Playing it my way – Sachin Tendulkar

“Playing it my way” is the autobiography of India’s great cricketer Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar.

Biographies of successful people show the side of him/her that the world does not know of, but has been instrumental in achieving that success. In that sense, I always love to read biographies and pick takeaways.

Sachin is arguably the greatest cricketer of India and one of the greatest of the world. So, it did rouse my curiosity to read his autobiography.

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1. If you are an avid cricket fan, you will definitely enjoy this book, because he talks a lot about the nuances of cricket. In fact, some of the matches are commented upon in great detail, an almost ball by ball account. His shots, his injuries, his decisions and his brilliance are elaborated upon through the book.
2. One can feel the respect he has for his family and the family members’ support. His parents, his uncle and aunt who hosted him during his training period, his brother Ajit, his wife Anjali, his children Sara and Arjun have all contributed to his success. He holds them in great respect. Another person that he has great respect for is his coach Achrekar Sir. A coach who took his student in his scooter to various grounds in Mumbai so that he can get practice matches!!!

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1. I was disappointed with the book because though it describes in detail Sachin, the cricketer, it fails to give a better picture of Sachin, the person. The usual things which are known about him through media is what we get to read.
2. Though he has largely been very neutral and diplomatic about his misunderstandings with fellow players, the few pages on Greg Chappell are uncharacteristically very blunt.
3. There were some glaring omissions. For instance, there is not a word of mention about the match fixing scandal. Irrespective of whether he was involved in it or not, whether he wants to delve into the details or not, I expected at least a mention of it from his perspective. After all, one cannot erase it from history. Then, his relationship with certain people like Azhar. No word about it. And many more. This gave an impression that it is not a complete account of his cricketing career.
4. He has painstakingly stated every bad umpiring decision that went against him and how it affected the match’s result. Why not mention at least one bad umpiring decision that went in his favour? In twenty four years of cricketing, did that not happen at all?
5. I did not expect to see the scoreboard of every match he played in his autobiography. Absolutely unnecessary. In this world of search engines, we do not buy a book to read info available at the click of a mouse.

Takeaway

1. Behind every successful man/woman is his/her family.
2. There is no substitute to hardwork for success.
3. It is important to be a good human than a good sportsman.

A great read for the Sachin fan!

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