I was waiting in my car at a traffic junction near the Chepauk stadium on Sunday, trying to get in. I was in one of may be 5,000 other cars.

Suddenly, the Indian team bus drove by. Sachin was plugged into his ipod and probably lost in the world of Dire Straits.

Immediately, all of us honked to try and get His attention. Must have sounded like Armageddon.

Once at the stadium, I felt like Osama trying to get into the Pentagon building. Surely, a metal detector and two body searches are a tad too much for a cricket match. Anyway, I finally got in, to find that Chepauk had metamorphosised into Adelaide. What's with the conical roofs Mr.Srinivasan?

The teams lined up for the national anthems. When ours was being played, the camera zoomed into Sachin's face as he sang along. Immediately, the 2,000 cops, maamis , fishermen, clerks, opinionated elders, war-painted youth and six-month-old infants who filled the stadium, all had goose bumps.

When He got out for two, He got a standing ovation. The kind Gambhir gets when he makes 200.

Then, He came out to field and Oh happy day, He was posted at deep-midwicket right under our noses at the T3 stand. Boy, were we happy!

Once when He fielded the ball, there were audible gasps from the girls in the front row.

Then, for some unfathomable reason, Dhoni switched him to sweeper-cover. The D stand could barely conceal its glee. We glowered at them for the rest of the match.

Meanwhile, India had a batting collapse, and then the Windies had one. Reportedly some left hander also got a century.

To the shock and horror of the entire stadium, somebody else got the Man-of-the-match award. I am pretty sure I saw a burning Ravi Shastri effigy in the parking lot.

Seriously, drop Sachin. He is a distraction to his teammates. He turns priorities upside down.

Pick somebody who will not draw attention to himself.

Sreeshanth?

(The author is Managing Partner, WOC Advertising, and director of the movie Tamizh Padam).

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