Wednesday, March 22, 2006

sachin tendulkar: the jawaharlal nehru of cricket

mar 19th

after a long string of poor scores, and the only big scores coming when they are useless, i bestow upon sachin tendulkar the title "jawaharlal nehru of cricket"

just like The First Prime Minister of India (TM), tendulkar is also lionized beyond all sense, and his failures and incompetence explained away by the sycophant/hagiographers.

i am reluctant to say this because all the folks who make cricket their main religion (ie. those brainwashed by the media) will jump on me and get into flame-wars. but it is true. the parallels between the two are fascinating. tendulkar too has accomplished nothing for the country, only created personal glory for himself.

11 comments:

kautilya said...

Not agreed Sir. Absolutely not. Imagine playing continously for 17 years, always under the microscope of lustily cheering fans.
He is human not machine.
He is a nationalist unlike Nehru. In the recent tour to Pakistan, the pakis, [as usual and deliberately] put the Indian flag upside down. Tendulkar went up to the authoraties and corrected it.[Nehru woudn't have bothered]

One of the oft repeated claims thats made about Tendulkar is that he never played for the team.. well then check this list

1] SA-India hero cup, last over to be bowled, SA require only 5 runs. Captain hands the ball to whom? Not to regular ballers but Sachin.

2] Sharjah 1997. India are on verge of being kicked out of the tournament. Sachin single handedly bull-dozes Aussie in two games conitously. India win the cup.

3] Sachin's first tour to Pak. He is only 16. Srikant, the Indian captain is on the other end. He is supposed to be an aggressive competitor. But what does he do? He tamely gives up.
Abdul Qadir the veteran paki baller pokes fun at Sachin and challenges him. Sachin responds with 3 massive sixes in front of Paki crowd.

I am sure someone can add atleast 5 more to this..

With age the reflexes go down. He is now 33 and has played continously for 17 years.

He was a bad captain no doubt. Unlike Sunil Gavaskar he is not selfish as he's made out to be. He is a team man for sure.

non-carborundum said...

Rajeev, don't talk like Navjot Sidhu.

schuncher said...

Sachin's contribution goes beyond his scores - his ability to lift the team's morale and his advice and assistance to junior team members during nets.

Anonymous said...

Rajeev,
Of all the things I nod my head reading your comments, this one I simply cannot. SRT's occassional failures at critical times are well known but no other player in any team sport (except probably Michael Jordan) is expected by his fans to win every single match for his team - that simply is not done and is in fact humanly impossible. Nehru gave away Kashmir, lost war to China and brought evils of socialism to our great country. Sachin is not a traitor, merely a very talented human being.

-Sage

iamfordemocracy said...

If Rajeev could write whatever he wrote about Sachin in this post, I can clearly see how hundreds of mediamen and politicians in India believe that Muslims and Christians are kind and Hindus are fundamentalists. The status of Hindus is similar to the status of Hindus....no amount of tolerance (in case of Hindus); and no amount of performance (in case of Sachin) is good enough for the hawkish observers. They just set the bar higher and declare that the subject has failed!!

nizhal yoddha said...

much as i expected -- you guys have a serious blind spot when it comes to tendulkar.

the question to ask is, "what have you done for me lately"

a ruthless question about performance. if he's not done anything *lately*, well then, drop the guy. otherwise he's just occupying space unnecessarily. it may well be that the playing life of a cricketer ends by the time he's 30. (this is roughly true of football players in the us). but indian cricketers make so much money that they don't follow the dictum: "old soldiers never die, they just fade away". they are so obsessed with greed and the limelight that they refuse to bow out gracefully.

i am not a fan of cricket, i find it absurd and boring. i never watch it. but i do look at the scores. so i know the big picture. which is that this game is sustained by indian money. no other country cares about it -- it's a distant third or fourth sport in the uk, australia etc.

also cricket is the monster that is causing all other indian sports to shrivel and die. people wonder why india is so bad at the olympics. answer: all the money for sports goes into cricket.

with this kind of money being spent on this apology for a sport, it is justifiable to ask for performance, too. non performers should be kicked out instantly, and there should not be any hand-wringing and breast-beating.

just think, just one of sachin tendulkar's product endorsements would pay for the entire upkeep of india's sailing team. remember the indian sailing team member (a woman) who committed suicide because she did not have money to train? this is why i find this inequity and unfairness so jarring. cricket is the black hole of indian sport, and the cricketers had better perform. they have no right to any excuses.

the problem is there is no disincentive for failure, just as for politicians. i suggested a good disincentive some time ago. every time the captain loses a major series, he'll have some (non-essential) body part removed. such as an earlobe or a nose. you bet there won't be too many people signing up for captain. and you bet there won't be too many series losses. there are such disincentives in other countries. in uruguay, i think, the person who hit a self-goal and got the nation eliminated from the world cup was shot to death on his return. i bet nobody will hit a self-goal in uruguay hereafter.

try not to be so emotional -- remember you guys have simply been wound up and brainwashed by the media into worshipping cricket and certain cricketers. they are not inherently worthy of this adulation. just step back and take an objective look and you'll see that i have a point.

yes, it's the messiah syndrome. you guys need to realize, sorry, we are fresh out of messiahs.

nizhal yoddha said...

iamdemocracy aka itsthebjpsfault, how come you are not demonstrating that sachin tendulkar's problems are also the result of something the bjp did? what happened? you losing your cutting edge?

daisies said...

it is such a relief to be reminded
of george bernard shaw's opinion
on cricket. it is a long time
since i heard that one.

i never liked the game, never
understood what the hoo-haa was
all about, and why cricketers
should be worshipped like
demi-gods. over the years, i
developed a kind of complex wrt
the game, because so many people
including intelligent ones, like
and relish it, and they actually
understand it.

i used to wonder what was wrong
with me, that i dont care for the
game even after trying so hard.
even my father in his retired
life managed to understand it
and enjoy it.

the only reason i am able to
accept it, is the unmistakable
joy it brings to some elderly
people who have spend a lot of
time indoors.

what a relief to see there are
several who feel that cricket is
not worth all this hoo-ha.

-

kautilya said...

just few quick points..

cricket is the villian, not tendulkar.

at the same time we cannot blame cricket for other sports failing to click with indian public...

every nation has one or two major sport/s that over shadow others. this phenomenon is not restricted to india..

but surely SRT does not deserve demi-god status. And i agree with DarkStorm, he should [and i think he will] retire after 2007 world cup.

indusAquarius said...

Rajeev's tirade against Tendulkar only reconfirms my belief that no one person is perfect nor are his/her views and/or opinions absolutely correct on ALL issues ALL the time.

Tendulkar is the chink in Rajeev's armour just like forcing beef-eating on hindus was the chink in Varsha's!

siva said...

Once again I agree with Rajeev….. Dhoni, Yuvraj and Kumble are better match winners than Tendulkar. Kaif used to be a good match winner but lately he is completely out of form. So I agree with Rajeev, Tendulkar is given a bigger than life image by media.