Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Shocking

As a fan of Sachin Tendulkar, I was shocked to see a section of the Mumbai crowd jeering and booing him on his walk back to the pavilion after his dismissal in the Mumbai Test. The behaviour was as boorish as it was ungenerous. As pointed out in the article, "Trashing Tendulkar isn't cricket" (March 21), Sachin never claimed to be invincible. What he needs at a time like this is our support and sympathy, that too not for his sake but for the sake of good cricket.

C.P. Srinivasan,
Chennai

The Mumbai crowd's behaviour is absolutely unacceptable. Have we lost respect for our heroes? People seem to have forgotten what Sachin means to the country and this saddens me.

J. Mahesh Kumar,
Tirupur, T.N.

The incident shows how one-day cricket, with its instant results, has taken over our minds. Many who come to watch cricket matches do not even have a knowledge of the game or how it is played. They elevate some players to the level of super heroes after some big hitting, forgetting that Sachin was the pioneer. The booing of Sachin reflects the nature of the city where success is all that matters.

K. Srinivas,
Visakhapatnam, A.P.

True, it was the people who turned Sachin into some sort of superhuman phenomenon. But did he not gain from that image substantially? If he gained because of our adulation and hero worship, he certainly deserves our booing too.

B. Ravichandran,
Chennai

Unfortunately, during his stay at the Mumbai wicket Tendulkar looked anything but a champion. That is why the crowd booed him. Cricket is no more a gentleman's game.

Badri Seshadri,
Chennai

Champions get booed when spectators suspect either callousness or insincerity on their part. While their past performance can be a solace to them, it cannot offer `Z' category protection against booing from disappointed fans. Accusing them of pettiness is arrogance that deserves to be booed as well.

Titus John,
Tiruvalla, Kerala

Why has India given Sachin adoration and adulation beyond compare; riches beyond imagination; and love and affection that few get in their lifetime? So that when the team is in a crisis, he doesn't battle it out but flirts with a wide ball plunging it into a deeper crisis? The booing merely reflected the disgust of India's cricket lovers.

S.R. Madhu,
Chennai

The image that has been etched in the minds of the people is not that of Sachin the cricketer but that of Sachin the superman. Such images of sportspersons are built assiduously to exploit them commercially. The booing was the price Sachin paid for all his fame and money outside cricket. It is about time the media appreciated that cricket constitutes only a small part of life of a very small section of the population and learnt to treat it as such.

A. Anand,
Chennai

I don't understand why the author is so worked up about Tendulkar's booing and compares it to the Taj with minor cracks in the wall. No one is saying he is not a great player but this is sport. How else are the people expected to criticise the players who perform badly? Through journalists who write three-four paras in a paper or talk for 15-30 minutes on TV? Sachin knows people will react and he will take the incident in his stride. He has got the message that he is expected to play well.

Arunachalam Narayanan,
Bryan, Texas

The crowd booed because its god failed once again. Sachin has to accept the bitter truth that his era has ended.

Raji Mani,
Mumbai

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