Sachin Tendulkar haters, eat humble pie!

Sachin has singlehandedly shouldered the burden of carrying the team on his shoulders.

By Dhananjay Devasper

There’s a saying “The more successful you are, the more enemies you make”. In Sachin Tendulkar’s case it’s quite the opposite. With a single- minded devotion to his craft, he has the most number of devoted cricket fans across the globe.

While many of the global sport icons may have fallen by the wayside either in terms of character or craft (like Tiger Woods, or a number of English footballers), Tendulkar continues to amaze everyone with the mastery of his craft at the ripe young age of 37.Despite all of this, there are a number of demented minds, especially in our country, who just love to hate Sachin Tendulkar and put up Facebook pages to garner support against the icon.

Some accuse him of being selfish and playing for himself and never taking a stand. Someone who has scored 99 international centuries does not need to. He has already made his stand clear. He loves to play the game, he loves to make runs and he loves to win games. And if that makes him selfish, then you have to love that kind of selfishness where the team benefits.

For too long there has been a criticism that he has not been a “big match” player. A lot of this criticism emanated and gathered steam after the 2003 World Cup final, where he got out early. However, what the haters don’t realize is that ever since Tendulkar has donned Indian colours, he has single-handedly taken the pressure on himself to score truckloads of runs and ease the pressure on the rest of the team.

And if Matthew Hayden can say, “I have seen God, he bats at No 4 for India in Tests”, it’s time we bow our heads in reverence to his genius.

Try living up to the expectation of 1 billion cricket crazy for 20-plus years of your life! It can make mere mortals crack, but not someone who has been anointed as the “God of Cricket”. We expect our icons to become freedom fighters, and take a moral stand on anything remotely associated with the business they are in, especially in India. It was the same with the Indian Freedom struggle against the British, where we waited for leaders to rise. It’s the same with Tendulkar.

He’s expected to have an opinion on anything that goes on in cricket and expected to do something about it. Let’s be clear about one thing, Tendulkar is in the business of playing the game and not administrating it. Which brings us to a question: Why do some people hate Tendulkar? The reasons are easy to list down. For starters there is jealousy and the fact that you can’t stand someone’s success.

Secondly, the best way to get attention is to attack a respected personality, put up Facebook pages against them and try to convince one and all that the attention he is not worth it. Nothing sells like negativity! The colossal and frivolous Public Interest Litigations in India bear testimony to the fact. Add to this an overzealous, 24×7 media that is ready to pick up any story that is sensational.

For all the Tendulkar haters, I have a simple message: Take your hate away from Tendulkar and use that force against the real ills that plague the country… like corrupt politicians, scamsters, goons in politics et al. Or will you wait for another leader to emerge?!!!

Stay tuned.

(Dhananjay Devasper is an “IT guy” by profession and a sports fanatic at heart. He has an unbridled passion for sports and Indian achievements in sport. Extremely opinionated, he attempts offering perspectives around sports which are simple to understand and easy to relate with)

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