Still a long way to go
Sachin Tendulkar
By
Vimal Kumar |
“Genius
does what it must, talent does what it can” Owen Mereditch
People always have mighty
expectations from genius. Sometimes unrealistic, too.
They wish to fulfill their dream by someone who is genius.
Their hero. For millions of cricket lovers in India, Sachin
Ramesh Tendulkar is perhaps the finest creation of God,
if not the ultimate. But alas, the man hasn’t delivered
to that extent as we hoped for.
Doubtless,
Sachin is the most charismatic and courageous cricketer
around yet he has to prove many things. Ever since the
venerable Sir Donald Bradman has publicly acknowledged
the striking resemblance of his batting style in Sachin’s,
the entire nation went berserk in heaping praise over
Sachin. Suddenly, Sachin became larger – than –life figure.
Little importance was given to the fact that apart from
winning some ‘home Test’ matches and some great wins on
the benign pitches of the sub-continent, his contribution
was not as magnificent as the crazy media made us to believe.
Of
course, Sachin’s calibre as a great batsman is beyond
doubt but so far he hasn’t been able to translate his
enormous potential into epoch-making performances, where
he can be bracketed along with the likes of Don Bradman
and Garry Sobbers.
Isn’t
it a cruel agony that despite having such a phenomenal
cricket India hasn’t been able to win a test-series abroad
(Read: outside the sub-continent) in past 14 years? At
this point apologist may argue that cricket is a team-game
and Sachin alone can’t be held responsible for that. Well,
but when an Arvinda De Silva or a Chris Cairns can win
matches with individual brilliance for their respective
teams, why not our Sachin. Undoubtedly, always a mile
ahead from his contemporaries.
The
other question is that-Has he been hyped a bit too much?
Or is he being exaggerated by the media? There is some
point here. When have we seen Sachin battling in the fourth
innings to save a test match? Barring one or two matches,
it is a rarity. Giving one’s best when chips are down,
which is the very hallmark of a champion, is unfortunately
not the case with Sachin. In this regard, performance
of Steve Waugh and to an extent Brian Lara’s is more striking.
If we allow ourselves to go in
the pages of history, our very own Sunil Gavaskar in this
regard is awesome, indeed. Authoring epic hundreds against
the best fast bowling attacks ever in the history of the
game, he astounded the whole world. Comparing two individual’s
performances and that too, played in different era is
not only hazardous but also unfair. Yet it is not too
astonishing to hear from old timers that Sunil’s performance
is test matches is more enviable.
This article is not mean to belittle
the greatness of Sachin. It is not that he is incapable
of playing heroic knocks in crunch situation or in the
testing condition that will give India its ‘first abroad
test’ victory after a gap of more than a decade. He is,
and definitely will. But so far, it has come in bits and
pieces and even the staunchest fan of Sachin will admit
it.
Or
may be we are expecting too much too often and not realizing
that he is only a human. But huge expectations will always
be there whenever he bats for India. That is the only
small price he has to pay for his unmatched adulation
and unparalleled adoration from his countryman.
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