Now, who wants to be Sachin?

If  by any chance you had any doubts about Sachin Tendulkar‘s  popularity ( i.e. if you were born yesterday) , you can visit any school, anywhere in the whole of India and ask a class of students as to who wants to be “Sachin” when they grow up. You will not be surprised to see a majority of hands raised, with a beaming smile and a twinkle in the eye (although there is always the rare chess player, science freak,F1 and football fan who would say he/she hates cricket).

The name brings along with it numerous titles like  young-achiever, God of cricket, master-blaster, rich and famous celebrity, idol and many such adjectives, which entices every young Indian to dream of  being a “Sachin” someday. One true fact that we all know is that it takes a lot of effort to get to the place where Sachin shined on the International scene, for the first time . Yes, there is always a possibility that there may be another prodigy/player who can match his skill  and cricketing ability. However, this is actually not about how tough it is to get to the heights that Sachin reached two decades ago, but  its about ‘being Sachin’  and holding fort for more than two decades, which is the more difficult task.

What people do not realise is the burden of being “Sachin”. It’s not an easy act to carry off. Being under public scrutiny 24/7 for more than half of his life-time has takes it toll on Sachin. Simple things like walking in the park, family-outings, visiting theaters  has indeed become a luxury for him. Imagine the plight of a man who has managed to churn nearly 34000 international runs while being hounded constantly by fans and critics alike and being dogged by numerous injuries over the years.

All professionals have their share of privacy and family-space, which is not the case with Sachin. You might be a hard-working banker or a doctor, but you have your share of family time and privacy don’t you ? Imagine if  each unsuccessful trade of yours or every unsuccessful surgery at your hospital makes it to the headlines of all the leading daily’s across the country. Also, have you ever tried to  correlate the drop in the share prices of the company you work for, with the hard-work you put in each day? Why would you? You have done your bit, so why bother?

As a doctor,how would you feel if you are blamed for every death in the OT despite your best efforts? Well, you can always say that you did your duty and the rest was in God’s hands, but hey!  Sachin cannot get away, because he is God and he can’t give excuses. It’s your good fortune that the general population in India doesn’t understand much about surgeries or the high level trading that happens across stock exchanges.

Sachin’s dismissals in the recent matches is  a clear indicator of the constantly rising pressure that the poor man is put under. No, it’s not because of the age  that is said to be catching up with his game, it’s because of the breach of the levels of his tolerance, which is the reason for his recent poor show. How much can a man take, be it the pressure of maintaining appreciation or the impact of unfair criticism ? To be fair, this man has been a gem in not giving any excuses over the years, while constantly looking inwards for any room for improvement. There is no way that a Sachin Tendulkar with high levels of muscle memory ( comes with hundreds of hours of batting drills and simulations) would play all-over a straight ball and let it crash into his stumps . Well, he has always had a problem with the balls jagging back-in from length (but definitely not that straight ball), but hasn’t the little man masked it wonderfully to get the better of the opposition on most occasions? So why is he not able to mask it now ?

Well, it’s time we stop bothering him about his age and reaction-time. His reflexes are far better than those of the youngsters, who wet their pants at the thought of being targeted with some ‘chin-music’ and get out to a spinner in trying to get some freebies while they can, during their stint in the middle. Let Sachin play the rest of his games like what he did on his first tour with the “Mein khelega” attitude that he developed after being hit on his nose by a Younis  bouncer in 1989. Allow him to flow, give him the license to kill .It’s  high time we surrender our “license to kill” (the God of cricket ) and let him enjoy his game.

So, who wants to be Sachin ? …Anyone? Anyone at all ???