This article is dedicated to my favourite cricketer and the legend, Sachin Tendulkar. A very happy birthday to our very own Master Blaster. Here's wishing you all the happiness and health in life.

Paji, as I and many other fondly call him, has been the pillar of strength for me all through my life. His birthday is a very special day for every Indian cricket fan. This is the day we all can thank this great man for his massive contribution to Indian cricket. Like many others he holds a very special place in my life. As a kid I started watching this small curly-haired boy hitting some of the best bowlers in the world with an ease which cannot be explained.

At sixteen when one's teenage starts and one starts exploring the world in one's own way, this boy was carrying the burden of a nation's expectations on his tender shoulders. At the age when we are allowed to be carefree, he had to very careful about his wicket and life.

This burden of expectations has never lifted since then. In fact with each passing day it has piled up. He kept scoring runs all across the world, kept scoring hundreds, kept conquering all the conditions in the world and setting up new landmarks. It reached a point where he achieved all what one can with a bat in one's hand.

Rising above records

All the records of cricket were under his name. But he didn't stop, his motivation never died, his eagerness to learn and excel kept growing. It is easy to say but very hard to do. And now it has reached a point where he plays to fulfil his own standards. He doesn't have to prove anything any more.

His love for the game is still raw and pure. Nothing has changed it. A man with 23 years of international cricketing experience, with most numbers of runs in One Day Internationals and Test cricket, most number of hundreds in both forms of the game, doesn't have anything left to prove. So, to motivate himself he set down his own goals and a target of an imaginary Mount Everest. Getting hundred hundreds is one of those goals. You can't even dream of getting there, it is so unbelievable. And I think the next would be when he plays two hundred Test matches. You are a legend if you have played 100 Test matches, and if someone plays 200, I don't know what you will call him. So we may have to figure out a new word to describe his contribution.

Personally, for me, he has been there like an elder brother and a friend, philosopher and a guide. I very well remember one year before the World Cup; I was plagued by self-doubt and injuries. He made me believe that I will perform when it will matter the most. So my man-of-the-series trophy of the World Cup was dedicated to him and his belief in me.

While I was away for cancer treatment, one of my biggest regrets was that I couldn't celebrate his hundredth hundred with him. I missed giving him a cake cream facial massage. Harbhajan, Zaheer and I are specialists in this.

His achievements are not just inspirational but ever so refreshing. All through my treatment, he was regularly in touch with me, keeping me motivated and pepped up. And he didn't miss the first opportunity to meet me in London. That hug he gave me in London was special and I owe a lot to this man. As always, I keep saying that even if I achieve 25 per cent of what this Master has achieved, on and off the field, I would have done justice to myself.

— ProfessionalManagement Group