Time to get out of Tendulkar fixation

To be fair we have all been guilty of it at times, certainly at ESPN-Star Sports we might have lingered a bit too long over it in Bangladesh as well. That came soon after his 34th and a win wasn8217;t in doubt but that is not too justify it overly. Now though it grows worrisome and Team India runs the risk of becoming a forgotten entity, weighed under by the milestones individual stars are approaching.

To that extent, sport is completely different from its entertainment cousin, the film. Both hold our attention but do it in vastly different ways. The cult of the star rules in the movies, Govinda is the reason for making Hero No 1, Shahrukh the inspiration behind Main Hoon Na. When you confuse the two, as Real Madrid have done in recent times, the result can be staggering. I don8217;t think Real Madrid have taken the field at all this year. Ronaldo has, Zidane has, Beckham has, Figo has but Real Madrid haven8217;t. India run that risk and we glorify it.

I think we should leave Tendulkar alone. If he gets a century, or for that matter, a 94 or indeed a 194 not out, we need to admire the awesome skills he parades but be aware that he is doing no more than contributing to a team total. He has said that number 35 is not top of his mind and we have to accept that. But we need to take number 35 out of our mind. I suspect that is more difficult. It is hurting.

Greater hurt would have come had not a late piece of common sense been shown. For two days we assumed that a player is more valuable examining the nooks and corners of a dressing room than playing a good cricket match.

Yuvraj Singh should have been sent straightaway to Mumbai on the first morning of the test to allow him to mount a challenge for a test spot, to get himself match fit, to help his other team. Instead he was almost made to sit on a bench for five days and nobody either scored runs or became a better player doing that.

When the idea was first suggested, the response from the BCCI was that if a request was made it would be considered. When the request was indeed made, there were vague bureaucratic noises. When the attitude is, 8216;8216;make your request then we will see8217;8217;, it makes you wonder if everyone is playing for the same team, for India. In the end the right decision was taken but only just.

We must take ourselves to the brink sometimes before summoning the obvious. It would have been an extraordinarily poor moment in our cricket. Not that it is an honourable one now. Contrast that with the efforts being made to allow Brett Lee a game in the Pura Cup final with the Australian captain, coach, New South Wales captain and Chief Executive trying their best to find a way.

Meanwhile a tough game of cricket goes on between two good teams. There are ebbs and flows; crashing square drives and dropped chances, crafty bowling and optimistic appealing. Young men are building careers, some others are struggling; the opposition is being applauded and I8217;m sure there is the odd swear word in there. It is eleven men versus eleven and that is how cricket was always meant to be.