I believe I would be widely hated for writing this post and people would not believe that I am also a great fan of Sachin even if I bother to reiterate repeatedly.Hence, I shall not make that point beyond this.
We as a nation are passionate about cricket but when it comes to Sachin we are hysterics. We throw reason,tolerance and sportsmanship out of the window. I am referring to the widespread furore that Akthar’s comments in his book,Controversially Yours, have created. Akthar is not the first one to be rebuked and made into a villain because he has dared suggest that Sachin is not perfect all the time. Before him many others have been victims of this syndrome.Sanjay Manjarekar in 2006, when he alleged that Sachin may have been faking injuries and then again in 2008 when he claimed his non-performance at the top order was hurting India in ODI. People lashed out against Manjarekar and called him sour grapes. Because Sachin is not only great but no can dare to cast aspersion of humane frailties against him, there have been other such incidents too. Mike denness was perhaps the greatest victim of witch hunting when he accused Sachin with tampering the ball.Technically Mike was right.Cleaning the seam as camera footage seemed to suggest can tantamount to ball tampering. We then of course suggested racial discrimination. Perhaps both the above incidents were in bad taste and Tendulkar’s detractors were wrong mostly. But the below three simply astound me.
Tendullkar had applied for a tax exemption for the Ferrari that had been gifted to him . It was bad enough he applied for one and even worse that fans came out in support of him! Geoffrey Boycott recently made that Himalayan blunder of reminding viewers that Sachin has not scored a century at Lord’s. Harsha Bhogale snapped that it was Lord’s loss, at the end of the series we know who was left red-faced.
Perhaps the most ludicrous of these incidents is the recent one against Akthar. He suggested that Sachin was trembling against him in one of the matches. So what? the best of the players do. May be sachin did. Even our Mythological heroes ,Gods and Goddesses can have moments of self doubt but Sachin can’t! we can digest that Lord Ram had to tell Adityahridyam to win over Raavan, we can also believe that Arjun doubted if he could win Karna.You may tell you are an atheist so let me then remind you of seeing Wasim Akram trembling against Sachin when the latter took him out to cleaners against Pakistan in the 2003 world cup. If my memory serves me right didnt the same akthar come out and tell he was afraid to bowl to sachin that day after being hit for a first ball six.It happens to the best of players. But, no.. its impossible to believe that Sachin could have had a bad day for his fans! Akthar is no joke he has troubled enough batsmen to be qualified enough to comment.We as a nation have become increasingly intolerant .Sachin’s greatness will not be reduced if he was found trembling against Akthar or if Akthar falsely claimed so. Ofourse Akthar wants to sell a book and he would mention any claims to victory he had over the prized wicket of Sachin.Perhaps the west has been more tolerant of its super stars who have been a little less than perfect. Mike Tyson. Diego Maradona and George Best are a case in point. But as Indians we risk reducing our greatest sporting heroes to caricatures by simply refusing to tolerate anything against them! Rajiv Shukla’s demand for an apology reminds me of Tiwari’s rant gainst Katrina .Her fault had been to remind the nation that she is not the only half Indian-half European around. She was factually and technically correct. After so much intolerance for such small issues we have the audacity to complain riots happen, funny isn’t it?
Sticky Wickets -Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar
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This is a very well written blog sudarshana. But I’m not entirely convinced by the arguments.
Let’s talk about the three values you talked about ,”sportsmanship,reason and tolerance”.
I don’t think using the word “scared” is sportsmanly. I wouldn’t support sachin if he uses such word against fellow bowlers.
The only one who knows whether sachin was scared or not is sachin himself. It is easy to make remarks which cant be proved or disproved. I’ll wait until it’s proved. Shoaib hasn’t provided any proof. So just like shoaib let’s throw reason out of the equation. Now we are left with tolerance. Now Tolerance can mean taking things lying down or doing what is right even if its against your natural Instinct.Here comes the main problem , what is right? Sticking for sachin in the absence of evidence or not reacting to what shoaib says or supporting shoaib. I guess we are left with 3 options . We know only about people who have reacted as non reactions can’t be heard. As I’ve heard only few reactions (considering we are a nation of billion),to suggest otherwise would be speculation.we are not going to speculate against speculation , are we? I can’t say whether the reactions , for or against are right or not, as we don’t know whether the source is right or not. What is left is friends sticking up for friends, which is emotional rather than rational. So these few people aren’t “tolerant” as per my understanding. But is tolerance a virtue here, who is to say,and to what limit. I would leave this to more intellectual ones.
As far as treating sachin as demigod is concerned , certainly not right. Many don’t think he is god but they expect him to be as perfect as Him. Though sachin has time and again reminded them That he is just human (with all the incidents you had quoted and some not qouted).Now we may or may not like that . One person’s passion can be other person’s stupidity. It’s not that these are mutually exclusive sets. I’ve seen the same guys dancing on the roads with shouting “sachin is god” on the streets when India won the world cup and calling others stupid when they said that sachin deserves Bharat ratna. May be they thought gods are beyond this award, who knows?