I saw Sachin Tendulkar blink

[image error]It's not an easy decision to come point out a flaw of the greatest human being to ever where light blue buckle cricket pads.

Sure, I could have taken in to the grave, so that only Sachin and I knew the real truth.

Some may see it as the honourable thing to do.

Why sully Sachin's name just so you can sell your book?

But truth is also important, and what are we if we hide the truth to make our heroes look less human.

If you prick Sachin, does he not bleed and tell you to stop pricking him?

Sachin is human, which is a good trait, and because of this and my desire to sell copies of my book let me tell you about the time I saw Sachin blink.

It was a warm day in December, there was a warm northerly blowing and my girlfriend of the time had decided to come to Victoria Vs India with me.

Before we got to the ground she was complaining, it was never going to be a good day.

Earlier in the match I'd seen the ego of Hodge annoy Ganguly by batting for days.

Now I was just there to see Sachin bat.

He didn't.

Sehwag came and went, as did the man playing cricket just so he has something to write about, at 3 Dravid should have come in but instead it was some random dude that no one wants to remember, and so Dravid didn't come in till 4. Shortly after the game was abandoned to ensure that no one committed suicide from boredom.

Sachin was due to come in next.

the crowd of 300 Indian students and my girlfriend and I were ripped off.

During the day, to avoid any sort of conversation with my girlfriend, I spent most of my time looking at Sachin in the dugout.

To be honest, he didn't do much, he had the look of a man who wished he had a good book but instead was being chatted to by Ganguly.

At one stage Cameron White started warming up, earlier in that match he had taken 4/59 in a blistering attack on everything Indian.

It was perhaps the greatest spell of legspin in that match.

White tugged up his shirt sleeves with a pinching manoeuvre and then whirled his large shoulders around in masculine artistry as Sachin watched on intently.

With the shoulders a blur of frenzied excitement, Sachin blinked ever so slightly.

It was a short blink even by blinking standards, and I doubt anyone else even saw it, but I did.

As his eyes shut I assume Sachin saw into the future to see what a force Cameron White would be and went about finding a way to destroy him.

It may have been Sachin's only ever blink, but he used it wisely.

Years later Sachin would be dismissed by White in a test match, he allowed this to throw people off the trail.

No one has seen him blink since that day.

When you or I blink, it shows our weakness because we are providing moisture to the eye by irrigation using tears and a lubricant the eyes secrete.

When Sachin blinks, it shows he is human and superhuman at the same time.

There is no account of Sachin's eyes or Cameron White's shoulders in my latest book.

[image error]