Too Much Tendulkar

Minutes after the news broke that Sachin Tendulkar has decided to hang his boots after his yet to be played 200^th Test match, all hell broke loose on news channels; as if a disaster, a catastrophe has struck India. “Oh my God; the God of cricket is going to retire”- this refrain was not from a lover of the game of cricket but it came from all and sundry cricket pundits, commentators and the experts who carry self acquired Ph.D. in cricket.

I do watch cricket but not like a maniac. I am quite sure that many cricket fans are not as much upset as our cricket commentators and sports journalists are. Nobody is indispensable in this world. Cricket in India will not become an orphan after Sachin Tendulkar retires from first class match. There have been many great cricketers in India and in other countries who have left inedible mark after they retired from the game. May be cricketers like Poly Umrigar, Chandu Borde, Veenu Mankad, Lala Amarnath, M L Jasimha, Farooqe Engineer , Nari J Contractor, Vijay Majrekar, Ajit Wadekar and Pataudi did not make huge records of runs or matches, but all of them were great players who played cricket with style and grace. 

The hype created by the media on Thursday around retirement decision of Tendulkar left wondering if our journalist friends were writing an obituary of the cricketer who is still alive. Sachin, no doubt is a great cricketer who earned the applause of international audience and world cricketers. Even some world class bowlers like Shane Warne and others have praised Tendulkar. I don’t undermine his place in cricket book of records. But does it mean that nothing was happening in the world on October 10, 2013. Tendulkar, Tendulkar and Tendulkar; the news was full of it so was today’s newspapers who carried banner headlines. “God Bye… screamed one headline while there was ‘VOID” in another daily.

Too much cricket, too much Tendular.

~R. K. Sinha