Published: Feb 16, 2011, 01:01 PM (IST)
Edited: Jul 02, 2014, 10:54 AM (IST)
By Rahul Roushan
Please note: This is a humorous piece – pure fiction.
Inspired with what ordinary folks can achieve if they stick together for a common cause, fans of Sachin Tendulkar have decided to speak out against those dictatorial umpires who rule the Little Master out showing utter disregard for popular sentiments and beliefs. Tendulkar fans have already started collaborating on social networking websites and are all set to break into Egypt-like protests the moment an umpire rules India’s cricketing legend out.
“We have been tolerating this tyranny for 22 long years, since Tendulkar made his international debut,” 21-year-old Imran said, comparing the tyrannous regime of anti-Tendulkar umpires with that of Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for 29 years.
Tendulkar fans believe this was a no-ball that was not given by some tyrannous umpire
“Enough is enough!” declared Imran, wearing a Pepsi blue T-shirt with “Change the game” written over it.
As per the planned events, the moment Tendulkar is given out “wrongly”, fans would start assembling on a designated “Tendulkar Square” in that city, preferably on the ground itself as well as just outside the stadiums, and refuse to disperse unless the umpires overturn their decision.
“Right, this is not much different from what used to happen earlier, say during the 1996 World Cup semi-final in Eden Gardens,” Samit, another Tendulkar fan said. “But this time, we are not going to give up or be apologetic about it. The voice of people has to reign supreme.”
Fans also point out that unlike on earlier occasions, the newer protests would also be supplemented with latest social media tools and activism, thus giving it a legitimate character.
“We are going to make hashtags like #JusticeForTendulkar trend globally on Twitter, while millions would join our protests on Facebook,” informed Samit, “We are already using Google maps and Wikimapia to mark places in and around the stadiums as Tendulkar Squares.”
“This is Revolution 2.0,” he added.
Since everyone, except Tendulkar himself, has declared this World Cup as being his last one, Tendulkar fans are also hoping to garner popular emotional support from people cutting across all divides.
Fans have rejected the criticism that their planned events were unlawful or amounted to vandalism, and have claimed that they were forced to take this decision as their long pending demands have been being constantly ignored by the cricket administrators as well as the rest of the world.
(Rahul Roushan, is a graduate from IIM Ahmedabad, who goes by the name of “Pagal Patrakar” (that’s “Crazy Journalist” in Hindi). Rahul says for him, “satire is an attempt to point out shortcomings or oddities in our society, ideally with a message and intent for betterment, in a non-hostile manner and without sounding overtly accusative or pontificating.” He is the Managing Editor of www.fakingnews.com from where the above article has been sourced with permission)
