Deja Vu all over again





Tendulkar failed in three consecutive innings in tests. Worse still, he was bowled in all of the three dismissals. So it is that time of the year when some of us dig out the obituary that we had ready but had forgotten for a while, dust it, update it to reflect the latest dates and numbers and hang it out for all to see. The age has finally caught up with him, we love to write. If there is something more incredible than the number of centuries that Tendulkar has scored, it is the number of times that the age has ‘finally’ caught up with him!
He says he still loves the game. But we are sure it must be the Ad money and the pressure from his contracts. If money is what keeps us going, why should his case be different? I have not held any record other than the college lab records but that is beside the point. I am sure his motivation works the same way as mine.
By staying on, he is preventing young talent from coming up, you see? You might argue that players like him in fact have inspired millions of kids to pick up the cricket bat in the first place. That is all stories of the past. Now he is just a burden to the team. Let’s not be swayed by the great things that the young team members in the team say about him. They are just saying that to be nice. No, I don’t have any special access to the dressing room. But I know that I am right. If you don’t believe me, pay attention to what the experts say. There are many experts like Ian Chappell who have been telling us since last five years that Tendulkar’s time is up. This is not counting the elephants in the room like Sanjay Majrekar that no one wants to talk about.

Out of all these, what Chappell wrote in 2007 deserves special mention. What makes Ian Chappell’s comments in 2007 so special is its longevity. It can be used even today, verbatim.
"Before anybody else makes a decision on what will happen to Tendulkar the player himself has to have a good long look in the mirror and decide what he's trying to achieve in the game," Chappell wrote in Mid-Day, a Mumbai-based tabloid. "At the moment he looks like a player trying to eke out a career; build on a glittering array of statistics. If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately." The only change that I would suggest today is that Tendulkar pick up a new mirror, because the mirror that he used in 2007 might have lost some of its shine.
Chappell continues on the usage of mirror in the same article: "If Tendulkar had found an honest mirror three years ago and asked the question; 'Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the best batsman of all?' It would've answered; 'Brian Charles Lara.' If he asked that same mirror right now; 'Mirror, mirror on the wall should I retire?' The answer would be; 'Yes.'”
Chappell waited for five long years to see if anyone listened to him. Finally at the risk of repeating himself, he was forced to write again this year in March. "Former Australia cricket captain Ian Chappell said India's batting greatSachin Tendulkar has to take a look at himself and ask if he is playing the game for the right reason." Reports times of India. One pitfall of being a busy commentator is that one does not get the luxury of pampering oneself in front of the mirror every morning. 
If all these don’t mean anything, there is more. Recently in an online poll in Hindustan Times had 56% of respondents agreeing that Tendulkar should in fact retire now. We are tired so you better retire, they want to tell him. The fact that he is not tired does not count much in a democracy. Now that he is also an MP, can Tendulkar ignore this call of democracy? After all he got a place in the team because everyone voted for him.

Comments

  1. Kalyan Kumar BanerjeeSeptember 17, 2012 at 9:23 AM

    Mohan, this time it’s Sunil Gavaskar who’s complaining.
    I do not suggest that Sachin is playing for money or ads. Nor do I suggest he must make way for youngsters. New players must get into the team by outperforming Sachin. I’d still prefer Sachin in the team over Rohit Sharma. Look how Ashvin has pushed Harbhajan out of the team, that’s how it should be.
    But Sachin needs to reflect within and decide when to retire. He took a very long time to get his 100th, and that was against Bangladesh, so this is not a matter of three innings.
    Far too many heroes in too many professions do not know when to call it a day – later they get remembered for staying longer than they should have, and that’s unfortunate.
    There’s probably some logic why ancient Aryans divided life into 4 phases and there was a phase marked for giving back to society. Everyone needs to decide when it’s time to transit to the next phase.
    I am an admirer of Dr Manmohan Singh. He has done great things for the nation. Unfortunately, history may remember him more for his UPA-2 stint than for his past achievements. What if he called it a day in 2009?
    Will history be more kind to L K Advani if he retired in 2004?
    What if Rajesh Khanna called it a day after Namak Haram?
    See how Bill Gates has become larger than life by quitting when he did.
    Many of those who believe Sachin must quit soon are his admirers – most want him to be known for his 100s he scored rather than for the ones he did not score in the last two years of his career.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mohanakrishnan GopalakrishnanSeptember 18, 2012 at 9:08 AM

    I was not making any statement on whether Sachin should retire or not. It is about what people are saying about it. What I was trying to point out was expert commentary today has degraded into being just expert's commentary.

    ReplyDelete

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