And in India Tendulkar was beyond massive, forced by the sheer pressure of adulation to go out in disguise or perform religious duties at temples in the dead of night. But if you imagine a roar-ometer on which ten is outright pandemonium, Dhoni’s arrival scored about nine and a half today, against Sachin’s eight and a half.

It is a stupid person who underestimates the skill and resolve of a great batsman, or the Indian public’s love for Tendulkar. Perhaps more than anyone else he, as the best in the world, symbolised what modern India was capable of.

But there are small signs that things are changing on the field for Sachin, with only two centuries in two years. And yesterday there was the smallest hint that things could be changing off it too.