The Hindu Business Line : For some, cricket begins & ends with Sachin

RUNS are his metier, his empire. As 2003 turns an old calendar, Sachin has no empire like a reporter without stories to show off. On Sunday, when the Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly walked on to the rather morose and sternly cemented Melbourne Cricket Ground ahead of Sachin, as cover for Sachin, one's heart walked out of the cricket proceedings. You can, if you want, call Saurav a fine captain, prepared to shield a lost emperor.

At one corner of the front room, my son Ganesh was praying to Ganpati Bappa and in between the on rush of tears he reminded the family that it was the same Sachin, who some years ago, snatched the cricket ball from his captain Azza to bowl the death over in a one-day cricket match. He is the lone batsman in the Indian team to keep his eyes on every fast ball hurled at him by be it Lee, Shoaib, McGrath or Donald; somewhere Greg Chappell has said he is weak on pace. Prove it Greg with facts.

Lachman Singh sat staring at the TV screen hoping for Sachin to materialise from nowhere to smash the ball straight down the pitch. It did not happen and Lachman sat still. The problem with Lachman Singh, like for a billion Indians, is that cricket begins and ends with Sachin. On Monday, the TV screen showed clippings of Sachin talking with Sunil Gavaskar even as Tendulkar knows that nothing will help except more batting. In Australia, the 30-year-old cricketer has scored three centuries on two tours to Australia and in his third Test tour, he has yet to score a 50. On Monday, he looked like teasing the Australian bowlers to the boundary but that was not to be. Dropped twice, he chased an outgoing ball from Brad Williams, which on better days he would have left alone or played on the back foot, to start a depressing and unquiet walk back home. No man or woman on Monday looked more deserted than Sachin at Melbourne Cricket Ground. Never has he walked so alone. The God, for this writer, had become a man.

Some say Sachin's stars have turned unkind; but Sachin is one who can get the stars locked in heavens to do his bidding. In no interview has Sachin bared himself. One doubts if anyone knows him well. For around 15 years now, the 30-year-old has played cricket and maybe that is telling on him. Maybe the thought of never having been able to win a match on his own like Laxman in Eden Gardens and Dravid in Adelaide could have tripped his ego and no emperor can do without a massive ego.

The commentators were voluble about the "horror" tour of Sachin and only Wasim Akram was to the point saying, "all of us have gone through such a phase." Recently one has been reading T.G. Vaidyanathan's Penguin paperback, Mr Naipaul's Round Trip & Other Essays. There are some good pieces on cricket and at one place the essayist writes, "the age of chivalry and propriety was ending and the now dominant ethos of totalitarian cricket had arrived with its attendant brutality of cold and steely purpose." For a Mumbaikar like Sachin, "cold and steely purpose" is something routine to be faced everyday, while doing a rugby tackle to get into a packed local train.

The fun and smile comes only after getting leg or elbow space in a morning or evening local but not before. Somewhere Sachin has admitted to being a middle class Maharashtrian with the quality norms which go with that description. Sachin lives in luxury now but not when he started as the Bandra boy.

And then in the essay, "Keating in Paradise," Vaidyanathan writes of Boycott's dismissal by Holding in West Indies. "Saddest of all is that terrible Saturday night at the hotel after the dismal Bridgetown blob when he has that devastating Holding over played over and over again on the TV monitor when "for a split second you thought the off-stump might spear the heart of the wicketkeeper." Something like that has happened to Sachin and one cannot blame Steve Bucknor, the West Indian umpire for it. Sachin has none to blame.

The defeat at Melbourne will place India and Australia on par, a result none thought a month ago. It can be safely said no Indian cricket team has played or at least fought better in Australia, even if we lose at Sydney (this writer is betting on India to win). That too without a Sachin, a thought which will hurt and haunt Sachin forever. No dry cleaning can wash away the stain on Saching. 2004 can only be better for Sachin and a billion are praying for him as Sachin in India Shining. Its prized icon.

More Stories on : Sports | Reflections | People

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
For some, cricket begins & ends with Sachin

Far from the madding crowd

A new dawn?