Demi-Gods - Being God is addictive

Years back when I had asked my Dad - How much money do these politicians want, to stop corruption and start working for the country? - he said that there is no end. It is an addiction and they stop believing that they are corrupt. They take it as their way of life.

From the day I read in the papers about Tendulkar's knee-jerk reaction against Greg Chappel, I was puzzled and curious about what is happening to the great Sachin Tendulkar. He was so mature as a 17 year old and now he is a 34 year old kid!. My Dad's wisdom ultimately came to my rescue, gave me some relief and some food for thought.

Sachin Tendulkar is addicted to being considered a Demi-God. It is partly our fault that we Indians love Idol worship in every form. We made him the Demi-God and now he is suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Otherwise he would have realised it by himself that he is not contributing to the game; that he is not contributing to the country's aspiration from cricket; that he might be considered a burden in the coming future. He would have understood the meaning of a graceful exit.

Otherwise he would not have the short-sightedness of ignoring what some of the best cricketing minds are expressing about him. He would not have acted a complete deaf to his long time friend and one time guide - Sanjay Manjrekar? Sanjay Manjrekar has very clearly expressed that Tendulkar is no longer the same Tendulkar. He has known the real Tendulkar from close quarters and being a sensitive cricketer he is observing a change, which he expressed.

Greg Chappel is known to be frank and straight-forward in his approach and thinking. It does not seem to me that he is an enemy of Sachin Tendulkar. He had also expressed his opinion about Sachin Tendulkar, that he should not open, that he does not have the right attitude. Even Ian Chappel has been very vocal about Sachin being a poor shadow of himself for the past two years.

Sachin Tendulkar instead of listening to these views, blew the top. He got emotional and reacted as if someone has desecrated the God.

It is really a sad predicament that Sachin Tendulkar is refusing to believe that he is losing his flare for the game. Like the politician who refuses to believe that he is corrupt; Sachin refuses to realise that he is not the best cricketer anymore.

Adding fuel to fire are those friends of his, who blindly keeps him blinded from reality. In fact, they are his real enemy. Vinod Kambli, in one of his statement says, "Tendulkar should play the next world cup also" I am sure he is acting a good friend.

Its high time that Sachin understands reality and either try to improve his cricket like our 'DADA' Saurav Ganguly or call it quits.

Sachin has been compared to Michael Schumacher. He needs to act like Michael Schumacher. He could resist the temptation of fame, money and endorsements. It was indeed a God-like deed to retire at the prime of his career.

Coming to Cricket, Lara also has managed an (almost) graceful exit.

We should all collectively think and advise Sachin that he can stay God-like if he wants to. But not by holding on to his cricket. But by behaving maturely, by keeping his feet on the ground and by moving with times. