When God Became A Mere Mortal

I had been itching to write this one for quite some time now. But then I had been busy publicizing my previous blog all this while. Also I wanted some time off before I write this one so that the spur-of-the-moment reactions do not appear. That would have made me appear more cynical than I already am. I had been encouraged to write on a number of articles like Woolmer’s death and other abstract sounding ones but this one is particularly close to my heart.

Let’s rewind back to the 22^nd of April 1998. A young man just shy of his twenty-fifth birthday single-handedly decimates the single biggest obstruction under immense pressure. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was setting up a carnage that had Tony Greig’s voice cracking like never before. It was the day he was handed down the ephithet of “Modern day Bradman”. He was accorded a special place in the pantheon of the select few. For those doubting Thomases that remained he repeated the feat proving it was no mere flash-in-the-pan. The victory was gained against the Aussies, mighty then but not yet unconquerable. His caution-to-the-wind approach and supreme confidence in stepping out and hoisting a certain Shane Keith Warne was simply a treat for the eyes. And I had found my first significant real life hero.

In the days that followed the star status only grew. One must note that it wasn’t that a completely new man had emerged that day from a shell. It was just that he had given a supreme example of skill in his art.

However no one knows what prompted him to do so, but he now donned the senior player’s role. Probably a bit too early I feel. He curbed his attacking instincts and mellowed down. His statistics bloated to unimaginable numbers yet he wasn’t the same. All who had witnessed that innings would vouch for that. He had set the bar so high that he started to fail not as a batsman in the true sense of the word, yet became less exciting. He had climbed down the steps from God-hood to mere mortality. And so the years meandered by till came the World Cup 2003 in South Africa. It was one of those tournaments that brought out the best in the man. And boy, did he look like of the yore!! Driving on the up, stepping out, all that was pleasing about the man was back. That innings against Pakistan was probably the second best I have ever seen him play. Though dismissed shy of a century, it was one of the innings where the bowlers were truly afraid to bowl to him.

But then the tournament ended and so did the man’s master class. His 241 at Sydney, his highest Test score was probably the most insipid performance of his. Hardly did he touch a ball outside off-stump and the tempo of his innings never gained momentum. However I always felt that he had it in him to step it up when the need arose. In between every memorable innings of his available on the LAN was watched by me with thorough interest.

Now let us fast-forward to the game a few days ago against Sri Lanka. In a do-or-die match following a shambolic performance against Bangladesh, with India in dire straits, in walks the legend to take guard. And in the space of three balls we see him playing all around a delivery, his once impregnable defense breached and his leg-stump pegged back. His walk back was accompanied by a noticeable din in the crowd and all my admiration replaced by a deep void. I cannot hate him for sure, he has provided so many beautiful moments but to be true he does not command my respect any more. And when the “Har-ghar mein Sachin” ad follows it only serves to add fuel to fire.

There was a day when I had dreamt there would be a standing ovation for the great man playing his last match. That he would decide to call it a day and quit on his own terms. With the passing days however, the chances of him doing that seem remote. The God has finally lost his immortality.