The Painful burden of being Sachin Tendulkar

India won the first test against the West Indies yesterday (09 November 2011) at the Feroze Shah Kotla Stadium New Delhi. The margin of victory 5 wickets with a day and a half to spare.

However, the anchors & commentators on most channels carrying this news went ballistic on another topic. Sachin Tendulkar. And how he did not get his 100^th. century in this test match. How, he has gone 7 (or is it 8) matches, without scoring a century. And the dim witted anchors spent a lot of AIR time discussing what was wrong with Sachin and his batting. Even the print media were not to be left behind. The fact that India won the test was almost relegated to a footnote. Prime time (or should I say space) was occupied with a discussion of how Sachin goes into his shell and how he has to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea (whatever that means.)

Reminds me of how Sachin was hounded only a few years ago. “Endulkar“ screamed one headline. Time to hang up your boots, said another. And cricketers the world over were only too glad to pillory him. Tendulkar bashing should be declared an international sport. Remember Greg Chappel’s comments. And Adam Ghilchrist’s. And the recent disparaging remarks of Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Afridi, about Sachin quaking in his boots, when Sohaib ran up to bowl to him.

Yet time and time again he has defied all the doomsayers and come back emphatically in the only way he knows – with his bat.  Remember this is Sachin Tendulkar. The only batsman on this planet to get 15,000 plus runs in a game that he has made his own – for 20 plus long years. The immensely talented, humble, controversy free, sportsman to have played the game, in its long history.  The sublime maestro whose appetite for winning is only second to his appetite for runs. 

This is the same Sachin, who, we put under tremendous pressure to score runs, almost at will. And if he doesn’t we find fault with him. But remember, he too, is human. Like all of us. Let’s give him the space he deserves. And sooner than later he will delight us. As he has been doing, all these years. Quite regularly. And as we all look forward with bated breath, I just have one message for him – take your time pal. And when you do score the 100^th. Century, savour the glorious moment. And I will join you in your quiet celebrations as you send a thankful prayer, heavenwards.

And quietly I will say thank you Sachin for entertaining us these long years. You have given us immense pleasure. You truly are Bharat’s anmol “Ratna”

From an unabashed and unapologetic Sachin Fan