Jul 19, 2011

Hallelujah I Saw Sachin!

My Dream came true! Yes, my 20 years, Golden Dream came true!

16/07/2011, Unforgettable day in my life!

As my blog heading says, I saw the “God of Cricket!” Yes, I met Sachin Tendulkar!

I stood near him, touched him, got his autograph, took pictures of him and I Took pictures with him!!!! I didn’t sleep that night! not able to sleep because of excitement! Also, I saw Sachin playing! Oh my God! it all happened in a same day! what else i can ask for a day?

Truly exciting! amazing!
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I saw Sachin and Team India during their first practice match again Somerset @Taunton, UK. 
Its not only my dream its the dream of Million people!

I used the opportunity and grabbed a ticket for the 3 days friendly match, not only me, there were 100’s of Indian there, all came to see the one and only Sachin. The truly amazing thing, is most of the British people came there to see Sachin and his Game!

British kids, waiting outside to see Sachin, 60 years old waiting outside to see Sachin! We really need to be proud!

The match was Scheduled to start at 11:00am, second day, I went there approximately 9:40am to see the players! It was raining, the ground was wet! I was so upset, I just entered into the ground, opened my bag to take my Cam and there came a car!

All started shouting Sachin! Sachin! I was excited and I was not aware what I was doing, didn’t turn the cam on!  but started clicking! Missed to capture Sachin! So upset!

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Then, everyone was waiting outside the dressing room building more than 2 hours to get a glimpse of Sachin and get his Autograph! No Joy!

I heard someone saying, if we go to nets we can see the players! I thought where was that? I started following few people and they entered in to building and there, I saw few people taking photos! I was excited and ran towards the nets!

There Dravid was batting, Murali Karthick bowling to him in one nets, Raina batting and Srisanth bowling to him in anther one, took few pictures. I asked people there did Sachin came there, all said NO
I along with few others were standing there, suddenly the Master Came out! He was literally 6 feet away from me! He came out from the Gym, sweating! 38 years old working hard in the Gym, where as Dhoni, Yuvraj, Laxman, Munaf, Praveen, Gambir came to the ground only 30 min before the game started!

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I didn't believe my eyes! He went to have a chat with Dravid and few other players everyone started shouting Sachin, he promised he will come back for Autograph! I found a Autograph book in my backpack picked out, found a pen and was ready to get his autograph!

As promised he came back! I watched him very close! He is so simple, no attitude, very good person. He is Fit, Strong, and no one can say that he is 38! he is so good! Broad Shoulders and chest! amazing athlete!  I was waiting with my note book. waiting for my turn for the autograph! finally I got that! It was a great moment Guys! I felt that!

Here is his Autograph! That autograph book worth Millions of Pounds for me now!
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After autograph I desperately wanted to take a picture with him! I followed him and tried to take a pic using the Live view feature, thanks to Nikon D5100, it comes with the flip display screen, I tried to take a picture as the lens was at 55mm I was not successful, please see my attempt below! out of focus also! as you can expect I am extremely sad! I wanted to take another one!


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I followed him and few people stopped him to get his autograph! A guy ran towards me and asked me to take a picture of him with Sachin! I perfectly did that, I asked him to take a picture of me with Sachin! He tried, but quiet late in clicking the button! Sachin turned! look at this pic below!

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As you can expect I wanted to slap that guy who took the pic!
mm.. though I am extremely Happy to see Sachin that close! Wished him, Thanked him for the World cup! what else I can ask?

I felt satisfied! This is the second time in my life I get this feeling, first time I got satisfied after doing our first service at Thirupathur Blind School!

I was a happy bunny!!!! laughing and running!!

Finally, the rain stopped and the umpires decided to started the match by 2:30pm, Somerset continued batting and our bowlers struggled! A Tamil Guy named Arul Suppiah played for Somerset and he scored 156 at an avg of 66, good batting!

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Somerset declared for 425 and we started batting, first to go back to pavilion is Gambir after a short quick innings, then Dravid came.

The interesting thing is Indian Opening batsman Mukund was batting and Somerset appealed for an LBW and all the Indians in the crowd started shouting OUT!!! OUT!! OUT!! Give IT! OUT! even I did! Its all because to see Sachin’s batting! How crazy right? yes!

When Sachin came in to Bat all gave him Standing ovation! he is really the master!

Now Sachin came in….

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He didn’t score a lot, he scored 26 runs, 5 glorious, classic boundaries! He soon got out and started walking back, the entire crowd stood up clapped and appreciated him!Glorious scene for an Indian to watch that!
After he got out, almost 75% of the crowd started moving! Yes, even most of the British people called the day off and started moving out!

I was really gifted to see Sachin that close! He is amazing, its really impressive to see how people all over the world is respecting the Master! Its true is Cricket is Religion then Sachin is GOD!

And my Dream Came true! I have one more dream!

I wanted to live witness Sachin scoring a Century!

Calvin Christopher