Sachin Tendulkar: You Want Blood with That Book?

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REUTERS/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds

Sachin Tendulkar, the once-in-a-generation Michael Jordan of cricket, has broken a lot of longstanding records. Now, he’s becoming a publishing first as well. He’s the first person whose autobiography comes with some of his blood.

The book is the Tendulkar Opus, published by Kraken Media, which makes a specialty of vertiginously high end books. Ten lucky readers can buy the Blood Edition, in which a drop of the cricketing icon’s blood is mixed into the first page. Well, they could have, but all 10 of the $75,000 81.5-lb. books have been pre-ordered.

Why would anyone want such a thing? Tendulkar’s fans are legion and obsessive. And not just in his home country of India. Most recently, he was the first person to ever score 200 runs in a one-day match, a feat nobody thought possible. He was also, ahem, one of  the Time 100. But, still, bodily fluids?

“It is what it is – you will have Sachin’s blood on the page,” Kraken Media’s chief executive Karl Fowler told the Guardian newspaper. “It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, it’s not to everyone’s taste and some may think it’s a bit weird. But the key thing here is that Sachin Tendulkar to millions of people is a religious icon. And we thought how, in  publishing form, can you get as close to your god as possible?”

For more squeamish or less well remunerated fans, the February 2010 release will be available in two cheaper editions, a hardback for a mere $3000 and a smaller edition for $300.