Sachin Tendulkar, the Jewel of India

Sachin Tendulkar was awarded the Bharat Ratna by President of India Pranab Mukherjee at New Delhi's Rashtrapati Bhawan on Tuesday, February 4, 2014. The former Indian cricket legend, who retired from all forms of international cricket in November last year, is the first sportsperson to receive the highest civilian honour of the country. In 24 years since Tendulkar first wielded his bat for India, the so-called "Little Master," a giant of 5-foot-5, has been one of the finest ambassadors for the world's second most populous nation, their fortunes inextricably linked. (Sachin Tendulkar awarded the Bharat Ratna | Highlights | Pics )

Tendulkar was just a kid, a 16-year-old with a shock of curly hair, when he made his debut against arch-rival Pakistan in 1989, a tumultuous year when the Berlin Wall fell and China's communists slaughtered innocents around Tiananmen Square in Beijing. When marveling at Tendulkar's longevity, it's hard to decide which is more astounding: that the 40-year-old was still thumping West Indies bowlers for four in his last match at Wankhede or that a man so reserved and measured has functioned so brilliantly, without sordid scandals often associated with money, fame and ego, under the microscope of 1.2 billion people -- 350 million more than when Tendulkar debuted for India -- for whom cricket isn't just a sport but THE sport. (In Pics: Sachin Tendulkar's greatest achievements)

His timing was impeccable: not just with the bat, but also because his era coincided with and fuelled the monetization of cricket. His thumping strokes made for gripping television, both in the faster, more furious one-day format and in more patient five-day tests. He was the first batsman to score a double-century in one-day internationals. As with Michael Jordan for NBA fans or Diego Maradona in football, Tendulkar is one of those rare athletes whose otherworldly excellence, like love or a scar, permanently marks admirers. (Sachin Tendulkar is a cool guy, says golf champion Tiger Woods)

Tendulkar's dozens of batting records - among them nearly all the big ones, including most runs and centuries in both tests and one-day internationals - flowed not only from his physical skills but also his steeliness.

Tendulkar's ability to generate mind-numbing numbers has survived to the very end of his prodigious career. When tickets for the Indian cricket star's 200th and final five-day Test match went on sale Monday, the 19.7 million hits within the first hour crashed the website selling them.

"Jordan, Woods and Beckham may cross more boundaries," the US writer Mike Marqusee wrote in 2002, in a profile of Tendulkar on the ESPN Cricinfo website. "But nowhere do those players carry the weight of expectation that Tendulkar carries in India (and among the Indian diaspora)."

To say merely that cricket is India's most popular sport would be a vast understatement. Cricket stars smile on seemingly every billboard and television commercial, Tendulkar prominently among them. While soccer has long since taken over as the top sport in England, cricket's birthplace, in India the nation's sporting self-image is tied resolutely to its national cricket team.

Much of Tendulkar's greatness comes from the fact that he consistently fulfilled those expectations. Few players have left so comprehensive or so potentially enduring a mark in the record books. Simply put, Tendulkar was the greatest batsman of his generation, with every kind of shot in his arsenal, from conventional drives and punches to improvised strokes that could take the breath away.

He is the first man to play 200 five-day Test matches, and he played more one-day international games, 463, than anyone else. He is the highest career run scorer - 15,847 in Tests and 18,426 in one-days -- in both formats. He has also scored 100 or more runs more often than anyone else in both formats, with 51 in Tests and 49 in one-days, giving him a neat and unprecedented 100 centuries in international cricket.

He is the exceptional phenomenon, the child prodigy who exceeded his potential. Tendulkar was the youngest active test cricketer - and the fourth-youngest ever - when he made his debut in 1989 at just 16 years and 205 days old. He quit the game 24 years later as the oldest active international player. And his accomplishments continued into the twilight of his career: In 2011, he was India's top run scorer as they won the World Cup for the first time in 28 years.

Tendulkar's extraordinary numbers of matches and runs reflect both his durability and the sharp increase of the number of international cricket matches played in recent years. But if there is a doubt where he ranks historically, consider that Tendulkar was the only active player named by Wisden Cricketers' Almanac to its all-time team last month. The sport's leading chronicle had 150 years of cricket to choose from.

"He was easily the best in all conditions against all types of bowling and he had a wonderful temperament" the Australian spin-bowler Shane Warne, another member of the all-time team, wrote this week in The Daily Telegraph. Tendulkar scored 20 of his international centuries against Australia, which was the dominant team for much of his career. "He has no weaknesses. He has been the complete batsman," Geoffrey Boycott, the English player who left the sport as the leading test scorer when he retired in 1982, wrote in The Guardian.

Perhaps the definitive tribute came earlier in Tendulkar's career. Donald Bradman, who played for Australia from 1928 to 1948, is the one batsman in the game's history who can be conclusively listed ahead of Tendulkar. His career average of 99.94 runs per dismissal in test cricket was, it has been calculated, the statistical equivalent of a .394 lifetime batting average in baseball.

When Bradman looked at the diminutive stature of the 5-foot-5 Tendulkar, at his unmatched balance and footwork and at his extraordinary bat speed, the Australian admitted to recognizing more than a little of himself.

Bradman's life also provided a taste of what was to come for Tendulkar. Bradman's greatness made him not just a hero, but a symbol for an emerging nation. But where he carried the hopes of at most 8 million people, Tendulkar has been burdened with the aspirations of 1.2 billion.

"He has carried India for 20 years, so now it is time we should carry him," Virat Kohli, the best and brightest of India's next generation, said as Tendulkar's teammates hoisted him on a chair for a lap of honor after their victory in the 2011 World Cup in India.

Tendulkar's career was not an unbroken string of triumphs. Two brief spells as team captain in the late 1990s were mostly unsuccessful, and he battled injuries for a time in his 30s. But those faults are far less likely to be remembered than his sheer excellence and prodigious longevity.

That role as the pre-eminent hero of newly confident, modernizing and aspirational India has made this son of the Mumbai middle class - his father was a University professor - immensely rich. Forbes magazine rated him this year as No. 51 on the list of the world's highest-earning athletes, with an income of $22 million. Wealth X, a Singapore-based analyst of the superrich, has estimated his personal worth at $160 million, more than the next four richest cricketers combined.

Fame robbed him of his privacy, but never of the psychological balance that underpinned his triumphs. He was eloquent with his bat rather than with words, sidestepping any controversies and remaining free of the slightest hint of scandal. At the core of his existence as the best-adjusted of superstars remained his genius as a cricket player. Australian player Matthew Hayden described his batting as "a stillness in a frantic world."

Of all the millions of words devoted to Tendulkar, his former teammate Rahul Dravid said it best: "To bat for my life, I would probably choose Sachin." For 1.2 billion reasons and more, Tendulkar's retirement left a void that can never completely be filled. There are and always will be other great cricketers. But 99.9 percent of them will fall short against the benchmark that was Tendulkar. New stars will come and go. But in 10, 20 or 30 years, cricket fans will still be saying: "You should have seen God."

(with agency inputs)