HAIL SACHIN !

I have been lucky enough to witness some of Sachin Tendulkar's historic knocks. Be it his 35th Test ton to beat Sunil Gavaskar's record at the Ferozeshah Kotla in 2006; the fireworks at Mohali in 2008 which took him past Brian Lara; the marathon run chase vs England at the Chepauk in the same year; the 200 at Gwalior earlier this year; or this - the latest one- at Bangalore which saw the master blaster passing the 14,000 Test runs mark with his 49th Test ton. There have been many other memorable occasions in different parts of India as well as the world, on which I saw Tendulkar etch out some outstanding knocks against some quality opposition teams.

As he bagged two ICC awards last week, the first thing which I asked Sachin was about his transformation over the last 18 months in all formats of the game. He scored the first ever double century in ODIs, led Mumbai Indians quite appreciably in T20s and has now averaged over 101 in Tests in 2010. Yes, above 101!

"I think Gary (Kirsten) has had a huge role to play. He has been instrumental in making our batters play a plenty of deliveries in the practice session. During net practice, he himself bowls thousands and thousands of balls," Tendulkar said. "Gary has been an important member of the Indian squad and along with the other support staff. I have enjoyed my game under him. He is really putting a lot of efforts," he added.

Certainly, the kind of form Sachin is in right now, it is difficult to believe that age has any role to play in this sport. As of now, everyone's asking, is there anyone who can break the pile of records that Sachin Tendulkar has established? And still establishing... Ricky Ponting?