Sachin Tendulkar autobiography review - Highlights package of a 24-year career

Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography - Playing It My Way was launched amidst huge expectations. The expectations were set by the record sales of the book right from the outset. It did help that a few controversial excerpts came out in the open generating a lot of curiosity. The bigger factor was, of course, knowing Sachin in his own words. So, how does the book fare?

The book reads as one huge highlights package of a 24-year career. It starts right from his childhood and traverses his entire cricket journey through some of the most significant moments of his career, in chronological order. The writing style is direct and to the point, albeit with some cliches.

Given the fact that most of his life has been played out in full public glare, we get to read a lot of stuff that is bound to bring a sense of deja vu. That is where the book is helped by some very revealing/interesting anecdotes.

The chapters on his childhood fleshes out a cricket-obsessed boy chasing his passion and it makes for a riveting read given that very little is known about it. Much of what follows about his international career is what we've known before but told through Sachin's voice. But, just when you seem to be seeing a series of defensive stokes, there comes a sudden blow that is going to get you hooked once again. Chapters on his first captaincy stint, the Multan Test, the Chappell brothers are sixes that will leave you looking for more. But there are only so many sixes one gets to see in an innings.

Rahul Dravid had mentioned before the launch of the book that he would like to know more about how Sachin approached batting. There are quite a few of those too but mentioned in a matter of fact manner. These moments have to be picked with a keen eye but when spotted, it does delight. Portions where he talks about picking Muralitharan's doosra or closing his eyes and batting in the 'nets', or middling the ball with the edge of his bat come at various stages in the book and is still enthralling. There is more on what taught him to concentrate when physically exhausted, the fickle nature of fandom and the pressure of expectations reveal the more human side.

There are two recurring factors in the book - food and injuries. Playing it My Way could easily be called Playing Through Pain. We are let into many details of what his body went through down the years and how he overcame them all. As you read more on the injuries, it takes you back to one of his formative days when he talks about not caring much for injuries. The matter of fact manner in which he talks about surgeries and recuperation time with a single-minded focus on getting fit for a match is bound to leave you with greater respect for international sportspersons and him in particular. The sheer sense of joy and passion when he writes about the restaurants visited, or the delight in being fed home-cooked food while on tour is inescapable.

Every person who reads the book will do so with a series of questions or favorite topics. Some of them will be met and some of them will go unanswered. While much of the book's controversial topics came out as excerpts, it fanned the flame to get people wanting more. Why didn't he talk more about match-fixing? The Ferrari incident? The book states very early that some topics have not been dealt with in full because of legal hassles and leaves it at that.

This book does not dwell much on what exactly made Sachin tick. In fact, it does not even attempt to do so. Given that, it is a book written by Sachin himself, it is easier said than done. Sachin (despite his God-like status and dare I say, expectations) never tries to answer that unanswerable question of what exactly made him. Instead, We get a taste of the all the memorable moments of his career through his eyes and left to figure out the rest.

That we get to know just a little bit more about one of the most public figures of our generation is the book's biggest plus point. However, like many of Sachin's most memorable innings - the book is bound to delight but still leaves you craving for more.