Why Sachin Tendulkar can never win!

After the recent loss against South Africa there were the usual recriminations (mostly justified) against a lot of the team – Munaf and Nehra for their bowling, Dhoni for his captaincy and the Indian batting for their stellar 29-9 performance. As was to be expected however, there were also the comments and articles about Sachin Tendukar’s role in the loss with some people criticizing him for going slow in the middle overs, others for getting out when he did (the implication being that the 29-9 was all his fault) and others pointing out how India never wins when he scores well. There’s no way out for him, is there?

I feel when it comes to Tendulkar there are three categories of people. One, the vast majority of non Indians and very small minority of Indians – who consider him a great player and just that. Two, the type for whom he is God and they don’t care about anything else – whether India does well, poorly, loses, wins, etc. If Sachin scores a 100 all is forgiven. They perhaps believe in Neville Cardus’s famous prayer about Victor Trumper (“God let Trumper score a century in an Australian total of 137 all out”) but only in the first half of it (“Let Sachin score a century, yaar…baaki sab bekaar”). Three, the type for whom he is the epitome of selfishness – “how can one achieve as much as he has without being selfish” seems to be their thought process. And unfortunately nothing the man can do can ever change their mind.

So, I was thinking how else could these people criticize Sachin in various scenarios during the rest of his career

• India wins the world cup and Sachin plays a blinder in the final

“Let’s not forget that cricket is a team game. Would Sachin have been able to play that innings if “Sehwag/Zaheer/ Dhoni” hadn’t done so well in the “QF/SF” and got us to the finals in the first place?”

• India wins the world cup but Sachin gets out cheaply

“See, come crunch time he never delivers. Finally it was because of “Gambhir/ Harbhajan/Pathan” that we won – what did Sachin do?”

• India loses in the world cup (at some stage) in spite of a heroic effort by Sachin

“Sachin can’t finish, yaar. He can’t get you over the line. He’s not like Brian Lara. Once again he couldn’t deliver.” (Why an opener is expected to finish has always been beyond me. And as for Lara’s much vaunted ability to finish please have a look at http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2010/12/lara-crunch-innings-urban-legend.html)

• India loses in the world cup (at some stage) with a poor effort by Sachin in the final game

“What’s the point of scoring all these centuries in the group games? He never delivers in the key moments.”

• India wins the world cup and Sachin retires from cricket

“He’s so selfish – just because he’s won the world cup now he doesn’t care about the team anymore.”

• India does not win the world cup and Sachin retires from cricket

“How petty! Just when India needs his experience after not doing well at the world cup he’s decided to quit. Just shows that he was only motivated by the thought of winning the world cup for himself and not concerned about the team.”

• Sachin continues to play after the world cup and keeps scoring

“He’s so selfish – is not letting new talent have a chance. Does he expect to keep playing till the next world cup?”

• Sachin continues to play after the world cup but his form drops a bit

“He’s finished now – he may as well do the honourable thing and retire.”

• Sachin finally decides to retire and announces it in advance

“This is all a media strategy – just to make sure that everyone focuses on him for one last time. How demotivating for all the other players.”

• Sachin finally decides to retire and announces at the end of a series that it is his last

“How can he suddenly spring this on the entire team? Surely, they needed more time to plan out a succession strategy. How selfish of him to just want to go out in a blaze.”

• Sachin retires and then takes up a media role with ESPN/Sky/Channel 9

“The game has given him so much – why doesn’t he give back to the game by coaching or something? But no, he just wants to make more money.”

• Sachin finally decides to retire, tells the team management in advance but announces it to the world after the series; and then says that he will take the next couple of years off to spend time with his family before deciding what to do next

I must admit that I really cannot think of how this can be construed negatively.

But I have full faith in the detractors of Sachin Tendulkar - when new depths of absurdity are found they will sink to them!!