“For the first time in life, I am disappointed with Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. I don’t want to be vocal about it and hence am telling only a few people”, said a very close friend of mine.
“If he is disappointed with Sachin, Sachin must have definitely committed some crime”, I thought. For all I know about this friend of mine, he is the true testimony of the statement that in India, cricket is a religion and Sachin is God. He knows every statistic of Sachin by heart and can recollect any moment in history about Sachin at any time of the day, or night. He supported every team Sachin played for (read Mumbai Indians), and his wardrobe was full of Team India or Mumbai Indians merchandise. For him, Sachin truly is God.
I tried to enquire the reason behind his disappointment, and came to know that Sachin’s decision to withdraw from the Test Series against West Indies. The announcement had come towards the end of the IPL season. With the Indian team already missing out on the services of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra et al, this was a huge blow. Sachin was already rested from the ODI and T20 series, but was expected to join the team in time for the Test Series.
People started speculating the reasons behind Sachin opting out of the Windies tour. Some said that he wanted his most awaited 100th International Century to come at Lords, the Mecca of cricket against a formidable opposition and not against a weak opposition like the West Indies. Conspiracy theorists would have come with a hundred other (il)logical replies, but Sachin chose to put a rest to speculation and said that he wanted some rest and wanted to take some time off cricket in order to spend some good quality time with his kids.
“What was he doing, when the whole IPL was going on? He could have opted out of it and stayed back with his family and kids and spent time with them then. Country should always come first and everything else should come later”, he said. It wasn’t difficult to sense his anger and frustration at that point of time.
Was it the money in the IPL which had attracted Sachin? I really doubt Sachin would be after money at this point of time in his career. Was it the relatively lesser amount of cricket that needed to be paid in IPL vis-à-vis the Test Series, that prompted his decision? Maybe, maybe not. Is Sachin experiencing any signs of ageing? Could be. Or has he achieved everything he possibly can? Not really. Time and Sachin are the only places where you can expect answers.
1 comment:
Sachin realised that it is hard to pull out of a domestic competition (IPL) where majority of his admirers would be expecting him to play (if not perform) .. and yes, the current West Indies team looks more like West Indies 'A' team .. its not about the big names but about big performers (esp. Pollard .. who is very very good on paper) ..
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