If Cricket is Religion, Sachin is God is an excellent and well thought out offering from two well read Sachin enthusiasts. For a start, it has the potential of becoming a bible for every Sachin fan club in the world. Tailor-made for the million plus community of Sachin fans, of which I surely qualify as one, it tells us exactly what we want, and have always wanted, to hear about Sachin ? that he is the best and stands unrivalled in India?s cricketing pantheon. To their credit, the authors arrive at these conclusions through meticulous research and a neatly argued statistical analysis, which is impossible to ignore. A near perfect blend of passion and sophisticated mathematical analysis, the book has achieved exactly what it had set out to do ? to turn into an offering that will be devoured by almost every Indian cricket fan.

When the book was first mentioned to me, my first reaction was ?yet another book on Sachin!? This is because tomes have already been written and consumed by the Indian cricket aficionados on the career of the man in question. To start from this premise and to be able to produce a book that continues to engage the reader till the very end is a job extremely well done.

While chronologically documenting Sachin?s rise to greatness, the book does well to take us through a journey that is both nostalgic and romantic at the same time. Each time Sachin has bounced back to answer his critics, we, as ?Indians?, felt a sense of unadulterated joy. Here was someone fighting for the tri-colour, playing with verve, passion and skill, a combination that has hardly ever been the forte of the Indian sportsmen.

Having watched most of his knocks described in the book, it wasn?t difficult to engage with what the authors were trying to argue. In fact, most of their arguments are ones that we, Sachin fans, have been repeating for years. That Sachin was the lone ranger for Indian cricket for most of the 1990s is something that every Sachin enthusiast will vouch for.

The labeling of Sachin as ?god? is profoundly interesting. While some will label it as an over the top reaction, evidence of an irrational Indian engagement with cricket, rational analysis reveals it is perhaps the most apt portrayal of the man. As I have written elsewhere, ?when Sunil Gavaskar left India?s cricketscape, we did not want a player to fill the void; we needed a saviour who could help us overcome the crisis the nation was facing?. The Tendulkar phenomenon may be linked to the medieval Indian practice of bhakti and the visual economy of darshan where the devotee worships the divine object of his desire. No contemporary icon has possibly had to face such intense scrutiny. That?s why Tendulkar, who has undergone this ordeal with perfection for nearly two decades, stands above all other sportspeople of his era. While I agree that he is comparable to Vishwanathan Anand, a true personal favourite and a real Indian sporting icon, the pressure on Tendulkar, it has to be accepted, has always been far more intense.

What does Tendulkar mean to Indians? Simply put, he is anything but a mere cricketer. He is a phenomenon we have collectively worshipped for 19 long years ever since he made his debut in 1989. He has given our cricket muscle and taught us to believe that we can be the best in the world in all forms of the game. While some argue that he is the cricketing equivalent of Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan, the authors have rightly elevated him to a different pitch, one where he doesn?t have the luxury of narrating dialogues to a given script or falling back on retakes in case things don?t go right the first time.

Just like Tendulkar?s career, which seems to be getting better with time, the book reserves its punch for the end. Reading about Vijay drawing sustenance from a Sachin Tendulkar autograph at his Sydney hospital bed, I knew I was reading something by someone of the same ilk. Just last night, I, like millions of others, did not need an alarm to get up at 3.30 am India time. It is sacrilegious to sleep when Sachin is batting at Napier and trying to save a game!

Two little things to conclude with: First, if ever Sachin is in need of a lawyer, he might do well to turn to the authors. Second, in cricket it is all about timing. The publishers must be complimented for playing the game well?their timing of the publication is just sublime.