If Tendulkar is god, Then I am an atheist.

Sachin Tendulkar is considered by many as the greatest batsman ever to have played the game of cricket. Only the legendary Sir Donald Bradman, who had a test average of 99.94 (Even he wouldn’t be able to get into SRCC), is considered an equal to him. Tendulkar holds almost all batting and appearance records in the five day and one day version of the game. In India he is considered nothing less than a god. This article is about why I hate him.

Let me say one thing first, I also agree that he is the best batsman of our generation. His statistics alone would prove it. If nothing else his longevity in the highest level of the game alone qualifies him for the title of legend. The guy started playing way back in 1989 when he was only 16 and is still going strong even after 22 years. So why is it that I hate Tendulkar? It is because of what he has made Indian cricket and its fans and in general Indian sports into.

When I was a kid, like every Indian boy, I was baptized into cricket and Sachin Tendulkar. I still remember the very first cricket matches I watched; it was a match between India and West Indies. I clearly remember one of the scenes when the cameraman zoomed into one of the bugs (a cricket most probably) on the ground. West Indies was batting first and I decided that I will support them because they had something similar to India in their name. Only later did I realize that the team that was bowling was India, and I duly switched my allegiance.

I used to be a big fan of Tendulkar when I was a kid. I watched him, adored him, idolized him, ate only ‘Boost’, said “Boost is the secret of my energy” along with him when the Ad came on TV and stopped watching the game when he got out as if nothing else mattered. Then came a time when he was out of the team for a long time due to a back injury. During this time, I became the fan of the other super star of the Indian cricket team at that time, Sourav Ganguly, and I never gone back to Tendulkar since.

The thing that I don’t get most about Tendulkar is why he is the only cricketer (except for players like Zaheer or Yuvraj who have common surnames), to whom Indians including Indian cricket commentators refer to by his first name. All Indians irrespective of there age, state or religion call him Sachin like he is somebody they know very close personally. Some of my friends have told me, during long arguments we used to have about Tendulkar that this is because he has a long surname. In that case, nobody called Hrishikesh Kanithkar, Hrishikesh, not that would have helped nor did anyone call Gavaskar, Sunil. In my opinion why we all call him Sachin is because that what we heard him being called in the numerous Ads that he has been and is continuing to be a part of. I am sure everyone remembers the ‘Boost’ Ad, where he says “When I was 16, there were nine fielders around me” or something like that and he drinks Boost and says that Boost is the secret of his energy and then blasts away the West Indian bowlers. Boost at that time came out with the tagline ‘The secret of Sachin’s energy’ because ‘The secret of Tendulkar’s energy’ wouldn’t sound catchy enough. This is how I think all of us Indians started to call him Sachin.

Another thing I don’t like about Tendulkar is that for a batsman of his caliber and experience he very often fails to perform under pressure or when he is most needed by his team. In the first 10-15 years of his career he did play many memorable knocks, made many great hundreds, but these where most during times when the pressure was not very high on him. When it came to crucial matches like finals etc, when India wanted the best batsman in the world to step up and deliver and be the god that he is supposed to be, he often cracked and failed to come up with a good performance. Also the short period he was captain of the Indian cricket team proved that he couldn’t take pressure. This was the time when he has the worst numbers in his career till date. I am not saying this is a fault of his. Leadership quality is something you are born with and not everyone is a Steve Waugh or MS Dhoni. But to the latter part of his career, that is, during the last 5-6 years he seems to be playing more knocks that are good for his team rather than only for him. There have been a lot of occasions where he has steped and saved the Indian team when they were in grave danger. Also he is performing a very good job as the captain of his IPL team, Mumbai Indians. So it took a cricketer who has been playing since he was 16 more than 15 years to learn to handle pressure? Is that the stuff of legends?

Another thing about Tendulkar which I hate is the way he stalls his innings when he reaches the 90’s irrespective of what position his team is in. I agree that almost all batsmen in the world do this, but I haven’t noticed any other batsman who undergoes such a huge change of style and pace in his batting when he reaches his 90’s. It is like all he cares about is his century and not his team.

The thing I hate most about Tendulkar is what he has made Indian cricket and its fans. He or the people who are with him have transformed Indian cricket into nothing but another place where corporate companies can invest in and get a good return. There is no longer any romance in Indian cricket. It is just a meaningless exercise for some people to make money. Most cricket fans in India stop watching a cricket match when Tendulkar gets out. My hostel common rooms would be full on match days, but as soon as Tendulkar got out the room would be empty except for 2 or 3 people. So are we a nation of cricket fans or just Tendulkar fans? Do we want India to win a match or will Tendulkar making a century do?

When India won the cricket world cup a few months back, I like everyone else thought that Tendulkar will retire at least from one day cricket. But he didn’t retire saying that he loves the sport too much for him to stop playing it. I am not saying that he should have retired; he is playing some of his best cricket now. But personally I think he didn’t retire because of the huge financial losses he would have in sponsorship and Ads if he retires from the sport. Tendulkar’s marketability is so huge that any product that he endorses is sure to be a hit with the Indian consumers.

This wild craze of cricket by Indians has rendered other Indian sports and sportspersons moot. There are many sportspersons in India who have made similar achievements in their chosen sport like Tendulkar has done in cricket, but they never get any media coverage or the spotlight. Does anyone know who Marykhom or Pankaj Advani is?

The 2000th test match is now being played between India and England in Lord’s now. Everyone is hoping that Tendulkar will make his hundredth hundred in this test. One of my friends had tweeted on the first day of the test “Fletcher’s 100th test as coach, India’s 100th test against England and of course the 100th hundred of the master”. I kindly reminded him that this was also the 2000th test, something worth mentioning and that not everything is about India and Tendulkar to which his reply was “for me that’s just something down the importance list”.

All in all, I agree that Tendulkar is a very good batsman, probably the greatest of all time, if not, at least of our generation. But if he is a God, then I am an atheist.

P.S: To all my friends, please don’t kill me. You are welcome to post your comments. I will not be replying to anyone of them as I have finished my lifetime quota of arguments with others on just this one topic.