An Opus is a mammoth work and a mammoth work can only come without mammoth content and inspiration. The latest work - the Sachin Tendulkar Opus.

An international career spanning 20 years, and counting...innumerable memories and images that no cricket fan will forget. Those images have now found their way into a mammoth coffee table book. It's called the Tendulkar Opus.

The London's Opus Store houses opuses, or what the company calls luxurious publications, on the biggest and best-known personalities of the world, from Michael Jackson and Walt Disney to Manchester United and Ferrari, and very soon the Sachin Tendulkar Opus will be a part of it.

"First picture of mine in a newspaper was out when I was 12 or 13 and I had scored 100 for my school. I saw picture and said it was exciting and I want more of this," said Sachin Tendulkar.

Well Sachin has now certainly got plenty more! 30 kg, close to 800 pages and more than 30,000 photographs to be precise. The Tendulkar Opus took almost three years to complete and it's got a little something else that sets it apart.

"One of the key differences is that every copy will have small little drop of Sachin's blood in the signature page, it's never been done before," said Karl Fowler, CEO, Opus.

But this isn't a bloodthirsty exercise in publicity. Sachin's DNA profile is actually meant to help trace his genealogy. It's just on the first ten copies though, each of which is expected to fetch about a crore in a charity auction.

But the public realese of the book only happens much later, some time after the 2011 World Cup. The publishers hope to have even more content for the Tendulkar Opus by then.

"One of the things that we're looking at now is using a very small microphone in his batting helmet that will be operated by our photographer off the pitch, such that when he's at the crease, we will be able to get images and angles of him in action that even the TV cameras with their pixellisation couldn't get," added Fowler.

Sachin is only the second individual sportsperson after Diego Maradona, to have an Opus on him. So if there is still something Tendulkar fans don't know about him, they only need this definitive work. It's Sachin's story in his own words.

Source: NDTV.com

A black Mercedes pulls up to the curb in a central London street, and out steps Sachin Tendulkar. There are no crowds, no bodyguards, and no one pays any attention to this stocky and unremarkable gentleman who, aside from a chunky watch, looks like any other office worker as he stops to make a call on the pavement.

Tendulkar wanders up and down the busy street, tourists and Londoners walking past him, enjoying the midsummer warmth and the rare anonymity. It is a mundane act for the rest of us, but a treat and something to revel in for him.

"I like it here, I have more freedom to do whatever I want and move around without any problems," he says. "I enjoy that feeling, it is very different for me. I am given my space, which is important, and I can go for nice walks in the parks."

While his Indian team-mates were unsuccessfully attempting to defend their World Twenty20 title, Tendulkar was here to spend time with his family at their London home. He watched cricket from the stands, went to the men's final at Wimbledon, took a trip to Iceland to sample some cold weather, took his nine-year-old son Arjun for net sessions at Lord's, and simply enjoyed unmolested trips to the cinema and restaurants.

When asked if he could repeat any of these pursuits in Mumbai he laughs and looks utterly astonished at the question. "No, no, no, I couldn't do any of that, I have not done it for a long time, and I don't see myself doing it again, really."

It’s probably the World Twenty20 and the Ashes, but we’re getting an insane number of press releases sent to us these days. Today we’re going to tell you about two separate competitions where you can meet a cricketer. This is the first one. It is classy. Sachin Tendulkar is doing a book signing at some shop called Opus at some place called Covent Garden in some town called London on Thursday. It’s a Twitter competition. If you’re a member, log in and put: “@thisismission I’d love to meet the cricket legend #Tendulkar at the Opus Store on Thursday!” The winner will be drawn tonight. The second competition will appear later. It is less sophisticated. You will like it.

Source: KingOfCricket

London: A London-based company will shortly release a book revealing Sachin Tendulkar's thoughts on his achievements on the cricket field. The book called the Tendulkar Opus will the largest and most luxurious tribute ever published on the legend. The book will have details of his playing career and will also tell us what Sachin thinks of his teammates.

A section will also be devoted to his on-field rivals, both past and present and also his personal life. Tendulkar Opus will weigh 35kgs with 800 pages. But not everyone can get it as it will be a limited collectors’ edition and each copy will be personally signed by the man himself. Sachin is the first individual sportsman to feature in an Opus collection.

"It is a different kind of book. I have Mohammad Ali (book on Mohammad Ali) on at home and when I saw the book I was completely floored by the amount of effort they had put in the book. It is special. I am looking forward to my book which will be out before 2011 World Cup," Tendulkar said about the book.

He also wished well for the Indian team playing in the World Twenty20 and hoped they would retain the title. They have been playing well and all I can wish well for them. I am not exactly part of the team at this stage. So as an Indian I can say go and get the cup," he said. Source: IBNLive.in