For a whole year he was just one century away from 100 international tons, a record without precedent and one that is unlikely to be equaled in any of our lifetimes.

Like a precocious colt unwilling to wait to be given the reins to gallop, an impatient nation chafed at the bit for a whole year. Critics even began putting him down, some going to the extent of questioning the 'myth of Tendulkar', and called for his head in ODI cricket.

The restless ones can carp over the fact that this century of his was made against Bangladesh, at best minnows, even if not quite babes in the woods. But not much has changed in the 22 years and a bit since Sachin made his Test debut as a tousle-haired teenager and showed how he was the chosen one by being immediately at ease in the highest company. He is still the same, at the best of times, even at the worst of times.

The problem for one so gifted was the enormity of the expectations that few else ever had to suffer in the game's history. In much of his career he was at his best when he found himself in the most demanding circumstances. Maybe, not so lately as Team India dipped from the highs of the World Cup victory and the No. 1 Test ranking.

Nevertheless, he reaches a mark none might ever get to, much as Don Bradman's average is eternally seen as an insurmountable mountain, at least 30 percent better than the best among his peers. Sachin's 100 international centuries is also nearly 30 percent better than the collection of 71 by Ricky Ponting.

Throughout the gathering of these 100 tons, beginning with a Test-saving hundred at Old Trafford in '90 through tons at Sydney and Perth in Australia in '91-92, which made it crystal clear to the cricket world that here was an extraordinary talent, Sachin has been the same personality, softly spoken, hugely committed to the team cause and as non-controversial as he could possibly be, in word and deed, in such an era of awareness and exposure.

Born to bat and having held a willow since the age of three, Sachin forged his philosophy fairly early. He does not think about the pressures and the expectations when he goes out to bat, “Because when you go in to bat you've just got to be watching the ball. You must think about the game and not anything else. I try to work on that," he had said when trying to explain his approach and his single minded focus on the next ball to be faced.

Sachin had - as some on the inside track said - asked for a batting slot in the team to the Asia Cup in Bangladesh. In his heart of hearts he would have known that the stress would be much less on his batting on the feather beds of Dhaka than they were in the swinging conditions of England and the seaming surfaces of Australia. A man who has served his country for so long deserved the one additional chance he wished for.

Content after making the elusive century, he might even decide to call it a day in ODIs if Team India go on to win the cup and prepare the stage for him to go out on a real high. His batting, such a combination of the "Past and the present, power and touch, east and west," as Peter Roebuck once put it, might be good enough for more and he would be making some of those runs until he gets the feeling he is not enjoying the game anymore. That is when he will retire totally from all forms of the game - be it Tests and ODIs for India or the newfangled T20s for his favourite Mumbai Indians.

And he has aged so well even if standing way above all his contemporaries may have taken its toll on the mind and body - from the explosive but unpredictable Viv Richards, to the industrious but pedestrian Steve Waugh, past the awesomely talented but self-destructive Brian Lara, surpassing the workmanlike Jacques Kallis, skipping the wondrous ups and the awful downs of Ricky Ponting and always ahead in an inspirational way of the technically splendid Rahul Dravid.

Even in decline, he was the best of them all, determined enough to have outlasted the physical wear and tear and the injuries of close to 23 years and now looking capable of going on some more. Importantly, he has throughout been an icon to a billion plus people and he never let them down so often in a chancy game for them to lose their love and respect. But that is what champions are made of, aren’t they?