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Sunday, July 06, 2008

Sachin Tendulkar: My reality check

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar: Indian Superhero. In my memory we (for that matter I) Indians have never revered any personality so much. I hated to love him and loved to hate him both at a time. He has gracefully carried over billion hopes in bitter sweet mode. He told us what a sporting hero is!! Kapil Dev comes to my mind immediately as National sporting hero but even his rise as a cult figure has been linked with India winning World Cup in 1983. But Sachin Tendulkar rose and shone irrespective of whether India won or lost. His record speaks for himself. List is long and unending if I start giving examples of his greatness but the foremost and only example I would like to quote is when another perfectionist Aamir Khan gave testimony in Sachin's favour on his blog in the post titled Sachin the Great. Aamir's word are italicised in blue. You will find this hard to believe but Sachin was able to predict every ball before it was bowled. “He is going to bowl a bouncer next”, “This one is going to be a slower one”, “Full tilt outside the off stump”, “Next one will be a yorker”, “Short of length”. It was uncanny. HE GOT IT RIGHT EACH TIME!!! No wonder its so difficult to bowl to him.

Sachin has gave us many a moment's to cheer and cherish. From dust storm in Sharjah to the two gem of match winning knocks in the finals of CB series via 2003 World Cup journey we relished his every shot. But the question is did he win enough matches for India and did justice to his talent? Time for you to answer.

The rise of Tendulkar gave rise to indiviual sporting heroes in our country. I have this feeling (can't say it authoritatively) that in team one team can only be champion when one player is not head & shoulders above the rest. If it was Sachin for India then Beckham was so for England. Even in Indian hockey when the team consisted of good players it became a great team by winning eight Olympic gold medals and when players like Dhanraj Pillay or Pargat singh rose above the team then the team plunged to some depths. Even in final of 1998
Soccer World Cup when the presence of Ronaldo was so overpowering that he was played despite him being not physically & mentally fit to play and result was the loss of Brazil. I firmly believe that when there is one star which is above everybody else in the team then somehow team is not motivated enough as will be a team where players are of same stature. So in my sense Tendulkar gave rise to a cult figure under whose weight the team spirit of other players was lost and they were not motivated enough or they didn't push themselves so much to win they were not under the scanner as was Sachin.

Anyway now Sachin is suffering from injury and will return in due time. But following the Indian ODI team in recent months I never felt that Sachin is being missed. Gambhir has filled the openers role at least on subcontinental pitches and he was also highly successful on Australian tour. Now in my opinion the role of Sachin should be and would be more of a mentor in the team where his experience should be passed onto Sharmas and Rainas for India's better future for his body is not in position to take the workload which the younger legs are taking nowadays after 19 years of relentless service to the game of cricket. Now the loss to Sri Lanka in Asia Cup final was more due to youthfulness of the team and that should have been mentored and I think Sachin was perfectly needed at that time atleast he could have told Sehwag for that matter whole team how to play a unknown quantity in thw world cricket for Sachin would have played loads of new bowlers(although mendis is a rarity).

My Heart's Voice: Being a Indian and A Tendulkar lover I would love that he should hang his boots in 2011 after winning the 2011 World Cup as a Player of Tournament.

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