Playing It My Way

Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography "Sachin Tendulkar: Playing It My Way" is amazing to read because his rise to greatness was the result of a single-minded all consuming purpose and focus on playing the game at the highest levels of achievement.This book is a particularly inspiring sports story because the challenge to be the best in the sport or for one's country is so intense.It has some great ancillary reader benefits. In India, family is everything. Through Tendulkar, this book provides an excellent portrait of classic Indian values including dedication, persistence and resilience. He is proud of his achievements but explains them modestly. Reading this book, he seems like such a great, great sports hero, setting such a great example for Indian youth or any youth in any sport anywhere in the world.If you're at all curious about cricket as compared to baseball (with the average winning score seeming so high by comparison) this a great book. There are similarities together with lots of differences. Like an American elevator is called a "lift," cricket players "bowl" rather than "pitch" the ball. And the "pitch" refers to the field rather than how the ball is thrown. If you have a really good knowledge of cricket, you'll especially appreciate how Tendulkar gives quite a few explanations of several technical aspects of the game.Tendulkar's account of his early experience in cricket and the encouragement and support of his dad and mom, his friends and his coaches, makes this a very accessible book to an American audience, especially parents whose children take up baseball.All the spoken Hindi, although there is not a lot of it, is well translated into English.There are four pages of mostly color photos of Tendulkar, his family and highlights of his career. And Tendulkar's career statistics are listed in the back of the book.It is written "Tendulkar is to Cricket what Michael Jordan is to Basketball and Muhammad Ali is to Boxing." His autobiography, "Playing It My Way" will tell you exactly how that came to be.

It is actually pretty ordinary . I did not get anything substantially new that I have not read elsewhere, which is not saying much anyway. There are anecdotes right through the book . Some of which I enjoyed .Some of his early days in 80s made a good reading . Two things that I became more aware of wereHe got injured badly right through his career and that bothered him and he struggled with it . Rather unfortunate or may be he was constantly pushing his body.and the second one was he really loved and played for his personal records - centuries , # of tests ..there is a constant theme about these numbers in the entire book . Not to say he was selfish etc ….which he was not , but I just did not think he cared for his personal records as much.That infamous declaration by Rahul which left him stranded @194 is another example. Rahul should not have declared (I did not know that Rahul delayed declaration in sydney test few months ago which may have robbed us of our first series win in aus) but Sachin was livid even after 24 hours !!! when Rahul came over to talk to him . SRT just could not let it go that Rahul tried to send a tough message to Pak that India means business (However bad that call was from Rahul). I just found that strange. Sachin loves his 100s and 200s.For some one with whom he has scored maximum runs with , lack of warmth towards Rahul is conspicuous . He has good words for his knocks but nothing more . There is lot of warmth towards Anil, Sourav, Yuvi, Bhajji, Viru etc. Probably Rahul himself was reserved .He talks about the entire 2011 Eng series and not a word about Rahul’s 3 centuries !!! - may be I am reading too much. I maybe biased because I was surprised by Rahul’s interview by Cricinfo following the release of this book and this incident . Rahul was unusually belligerent when asked if he was looking forward to read the book - he said something like “I am not looking forward to these aspects but I will look to his views on batting skills and how he prepared etc”….Coming to cricket itself I was surprised as to how so many of his shots were played even before ball was delivered. It was surprising to learn the amount of pre-meditation and out-smarting that goes on !!.This guy lived , breathed cricket - an ultimate Cricket Huccha.

Narration walks you through Sachin's journey and offers his perspective of things. It has been an emotional ride reading the book in a span of a week. I have grown up watching him play and excel like no one else in this career. It is fulfilling that Sachin was able to finish his career on a very high note after being a part of the No.1 Test team, ODI champion, IPL champion, CLT20 champion and of course, Ranji champion. A well deserving reward for the dedication and commitment he had in this profession. Thanks for writing your story, Sachin.

A very detailed description of the statistics of the maestro. Indeed a life time experience to read such an enriched book about the legendary batsman of India, the "Bharat Ratna" Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

Finished going through every pages of my Holy Book Playing it My Way the Autobiography of my God. The respect, Love, Devotion i had for him is just multiplied by infinite. Thoroughly enjoyed every bit of reading for the first time ever in my life, it took only 2 day's and night for me to complete the book of nearly 480 pages.Top three phases of book I liked is:1. When Sachin woke up in a middle of his surgery in April 2003. Went under knife on his left hand ring finger due to a calcification, he was so worried surgery will be made on his palm and the will force him to change the way he grips the bat.‪#‎OnHisOwnWords‬ : I was so obsessed with this issuethat I woke up during the surgery and asked them to show me where they had made the incision. DrJoshi later told me that they were all surprised to see me awake despite the anaesthesia. The doctorsshowed me that my palm had been left untouched and told me to calm down and allow them to carryon. Satisfied, I instantly drifted back to sleep.2. When he had tummy upset on the eve of a match against Srilankan's.#OnHisOwnWords : Here I am a bit embarrassed to reveal a very personal secretrelating to the Sri Lanka match. On the eve of the match I had a bad stomach and was feelingdehydrated. This happened because I had not yet fully recovered from the cramp I had suffered whileplaying Pakistan and as a result had had a lot of isotonic drinks. I also added a teaspoon of salt to theenergy drinks, thinking it would help the recovery, and that caused a tummy upset. In fact, the situationwas so bad that I had to bat with tissues inside my underwear. I even had to go back to the dressingroom during one of the drinks breaks and was feeling extremely uncomfortable in the middle. Isomehow scored 97.3. On last day of his career, after the final speech where Kholi came to meet Sachin and the gesture he did when Kholi touched his feet.#OnHisOwnWords : As I was sitting by myself back in the dressing room, Virat walked up to me again. I could see tears inhis eyes. He held out his hands and said his dad had given him these threads, the kind that Indianswear around their wrists for good luck, and he had always wondered who he would give them to. Ithad to be someone very special. Then he handed them to me before touching my feet as my youngerbrother. I was speechless. I held him tight and said, ‘Arre tu yeh kya kar raha hain? Tujhe yahannahi, yahan hona chahiye.’ (What are you doing touching my feet? You should be giving me a hug.) Icouldn’t say another word because I felt choked with emotion. A lump had formed in my throat andfinally I had to ask Virat to leave, knowing I would burst into tears if I tried to say anything else. Itwas a gesture I can never forget and I wished Virat all the success in his career.* This Showed his love towards the sport, his never give up attitude and humility even after reaching the farthest peak.* All those cries in the Bathroom were just wonderful to know the Legend who conquered the world has a kid inside him.Love you Sachin Tendulkar on the whole the eagerness to touch your feet just went to its peak. Proud to a ‪#‎Sachin_Devotee‬

I liked the early parts of the book where we found the young Sachin finding his way into the cricket world. His love for the game is undoubted. Some comments on the book mention it seems like he is taking you through match by match with no emotion. He briefly touchs on the events which angers him. His family life is important to him and the emotion which at times is lacking in my opinion comes through when he talks about his last match and the sight of his mother in the wide screen nearly knocks him out. A well considered piece maybe a little too much respect for the subject.

Sachiiiiin!!! Sachin!!!This is a worth reading book.The life journey of Sachin Tendulkar is very inspirational. If you are a cricket fan, I surely recommend you to read this book and I certainly believe that you will love this book.All incidents are mentioned in a very interesting way. From his debut to his last international match and being felicitated with Bharat Ratna, all the world cups that he was part of etc. all these incidents are very interesting to read.