Tendulkar - An extreme case of Hero Worship. Review on Sachin Tendulkar

The De-Constructing of Sachin Tendulkar “Supposedly the worlds greatest Player”

There is something that I have been wanting to get off my chest for a long long time now and I think this is the best time to do it. The absolute worship and adulation of Sachin Tendulkar is slowly but surely starting to get on my nerves. The way he is treated in India is nothing short of a demi-god. Now I will be the first one to admit that he is a great batsman and a brilliant team player but the kind of hype and aura that surrounds him is just un-real. According to the legion of Sachin fans, whatever their hero does is right, he can never do and will never do any wrong. He doesn’t have a single bad bone in his body and he would be the ideal son for the millions of mothers in India. Now would someone tell me, what has he done to deserve this kind of recognition? Now I am expecting people would come up with things like, he is the highest run-getter in one-day internationals, he has got more hundreds than any other player and has made India proud on several occasions. I will give you each and every one of that. But do all those achievements still deserve the accolades he gets. No way.

I wont say that he is over-rated, but he is getting undue fame and recognition, which he does not fully deserve. There are several other cricketers around the world who have won more matches for their country than Sachin ever has or ever will. What he has done is made a heapful of runs but in the crunch situations he has faltered more often than not. The only tight situation out of which he truly came out in flying colors was in Sharjah against Australia. That was the hallmark of an absolute champion and he fully deserves all the praise he ever got for it. But for how long?

After the Sharjah performance Tendulkar has been his brilliant self but has hardly won any matches for his team. Not to mention the fact that he was a failure as a Captain of his side. A Captain is one who can marshal his troops and lead by example and lets face facts Tendulkar could not do it. He failed miserably time and again. Critics said his batting suffered as a result of the added burden of captaincy. So how come the same hasn’t happened with Saurav Ganguly. I will tell you why, because you don’t expect that much from Saurav, you just consider him as a normal human being, it’s OK for him to fail. But Sachin, no way. He is the Champion, he is the little master, he just cannot fail. That word is not supposed to be in Sachin’s dictionary. Oh for god’s sake wake up and smell the freaking roses. He is a human being after all and he will just like the rest of us fail and succeed. You have gotta learn to accept that and live with it. So stop putting so much of pressure on you favorite hero and he will do just fine. Sachin himself says that he loves carrying the hopes and dreams of a million people on his shoulders, but you know all that is crap. He could do with a lot less pressure and expectations and all you guys who believe in cult Sachin can help your hero and yourself by just treating him a like a normal human being.