Should Sachin retire or not? Well, I am not going to answer
that now. However, If I am politically right. The question should be answered
by the BCCI and its members, that includes Indian cricket team Captain as well.
Let’s list some facts related to Sachin.
No, not his cricketing scores.
1.
Sachin is worshipped (if that means follow without
questions) around the world.
2.
Sachin is in the minds of people in every
cricketing nations . He is also in the minds of people who would want him to
retire.
So, that makes him a very high value sportsman to have in a
team. High value? Yes. Sponsors don’t spend the money on a team just because
they love the team and country. It is business. A team that has a high value
asset will be sponsored very well. You think I am wrong? Tell me , oh all the
Sachin worshippers and non-worshippers… how many times have you kept everything
aside just to watch Sachin bat? Do you see the commercials being played when
Sachin bats? They are pretty high value commercial and famous too. How much do
you think the BCCI earns from all this ? Well, that shows the BCCI’s reluctance
to not follow a plan for transitioning senior players to younger players. An
Indian captain can only work with what he has been given. He has very little
say when it comes to choosing the senior
players. Imagine what could possibly happen to the moral of that captain ?
One of the Sachin ‘worshiper’ told me that people who don’t know
anything or know very little about cricket should not comment on Sachins
retirement. Well my friend, your theory is something like, ‘People who don’t know
or know very little about science should not discuss Einstein or gravity.’ You
discuss, debate and ponder over an issue in everyday life. Did you need
practical experience to debate? I don’t think so. You say what you think. You
express your point of you. People can take it or leave it. No one has to the
right to stop anyone from expressing their point of you. You don’t need to be
an architect or understand engineering to admire or criticize a monument. May be watching monuments around
the world is just a hobby. Just like watching cricket.
I think majority of Sachin
followers belong to 2 groups. One group idolizes Sachin to an extent that they
think he is God. They don’t want anyone to question their faith or their God.
For them, God can do whatever he wants to do, because that’s what God do.
Otherwise, he would be human, isn’t it? Right, ok. The other group respects
Sachin. They love to watch Sachin bat. They respect him as a person on and off
the field. They respect him for being a greatest sportsman in cricketing
history. Like I said, they respect him as a “person”.
When you treat a sportsman as a person, you stop thinking of an individual and start
thinking of a team. A winning team. You start admiring a person for his
contribution to the team ‘at that moment’ and not in his past. If a player thinks
that he can rely on his past glory and blind followers then he will not go for
long. He will be dropped. To be dropped after contributing so much for so many years,
is surely painful and the second group of Sachins admirers understand that.
That is why they want him to gracefully retire. They don’t hate Sachin. They
respect him and they would want that respect to remain for ever. For the first category
of admirers, all that I can say is that, by making him God you have only set
his standards so high that he is not able to maintain it. If you want someone
to remain as God in your heart, don’t allow him to fail and push him to despair
by setting high hopes. Faith is in the heart of the Beholder.
Sachin once mentioned that, he made a choice and put in hard
work to become a cricket player and it is only he who has the right to say if
it is time to retire. That doesn’t sound like God at all. Cricket is not an
individual player game like tennis. You are just a link in the chain. A weak
link does not make a strong chain. It’s the BCCI who makes a decision based on
what is good for cricket. Perhaps at this moment they are concentrating on the
financial repercussion of dropping someone of his stature. It’s a typical mentality
isn’t it? “’Jithna din chalega, chalne do. Bhad mey jaaye honestly aur commitment”.
For them Sachin is a trump card, until everyone stops talking about him and the
media stops writing about him. And then when a player fades away… that’s the
time to drop. Imagine the players state of mind when he is dropped that way. I
am sure one would feel used. Isnt it then better to sign off at peak ?? Well,
only time…may have an idea. i.e only if ‘Time’ as a variable does exist :P
