Sachin Tendulkar has been out of any forms of competitive cricket for the last 5 months. Any die-hard Indian cricket fan would easily recollect that this kind of absence has been rare for the master ever since he started as a 16 year old kid belting a veteran spinner like Abdul Quadir for 4 successive sixes in an over. In these 5 months he missed one-day series against England and recently the tour of West Indies. India failed to impress on a feeble West Indian attack losing the one-day series 1-4. They quickly came back and won the test series convincingly by 1-0 leaving West Indies a little happy thanks to the inclement and unpredictable weather conditions prevalent in the Caribbean.
Off late Sachin Tendulkar has been in news more for his loss of forms and injuries than for his classy straight drives and those hundreds, which used to come quite regularly sometime back. Whatever be the case, it’s a proven fact now that whether he will play in the top form or loss of form or not play at all thanks to injuries cumulating over the past 17 years of rough and tough cricket, its hard to detach Indian cricket from him. He has ruled the Indian cricket and its followers until recently just like a king. For some people it’s hard to imagine cricket without him. Some are afraid of an ageing Sachin. Some of them desperately want him to play the games even if he is not 100% fit because it is desperately believed that even a half fit Tendulkar is capable of giving nightmares to the bowlers all round the world. Some find extreme level of happiness when he bats on the 22 yard pitch and drives the ball for even a single to the mid-on. For some people cricket means Sachin Tendulkar. He is out means match is over. As Sir Viv Richards once said-“I would pay to watch him bat.” People follow this sentence religiously.
Obviously for such people the last 5 months of Sachin’s absence has been a tough time. Every time India would lose a game or be in a tough situation, the discussion would start on the need of Sachin. Those people who criticized him for his lack of forms just a couple of months back become highly bright about the idea of him being back in the squad and play a role of protector every time India needed some protection.
I perceive the recent tirade of Sanjay Manjrekar against Sachin Tendulkar on the above terms. Just after the conclusion of world cup 2003, when the batsman of the series was being decided, a question was asked to Manjrekar about his choice for the same. This is what he had to say-“Well, this is a wrong question to ask for someone like me who has followed Sachin Tendulkar every moment for the last 20 years. My opinion may be biased. My choice would always be Sachin”. Well, I haven’t seen someone so blindly expressing his support for his hero before a public forum like the one I mentioned. Given this, I would like to see his vocal attacks on Sachin Tendulkar as nothing but another desperate attempt by another fan of Sachin to give an exit to his desperation for not being able to see Sachin in live action for not less than 5 months! Being a Sachin fan, anyone would like to watch his hero play for India and win matches for us. If you take 5 months out of someone’s two to three years of international cricket life, this would kill him. In this case, the ones who are being killed are the desperate Sachin fans because as he is ageing, they would see less of him and get more and more desperate. His absence due to injuries only adds to the desperation.
To be fair to Manjrekar, he expressed his opinion, which in a democracy, has to be appreciated. But what was highly surprising was the angry reaction of Tendulkar when Manjrekar questioned his commitment to the game. I would see it like this, Manjrekar has an opinion and Tendulkar disagrees. Well, Tendulkar has right to disagree as anyone of us has. But the way Sachin reacted doesn’t sound good for a man like him. I would have expected him to ignore this as he has done in the past for all the bogus comments and comparisons involving him and always let his cricket bat talk. Tendulkar has acted here in a way very unlike him, our beloved and hero, Sachin. This might be painful for the Sachin’s followers.
Off late Sachin Tendulkar has been in news more for his loss of forms and injuries than for his classy straight drives and those hundreds, which used to come quite regularly sometime back. Whatever be the case, it’s a proven fact now that whether he will play in the top form or loss of form or not play at all thanks to injuries cumulating over the past 17 years of rough and tough cricket, its hard to detach Indian cricket from him. He has ruled the Indian cricket and its followers until recently just like a king. For some people it’s hard to imagine cricket without him. Some are afraid of an ageing Sachin. Some of them desperately want him to play the games even if he is not 100% fit because it is desperately believed that even a half fit Tendulkar is capable of giving nightmares to the bowlers all round the world. Some find extreme level of happiness when he bats on the 22 yard pitch and drives the ball for even a single to the mid-on. For some people cricket means Sachin Tendulkar. He is out means match is over. As Sir Viv Richards once said-“I would pay to watch him bat.” People follow this sentence religiously.
Obviously for such people the last 5 months of Sachin’s absence has been a tough time. Every time India would lose a game or be in a tough situation, the discussion would start on the need of Sachin. Those people who criticized him for his lack of forms just a couple of months back become highly bright about the idea of him being back in the squad and play a role of protector every time India needed some protection.
I perceive the recent tirade of Sanjay Manjrekar against Sachin Tendulkar on the above terms. Just after the conclusion of world cup 2003, when the batsman of the series was being decided, a question was asked to Manjrekar about his choice for the same. This is what he had to say-“Well, this is a wrong question to ask for someone like me who has followed Sachin Tendulkar every moment for the last 20 years. My opinion may be biased. My choice would always be Sachin”. Well, I haven’t seen someone so blindly expressing his support for his hero before a public forum like the one I mentioned. Given this, I would like to see his vocal attacks on Sachin Tendulkar as nothing but another desperate attempt by another fan of Sachin to give an exit to his desperation for not being able to see Sachin in live action for not less than 5 months! Being a Sachin fan, anyone would like to watch his hero play for India and win matches for us. If you take 5 months out of someone’s two to three years of international cricket life, this would kill him. In this case, the ones who are being killed are the desperate Sachin fans because as he is ageing, they would see less of him and get more and more desperate. His absence due to injuries only adds to the desperation.
To be fair to Manjrekar, he expressed his opinion, which in a democracy, has to be appreciated. But what was highly surprising was the angry reaction of Tendulkar when Manjrekar questioned his commitment to the game. I would see it like this, Manjrekar has an opinion and Tendulkar disagrees. Well, Tendulkar has right to disagree as anyone of us has. But the way Sachin reacted doesn’t sound good for a man like him. I would have expected him to ignore this as he has done in the past for all the bogus comments and comparisons involving him and always let his cricket bat talk. Tendulkar has acted here in a way very unlike him, our beloved and hero, Sachin. This might be painful for the Sachin’s followers.
The other aspect about this is, now that Sachin is well set to return and play as we all want, what was the need of this? Was it intended to provoke him to play much better as it has been seen in the past that even though Sachin has always been reluctant to be vocal, he has been very vocal with his bat every time a comment like this has been passed. Just remember a couple of cases, Henry Olongo, Andrew Caddick and Australia tour of Indian in 2003-2004 to name a few. Wouldn’t it have been prudent of someone like Sanjay Manjrekar who reportedly has been a good and close friend of Sachin ever since they started playing cricket for Mumbai way back in late 80s, to voice his opinions and comments personally to Sachin rather than opening the mouth publicly?
Has this become a trend in Indian cricket and BCCI politics to make public statements and make a mountain out of nothing? It all started with Chappel’s leaked email followed by Saurav-Chappel affair and recently Saurav-Dalmiya spice. What’s going on? On a lighter note and not to offend Manjrekar, has Manjrekar taken a crash course on “How to get instant publicity”? :)
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