It has been more than 10 years since Sachin Tendulkar retired, and in a lot of ways Cricket has moved on. Some of us have also done so and some haven’t in a lot of ways.

For a certain generation of Cricket fans born in 70’s and 80’s he was like a god and was the embodiment of our hopes, dreams and aspiration. For those slightly younger he was their link to India and one constant in their life, and represented the new India who was turning into a superpower. He represented the best of us and was symbol of their generation coming of age.

BUT this is not to talk about that. There are plenty of articles covering THAT ground. So is his legacy lies in the way he performed on the cricket field? The mountains of runs he scored, and the manner in which he scored them. . No this is also not his lasting legacy. Records will be broken, new records will be made and we will have Statesian finds new measures to compare them across generations.

Or his legacy is about how he dominated the bowlers like no other. His fascinating battles with the likes of Shane Warne, Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq. Or his destruction of Henry Olanga, Kaspowarich and several others. No this is also not his lasting legacy. These are stories which will dim with time and new stories will take their place.

As far as I am concerned his lasting legacy is only manifesting itself now. His legacy was in his humility and simplemindedness. After he gave up the Indian Captaincy voluntarily, he acted as a senior statesmen for 2 generations of Indian cricketers in all the dressing rooms he was present. He performed to the best of his capabilities under Captains who were junior to him cricketingly (Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble) or under Captains many years his junior (Dhoni, Shewag). It was not always like that. Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev never got along, building camps around themselves in the dressing room. Gavaskar decided to become a middle order batsman under Kapil Devs captaincy, citing his advancing age. But was back to opening the minute he was made the Indian Captain again. Nor did Imran Khan and Miandad, or Jayasuriya and Ranatunga. Tendulkar was the first to be the bigger man, content to act as a elder statesman, guiding and encouraging junior players. There are two generations of Indian players who talk about his role in their development and performance( Yuvraj Singh, Shewag, Kohli to name a few).

What this did was to lay a template for how seniors should behave. It created a culture where Dhoni could play under Kohli captaincy yet be respected and consulted due to his seniority. Kohli is showing the same behavior when he plays under Rohit Sharma, and takes immense pleasure in success of his juniors and fellow teammates success. Contrast this with the regular infighting among the two W,s the famous Karachi vs Lahore camps in Pakistan (which still exists after being suspended during Misbah’s tenure). Or for that matter in Sri Lanka where infighting has lead to 5 different captains in 6 years.

You can accuse me of oversimplifying things. There have been other factors into the play, but it still does not change things from my perspective.

  Just take a look at the dressing rooms of the Indian team, and compare it with that of its neighbors, and you will see some truth of what I am talking about.

In my experience of corporate life every successful team I have worked or headed has somebody like Tendulkar. A senior person respected for his experience and ability but not scorned for his not being a team leader. It is one of my success tips to find these kind of persons and make him valued enough to contribute to the team success and get valued from that success. AND I LEARNT THIS FROM TENDULKAR.

So this blog is for Tendulkar and dedicated to him for not only the joy he brought to us on the cricket field but also the life lessons he taught us (even though he will probably not read it).