Yes, he is an awesome batsman. Yes, he is GOD! and he is much more. But there are many instances where he is the devil.. not to me, not to you.. but to the people who matter - the young talented players.
Look at the recent match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. Every person who saw the match or heard about it or read about it is talking about Sachin. Almost every newspaper in India wrote in its headlines that Sachin's innings made the victory possible. It is Sachin in every article, in every status message, in every tweet and in every blog post. But does Sachin deserve it? (He definitely deserves much more for his career. But for yesterday's match?)
What did Sachin do?
He played a sensible innings by staying on till the end and asking other batsmen to take risks. By doing so, he scored 72 in 52 balls.
Yes, that is a great strategy. That is how he (or any other experienced player) should play ideally and he executed it with perfection. That won the Mumbai Indians victory. No doubts about that.
But....
What did Badrinath do?
He came in at a stage when Chennai were in trouble losing 2 quick wickets in 4th and 5th overs and stood at 38/2. He did exactly what Sachin did - to make sure that wickets did not fall and giving strike to Raina who played a wonderful innings.
I would rate his innings better than Sachin's simply because he was under much more pressure and has negligible experience compared to the master - even though he played exactly the same role as Sachin did, with comparable perfection.
What did Raina do?
He played an outstanding innings. He took Chennai from 38/2 in 5 overs to 180/2 in 20, making 83 not out off 52 balls. His, is obviously, the best batting performance of the match.
What did S Dhawan do?
He opened the innings along with Sachin and played the role which Sachin assigned him to perfection. He made 56 in 34 balls giving Mumbai a great start. It was he who went after the bowling and made it easier for Sachin and for every other MI batsman who came in later.
If not for his innings, Sachin's innings simply doesnt have a meaning. (Dont tell me that there would be plan-B. I am talking about what happened and what is happening after that happened.)
Unfortunately, no body is talking about the awesome performances of these young batsmen. All these future stars are being shadowed by the image and following of the little master.
Many such performances are going unnoticed. This might act as a serious threat to the growth of some good players.
Fortunately Mumbai won, and hence u talk bat sachin heroics..tell me an instance when they praise sachin when his team lost??? exacty the case with Chennai dudes..
ReplyDeleteMoreover if u believe sachin equals drawn in the first half and throw away his wicket as he did, i guess mumbai cant win that easily and people blame sacH..
since his 124 in australia till now all centuries he made, he stayed till end made sure his team won (except 175 vs aus) which was the quality that has been missing in him (critics name it) in his early days..
Got to remember, winning matters ...and if u admire his innings even if team looses, then throughout his career he been the best (therz been hell a lot of matches where he made sparkling centuries yet team managed to loose)
Dude, that is a problem created because of poor quality of sports-reporters and so-called sports critics. They know and use the fact that even a line on tendulkar, against him or in his favor, gets much more attention than an one-page article on raina or badri.
ReplyDeleteAnd for the reporting agencies, its hardly about what people read. For them, its all about how many times people hit their page or how many copies of their paper get sold!
@BT - I agree with what you said but I am afraid you completely missed my point!
ReplyDeleteI was not talking about the greatness of Sachin. I was talking about the threat which his image has created for young players. I am referring to how brutally media and his fans credited the victory to Sachin neglecting the efforts of Dhawan.
Imagine yourself slogging out day and night at office and coming up with a great idea and your manager hides your name and gets credit for that... How do you feel? Although Sachin did not do it intentionally, his fans did exactly the same to Dhawan.
Give some respect and recognition to players like him. Thats all I wanted to say!
@ Aditya: You are right. It is media on one hand.
ReplyDeleteBut I believe a bigger role is played by his fans. They were too excited to notice other player's performances after seeing Sachin make some runs.
Interesting that the post is titled damage being done by 'Tendulkar'
ReplyDeleteSpare the little man.. the damage is being done by media!
Ironically, and i am sure unintentionally, the title of this post commits the same mistake of using Tendulkar's name and grabs attention, although its not directly about the man himself, and points out lopsided media coverage of the match
@ Anonymous: 'Tendulkar' doesnt just refer to the flesh and blood of the little man. It includes many more things like image, market value, fan following, social status etc. associated with the name.
ReplyDeleteFor example:
Compare the title with "Tendulkar inspires children to take up cricket as career". That doesnt necessarily mean he personally talks to children and asks them to play cricket. It is just his fame and image that entices children to do it!
Similarly, it is his image and following that is enticing media and fans to ignore the performances of the small players.
I think Tendulkar's image is created by his performances accumulated over a long period. And now the whole country feel proud of having the most talented batsman in the world. Each of his performances strengthen this view and hence get an extra importance, which subsides an equal performance by someone else.
ReplyDeleteWell if this is the case, than blaming media is not correct, because media is only highlighting what people require. Further if try to say it is wrong of people to feel proud about having Tendulkar, than it would be not suitable. Probably this is the only way it is and it is true, that it is hard on youngsters.
@ Rahul: Perfectly said.
ReplyDeleteBrutal, but thats how it works.
If I can generalize this, it always happens when there is a star performer in your team with whom you cannot compete with. The area doesnt matter - be it acads, research, office, sports or anything else.