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Sachin – The Flawed Great

by Bored Guest

Bang on, Som I tried hard to find perspective in all that has been published, but they were all paeans and little else. The truth is that today, if anything, I feel underwhelmed. The most obvious thing that hits you is the realization that India won little in the last 20 years in spite of having one of the greatest batsmen in the modern era. You just get the feeling that we are close to the end of something special, but it could have been so, so much more. I’m not saying that Tendulkar was an inadequate match winner. Hardly. I think he did his best.

People point to World Cups won: Ponting 3 Tendulkar 0.

I personally think that's a harsh statistic. We have to compare them as batsmen first. Therefore the statistic should read;

Highest scorer in World Cups: Tendulkar 2 Ponting 0.

This gives an accurate idea of how well they individually performed at the highest stage.

But my criticism of Tendulkar has little to do with the cricketer, and more to do with the person. You just get the feeling that by trying to make everyone like him, Tendulkar ended up stubbornly sticking to a rigid path of not having an opinion at all. Tendulkar at his peak had a following that exceeded everyone else, filmstars and politicians included. The universality of his popularity has never been exceeded and never will. If anyone could have arm twisted the BCCI, (I mean the board not this blog!) it was him. We saw how Sehwag’s tame attempt to stem corruption in selection matters petered out to a farce in the face of political bigwigs. Well, hats off to you man, whatever your motives were, you tried.

Sachin, on the other hand, stuck to cricket. BCCI ridiculously claimed that the cricketers represented them, and not India. Sachin said nothing. The selection system has always had many loopholes and there is mismanagement at every level. Sachin said nothing. Our national team players were involved in match fixing. Sachin said nothing. The BCCI management has become a happy hunting ground for politicians, since Jagmohan Dalmiya pioneered the art of professional embezzlement. Now it seems each major post is being usurped by yet another politician. Sachin continues to say nothing and intersperses that with trying to illegally get his taxes waived on a Ferrari. As the decay continues to pervade, the centuries keep coming. But little else. Don’t tell me no one else has done anything either. They weren’t Sachin. Full stop.

Now people will harp on about how he’s grounded, humble, yakkety yak. He let his bat do the talking, apparently. I have always found that to be ridiculous. You’re telling me that he looks at his records and is still unaware of the fact that he’s the best? He would have to be mentally incapacitated in some way for that to be possible. Which he is not. What he is, unfortunately, is a politically correct crowd panderer who is incapable of taking a stand. He prefers to keep his mouth shut than offend anyone, which is a travesty because India is full of people like him. People who look the other way when a bribe is doled out, who are bystanders when goons thrash an innocent in front of them and who could care less if their inaction as a whole is the primary cause of the shambles that is India today. I guess I wish that all that talent had been bestowed to a person with personality, with dynamism. An individual who would have strived to use his power to rise above cricket and bring about a change, any change at all. Because that is what we sorely need. A few thousand runs less, we could have done with.

Someone may point to the statement made by him the other day against the MNS. I think that was even better than the 175 he made a few days ago. But I don’t think he actually said it. If you go through the interview, it has been taken totally out of context to make it seem like a repudiation of MNS dogma. It’s one of the few good things that have come out of the media’s ability to blow stuff out of proportion. What I do remember, however, was Sachin reading out Marathi poems at a function organized by the Shiv Sena. The Sena were at their jingoistic peak then, physically abusing hundreds of harmless impoverished immigrants, no less. But all that occurred to Sachin was to read his dad’s poems. How could he have refused? He is such a nice guy, you know…

by Rohit Pillai

20 comments:

Bhaskar Khaund said...

Whoa , thats scathing, Rohit ! Look , its all about personality types. Tendu is that way. He may be a fence sitter , a diplomat , a cautious guy , a coward even...He may be this , he may be that. But like you or me , he too is entitled to be any personality type he wants to . Being successful doesn't mean that he owes it to the world to speak and do good on its behalf. He's flawed ? Sure , he is flawed. Not just as a person but even as a cricketer.But WTF, so are we all. Trust me , i'd be the last guy in the sachin worship bandwagon and prolly even in the Bored posts you'll find several sarccy pieces from me.But theek hain yaar , like it or not , he is SRT and the country loves him in a special way and many times , irrationally so. Lets just accept that and enjoy his time on the field when we can ? Cheers !

