The transformation has been rapid. The god who could do no wrong is showing signs of mortality. To the faithful, that hurts.
Sachin Tendulkar was the ultimate cricketing machinery, an amalgam of peerless skill and rock hard resolve. For seventeen years he took on the best the opposition had to throw at him and generally came away the winner. But age is taking its toll. The mind is willing and yet the body refuses to comply.
Over the past year he had been hit on the helmet numerous times. His reflexes are a tad slow. The gait to the wicket parodies the once-giant steps that trod on bigger, threatening foes. And although he is still a very good player, the word great attached to his batting is more a tribute to his legacy than current batting ability.
Recently, critics have had the temerity to say that he is chickening out against genuine pace, a baseless claim against a man who, at sixteen, carried on with a bloody nose to save a match for his country in the harshest of all terrain - Pakistan.
Today, he is South Africa, carrying more questions than answers. He is doubtless in the final leg of his illustrious career. There is a famous Argentinean saying, ‘beware of the last kick of the dying bull in the Pampas.’ In the next couple of years, this cricketing Maradona may just provide that fitting coda to a marvellously written article. His fans deserve that. The cricketing world deserves that. More significantly, his genius demands that.
He does deserve the accolades for his illustrious career, he may be a tad slow but still is better than the most in TEAM INDIA. His performance of late hasn’t been as shabby, he has played a few good knocks since his return from injury. Yes, the master craftsmen who bettered what came at him for the last sixteen-years will surely rip those attacks yet again - the trouble lies in his utility: he has struggled with injury post surgery that has forced him to transform his batting array and his on field abilities have suffered drastically, once and outfielder Tendulkar is stuck to mere slip quadroon know… Hope his fitness allows him to play for the country in the Windies next year, coz the Indian squad…. Needs the Little Master.
