The Hindu : Sport : Tendulkar doesn't deserve this

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 24, 2006

Sport

Sport

Tendulkar doesn't deserve this

Even in his darkest hour, India ought to celebrate Sachin's career

PETER ROEBUCK

Spectators who booed Sachin Tendulkar off the field last week in Mumbai ought to be ashamed of themselves. These people imagine that the price of a ticket bestows upon them the right to caterwaul. They don't deserve to be located in the same ground or country as an outstanding sportsman who has served with distinction and always with absolute commitment.

What kind of people are these creatures who rail against a fine batsman fallen upon hard times? What malcontent ails them as they leave their homes to undertake another day of condemnation from the safety of the stands where no man every played a bad shot or felt the thud of leather on bone?

It is in the field that the glories are secured and the risks taken. It is a place as lonely as a stage, and can be harder than the boardwalk because the lines have not been written. Upon a field a player is as naked as a child who plunges into a rural river.

Except that he has a longer way to fall, Tendulkar is the same as everyone else. Except that he has suffered an injury and lost form and confidence, he has done nothing to offend supporters. Is he not to be allowed his humanity? Has some law been passed that demands from great sportsmen that they remain in a constant state of excellence? Might not his eyes occasionally let him down, or his feet, or his judgement? Is it not possible that in middle age, with his mind full of the concerns of fatherhood, that he finds it harder to concentrate? Sometimes it seems that top sportsmen are preserved in aspic, at any rate in the imaginations of followers. They want them to remain forever young.

Bad spells are part of the game. Always have been and always will be. They are a reminder of the fine line trodden by all sportsmen, but especially by batsmen whose fortunes can change in a single delivery. Suddenly the game is not fun anymore but an ordeal to be endured in front of a vast audience.

Money is not the answer

Most people can suffer in private. Sportsmen are granted no such luxury. Eventually the bat starts singing again and then the player remembers why he puts himself through it. Although man's motivations change as time passes, money is not the answer. In most cases it is for the feeling that success brings of standing on top of a mountain.

Suppose Tendulkar is suffering not a mere bad patch and his career is unwinding. Suppose that his best days are behind him. Suppose that the mind is willing but the body and the spirit have been exhausted beyond a good night's sleep or a month in dry dock. When supporters ought to be comforting a great cricketer they are chastising him.

And in Mumbai this happens? In Mumbai where they know the game so well and have seen so many cricketers rise and fall. Many years ago, surrounded by cameras and questions, granted not a moment's peace, Bob Dylan sighed, ``let them bring on the next Bob Dylan. Let's see how long he lasts.'' Even in his darkest hour, India ought to celebrate Sachin Tendulkar's astonishing career. Oh, and by the way, he did manage to score more runs than any colleague in the second innings of that same match in Mumbai.

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