Mahek said...

I don't think anyone is not going to enjoy his time on the field. But if Rohit wants to point out the bleeding obvious about Tendulkar then so be it. It's not just Tendulkar who has stood by and seen the BCCI and the media treat cricket like a whore. There are other big names who have turned a blind eye too.

Why is it that we don't have a strong players association? FICA has cried itself hoarse about how this issue. If Tendulkar thinks India should play more tests shouldn't he help form a players association that sits across the table from the BCCI to thrash out a Collective Bargaining Agreement that specifies the number of games India play? It would help eliminate those Kitply and Compaq Cups no one remembers after 12 months. I also remember him saying he felt safe in his country when asked about the security of players. This was a few weeks before the Mumbai attacks. Talk about living in a fool's paradise.

It's totally understandable that Tendulkar doesn't have that personality. But if someone wishes he had a bit of fight in him off the field then they're very much entitled to it.

Vim said...

Highest scorer in World Cup final?

Only one winner there.

I think Sachin Tendulkar out of all the current Indian players is pretty much beyond reproach in terms of talent and professionalism. It isn't his fault that some other players don't take the game as seriously as he does.

Rohit said...

@ Bhaskar...

I know we all have our flaws...we seem to have an exceptionally high number of them, to be honest. But the thing is, we need someone to act as a catalyst for change or at least become a symbol of it. This excessive fawning, irrational as you describe it, had given Tendulkar a golden chance to do so. Few people in India's history have had that sort of power, that sort of sway. It's just our misfortune that this guy turns out to be an timorous, 'humble' wimp. I'm not saying that he is not entitled to his personality. I'm just saying that we, as a nation, can't afford to have their idols not do anything. If they won't, who will? It's safe to say that his sort of universal appeal will never be replicated due to the way the landscape of cricket has changed. And this saddens me. He could have brought about a revolution but chose to play it safe and stay within a protective cocoon to ensure that he got mollycoddled by everyone. The enormity of the opportunity that Tendulkar has spurned is appalling. I guess that is what frustrates me and this my way of venting it.

@ Mahek...

Good stuff! I agree on the association. We could desperately do with a modicum of accountability. The cricket calender these days, is decided by commercial and not cricketing reasons, which is preposterous.

Naresh said...

Yeah yeah - we know --- and he also totally ran away when Bhajji screwed up in Sydney....

And yeah, he shouldda translated his Dad's poems to hindi first as a mark of respect to the "national language"...I mean how dare these ghatis get together and talk in their bloody language, huh?

very deep sir, very deep...

Som said...

Rohit, very thought-provoking piece. Tendulkar can't be blamed if India didn't win much. It's after all a team game. He is the best bat after Bradman and no one can take away from that. As Bhaskar said, he is entitled to be the person he wants to be. We can't impose our liking on him. Fair enough.

I still have some regrets about Tendulkar the statesman and what he could have done for the game.

Nathan said...

"People point to World Cups won: Ponting 3 Tendulkar 0."

Doesn't seem to be an apples-to-apples comparison; no one is arguing that Tendulkar is a better *captain* than Ponting.

World Cups are won by Captains, not batsmen per se. It is a comparison you could use between Ponting and Dhoni and his predecessors, but it doesn't seem relevant to Tendulkar. The Little Master has his role to play (score runs, anchor the innings).

The second comparison is definitely more relevant.

Nathan said...

Sorry for dodging the rest of the post, but I am not nearly drunk enough to throw my ill-informed and foreign opinion into such a heated matter :)

Ankit Poddar said...

Nathan,

that is quite a stand! ;)

Ankit Poddar said...

rohit,

i could sum up the entire post in the following one line that I read about Indira Gandhi in the Outlook last week!


"Only Great Men make Great Mistakes!"

Nathan said...

"Only Great Men make Great Mistakes!"

I don't know about that, I've known some pretty ordinary folks who've made some pretty extraordinary mistakes :)

Rohit said...

