Seeing Sachin Tendulkar struggling against the English gives
me a sense of Déjà vu. It reminds of the last days of former Indian captain
Saurav Ganguly in the Indian cricket team. He too was fighting an Englishman by
the name of Greg Chappel—the then coach of the Indian team.
The only difference being that Ganguly was fighting Chappel
from outside the team as he had been literally kicked out by the coach while
Tendulkar is still in the team. And this is all because of the image and the aura
Tendulkar has.
No one has the guts to keep him out of the team when he is
not in form. That is just way we Indians are. We believe in idol worshipping and
for us cricket is a religion and Tendulkar is our god. But sadly, thanks to the
last several outings of the ‘god’ spread over many years, I am happy to say
that I have become an atheist.
The voices are growing across the cricket playing nations
demanding Tendulkar’s’ retirement and I am with them. He is almost 40, does not
have the stamina, confidence and focus that is required to play cricket today. It’s
not the 80’s or 90’ anymore, with the advent of T 20, even test matches today
have become result oriented and are exciting to watch.
Tendulkar averages 25 in the last nine test matches in 2012.
Apart from a 76 in Kolkata in the last test match, he had not scored a 50 in the
10 innings prior to that.
All his peers have retired long back because of similar
reason. But no, the ‘god’ won’t do it on his own and he knows that no one will
ask him as well.
More important is the fact that youngsters who are warming
the bench because of him are losing precious time to hone their skills. Talented
youngsters like Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Tiwari have been reduced to water boys
for the team.
Why can’t we Indian retire gracefully? Why do we have to be
pushed out? There is a saying “quit while you are ahead’, its high time for Tendulkar
to bid adieu to the game.
Surprisingly, Tendulkar was more than happy to retire from T
20 cricket when it came to the national team but not the IPL. Why? Simply
because of money.
Tendulkar know that the day he leaves Team India, the
endorsements are and multi-billion sponsorships are gone. So, to hell with the
future of youngsters he will fill his coffers.
There was a time when for me too Tendulkar was god. The
thought of an Indian team without him gave me the jitters. But I guess the
Indian team today can easily play and win without him.
In a blog written many months ago on the crisis between
Ganguly and Chappel, I had the same views that Ganguly should leave with his
head held high as he had achieved a lot and had a glorious career.
Similarly, Tendulkar should quit. You have earned enough;
name, fame and moolah and honestly you are doing more harm than good to the team.
