin’s leadership, Sachin as a batsman looked very rusty. It was said in media and speculated critics that the pressure of captaincy has ruined and impacted his game. He had started batting totally in different gear, got into completely different mode wherein he seemed more cautious of his wicket being a captain, additional responsibility. He was not the same free flowing run-getter whom everyone knew before he became the captain. The aggression, the high powered strokes, the focus lacked in his play. And that was the period when Indian team was solely dependent on Sachin’s batting. It was said, “When Sachin bats well, India wins.” Even his captaincy was not working and hence for the betterment of the team, he decided to step down as a Captain and focus on his forte and try to contribute to his team more efficiently.

      

And then we all know, came the year 1998 where he single-handedly won several matches for India. He was back in form.

       

The year went by and the next World cup came in.

       

Except for Sachin’s performance, India couldn’t do anything special in the cup. Indian captain Azhar bhai was dropped again and Tendulkar was asked to recap the captain’s post for one more time. However, there was no option but to accept the proposal as he was the only one capable and deserving to handle the team due to his experience and mastermind.

      

“But captainship was never in his destiny.”

      

Déjà vu! India lost many of the major matches and series like the Tour down under where India was white washed 3-0 by the 1999 World Champions Australia and also suffered a 0-2 Test series defeat by South Africa on Indian soil, which raised number of questions against his captaincy.

       

The player who has possibly made every record also has a record of losing five tests in a row which is the highest number for any Indian captain.

      

‘Why did the God of Cricket failed to make his mark as a Captain?’ is the question to ponder upon.

       

Winning and Losing doesn’t depend upon one particular individual, it’s a team effort which counts. The captain is one who makes strategies and executes them on the field with the help of his team-mates. He started off well to his tenure of captaincy with few wins under his belt, thanks to the right balance of players in the team. The playing XI consisted of great combination of players which gave the team invincible feel. Due to disastrous performance in the 1999 world cup, many Indian players, who played under the captaincy of Azharuddin, were axed by the selectors.

      

The management adopted the rotating policy and dropped many key experience players like Nayan Mongia, Venkatesh Prasad, Navjot Singh Siddhu etc, making way for youngsters. Even captain was not involved in this decision. In his second tenure, the captain Sachin was not satisfied with the teams balance. Due to absence of many key players the performance of the team hampered in the year 1999. And it’s obvious that when the pressure of one thing starts building up, it takes upon and ruins the other things. Same happened with Sachin. The pressure of captaincy came on his batting which lowered his performance and hence the decision of stepping down as a Captain was taken.

       

After reading this, what do you think? Was he a competent captain or not? It would be unfair to point finger at Sachin’s captaincy for team’s loss claiming that it was his mistake only. Bad captaincy meaning bad execution of plans and the execution depends upon the players, so how the captain alone is responsible for loss. When a team wins, it’s a team victory but when it losses, its captain’s fault. Not fair…Not fair. As I said earlier, a team’s success or failure doesn’t depend upon any single individual but it’s a team effort which counts.

       

Most of the times in his career, Sachin has performed effectively. Now what do you mean by effective performance. Proper knowledge, skills and positive attitude sum up to give an effective performance. Many people have knowledge, but they don’t apply it skillfully which doesn’t do any good. There are also people who in spite of lack of knowledge deliver their skills to the best, which is also not sufficient. And the fun part is that even though many people possess both the factors of knowledge and skills, they don’t have the right attitude towards their doings which also works against them. So the combination of all this three qualities is must. The team believes in and wants effective performance, and for last two decades Sachin has been giving an effective performance which makes him unique and indomitable. 

       

The failure of Captain implies the team broke down as a whole which didn’t perform to it's best skills. I am sure that he could have made the difference to the team with his captaincy but nothing went his way that time and unfortunately he had to withdraw. Mind you, he has that power of captaining a side and taking them to victory with his witty and experience mind. You must have seen the performance of Mumbai Indians side during IPL 3 and other seasons under Sachin’s captaincy. Outstanding is the word!

       

But again the luck factor comes into play here which has power to ruin the strong going for anyone, anytime. Even after playing so well, the Sachin led Mumbai Indians side failed to conquer the IPL title. They did won the Champions League last year but it was under Harbhajan Singh’s captaincy. How cruel this game can be. Sachin did his job to get in the best combination for Mumbai team and impart the positive energy in them, but when the team won, he was not the part of the team. And now this year, I won’t be surprised to see the Mumbai Indians team lifting the IPL trophy also under Bhajji’s captaincy. That’s luck for you.          

      

At last, I can only say that it’s all destined, no one can deny it.                          

      

Even after trying his best, Sachin couldn’t make it happen for the team.

       

In the year 2000, the captaincy was handed over to Saurav Ganguly, our own Dada, who in true sense gave the team 'never to give up' spirit and thereupon the Team India of excellence was formed.

      

Even if Sachin now is not the head of the team, he has always remained a vital part of team’s various strategy talks and meetings. He has always been there and guided his fellow captains in need. Right from Dada, then Jammy and now to our current skipper MSD, he is always there to share his experience and give his valuable input in some way or the other.

  

Clearly, it conveys ‘Successful Leadership comes with the combination of good, confident team under your belt and some kind of godly luck which decides the fate for sure.’

      

With a right blend of these elements, you can emerge as a great leader, be it any field. No one can stop you.