@ Nathan....

I know the comparison is idiotic, but you would be surprised to see how often it pops up when the 'best batsman' debate is on. But I don't think captains win world cups either frankly....I don't think the final of '03 would have finished any different had we swapped captains at the toss!(hold on..ponting did make 140*....well maybe then!)Just kidding.

@ Ankit...

I think 'great men make great mistakes' applies to people who, in an endeavour to do something, faltered. I hardly think it applies to prosaic, yawn inducing inaction!
On a separate note, I fail to understand how that applies to the late Mrs. Gandhi, anyway. I know the popular photos of her are not too flattering, but it's a reasonably well established fact that she was a woman! Cheers!


@ Som..

Thanks a lot!

P.S: What on earth is happening at Motera!!!!

straight point said...

thought provoking pc rohit and accept my belated welcome to the bored...

tho i do know where you are coming from... we want people with powers to be more aware of their roles and endeavors coz lets face it... they have more say than you and me on things that can take shape...

however having said that i also feel if this can be held against them... and in this way i feel sachin truly represent the psyche of indians and is rightly our here if you know what i mean... :)

Mahek said...

Rohit, I hope you caught Tendulkar's statement regarding India and Maharashtra. I guess the batsman is starting to open up off the field too. It seems Mr. Thackeray isn't very happy about Tendulkar's opinion. Looks like he hasn't been getting any from Smita Ji.

Bhaskar Khaund said...

Hi Rohit , i do get what you're saying here. Yeah, you're very right about the fact that if there was one guy powerful enough to change things, it'd have to be him. I guess what my point really is is about lowered (and focused )expectation. i mean he's a cricketer , so lets judge him on performance on the field. the fact that he's a nice , seemingly humble guy who's conducted himself well in public life is a bonus. for me , it stops there though. thats how i've begun to think of my heroes be it in any walk of life.in this age when any info is a click away , you're gonna come back disappointed with just about anyone if your expectations from them are too high ! :-)

Gaurav said...

When God made Tendulkar, He touched him on the head and said "Son, Go forth and play Cricket". He did not say "Go forth and play Cricket, fix BCCI's problems, cure corruption, nepotism and commercialism in Indian Cricket, take on injustice in every walk of life and be the messiah". Who are you to question God's will? Who are you to say he's not done what he was sent to do? Why can't you just admire a rose in your garden instead of cribing that the rose just looks and smells great but does nothing to cure the injustices suffered by the sorely put up on marigold or the universally downtrodden grass. Understand his purpose and then gauge his performance in attaining that purpose/objective.

Rohit said...

@ Straight point..

Thanks! I see what you're saying...

@ Mahek..

I've talked about that in the last para of the article...it is an exaggeration..I'm expecting Sachin to apologize soon. Going by your theory, thackeray should be a virgin because he has always been a prickly, old fart.

@ Bhaskar...

Ya makes sense...maybe I'm expecting too much from one man! But if not him, then who else?

@ Gaurav...

That is caustic stuff, man! Didn't know Sachin's existence was pre ordained by the almighty!!...wouldn't have questioned his inaction then. I wish god hadn't told him to leave that enormous gap between bat and pad yesterday, though!
On that note, maybe god touched me on the head and told me to go on forth and slander, vilify and do all sort of evil to damage Tendlya's standing in society! Can't help it then, can I? It's destiny!
No offence, man....It's just that the rose is camouflaged by a thick growth of weeds, creepers and foliage....That's why I'm not able to see it clearly enough!

Ankit Poddar said...

rohit,

that applied to mrs. g, because of the emergency episode! or so is felt!

Gaurav said...

Right. And if you're not able to see the rose, that's the rose's fault how again?

harshad said...

Rohit, so many people like Tendulkar have oppertunity to change this country. why cant a son of a any politician who gets a easy entry in politics try to clean something? atleast clean up beurocrasy!
Thats our country's sad story. We have lost terms like respect, and principals. What we have remained with a corrupt political system which has entered in all parts of life.

Even we have stopped making movies against corruption! Its now become a way of life for us!