Watching Tendulkar

I watched Tendulkar bat after a long time. I grew up in villages without cricket and do not know much about cricket. My first acquintance with cricket was from Jack Fingeleton's articles in 'Sport & Pasttime" about the Australia-West Indies Series, the magical tied test in Adelaide, with some Indian names like Kanhai, Ramadhin popping up and articles by Neville Cardus on West Indian cricket with a picture of Kanhai hitting a six and falling on his back. But it never really caught on for me until Tendulkar came along. May be because he was just a middle class boy enjoying himself and gave pride and hope for so many Indians. I remember trying to follow Sharjah matches on the internet and dozing off and dreaming that Tendulkar scored 134 and India won the match and finding the next day that it did happen. From then on there have been too many disappointments and I tried not to watch much cricket since I felt too tense when Tendulkar was batting. I kept hoping that he would bat ok if I did not watch. I did watch last night. Rahul was soothing but I still felt tense when Tendulkar batted. He did not seem to be the same batsman as he was during Sharjah days. He did score a patient 50 and was still not out at the end of the day. Somehow, no other Indian sportsman enchanted me more since Dhyan Chand.