Tendulkar in Wisden Release date: 11th February, 2016 Publisher: Wisden Sports Publishing List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £20.00 You Save: £0 (0%) Buy Now

Regrets? Sachin Tendulkar has a few but then again, like Frank Sinatra, too few to mention. The sheer weight of runs accumulated in 200 Test matches and 463 one-day internationals leave the Indian super star at the pinnacle of modern-day cricket – the Don Bradman of his era. Mumbai’s Little Master is the only man to score 100 international centuries – 51 of the pukka Test variety, 49 in one-dayers – before declaring his punishment of bowlers over in 2013. And like Sinatra, he was never less than compulsive viewing, a supreme technician whose music flowed from the sweet spot on his bat. If smashing Sachin could do it all again, however, he would like more of those Test tons to be match-winning efforts in the fourth innings. One hundred hundreds and still not satisfied. Some measure of the man who sought perfection and so often achieved it. A colossal India-Pakistan dust-up in 1999 is recalled in this absorbing anthology – the first Test between the ill-at-ease neighbours for nine years. After being dismissed for nought in his first innings and struggling with a strained back, Tendulkar emerged in Chennai with India having lost both openers with six on the board. He stayed without blinking to make 136, only for India to lose by 12 runs. Rather than collect his man of the match accolade, he stayed in the dressing room, weeping bitterly. Human, after all. Lovingly researched and compiled from a host of Wisden publications, editor Anjali Doshi includes this appraisal: "Long before his final innings, Tendulkar had ceased being a person for his fans – he was merely a figure for television, indistinguishable from characters such as Batman and Superman. The illusion was strengthened by the number of occasions he arrived when the team was in trouble and took them to safety.” More than anything, Sachin Tendulkar is a man who can say: “I did it my way.”