Perth holds hallowed ground in the minds of touring cricketers from across the world. Considered the most remote big city on the entire planet, the only Australian Test venue on its western coast, the hottest of those venues, and known for being fast, with hard bounce that was unique in global cricket, and made living hell for visiting batters by Australia’s bullpen of fiery quicks.

It is all these reasons that came together to make Sachin Tendulkar’s century in Perth, at the age of 18 in 1992, one of the most memorable for him in his career. Having already scored a sublime century in Sydney to become the youngest ever centurion in Australia, the young Tendulkar backed it up, scored 114 off 161, with wickets tumbling all around him.

Speaking to PTI at an event in 2014, after his retirement, Tendulkar reflected on how important that century was for him as a young player. “One innings that changed my career or gave shape to my career was in Perth, 1992,” said Tendulkar. “Perth, at least at that time, was regarded to be the fastest wicket and the hostility of the Australian fast bowlers was something which was difficult to handle. I was able to score a 100 and I was only 18.”

A sign of times to come

With an array of square cuts and straight drives, with Tendulkar timing the ball supremely well at the big boundaries of the WACA. India had already lost that series, and were about to be comprehensively beaten in Perth as well, a seven-fer by Mike Whitney in the second innings sealing a huge 300-run win against a deflated Indian team.

Nevertheless, 30 years on, the general sentiment from those that were there is that the legend of Sachin Tendulkar began coming into focus in that Australian summer.

“My career was just starting. I had done well for a couple of years by then but it really took off after that Perth innings because I felt I was ready to take on the world,” says Tendulkar, agreeing with this sentiment. “By no means I was over confident but I became a confident cricketer where any challenge put up against me, I was equipped to face that.”

Already thrust into the limelight as a teenager, the fact that Tendulkar was able to not just keep up with his contemporaries but seem at times to be heads and shoulders above them came to define the fandom of Indian cricket supporters over the coming decades. A combination of supreme talent, plenty of hard-mettle backbone, and a dose of a quiet kind of swagger meant that Perth provided a trailer for what was to come in the rest of Tendulkar’s long career.

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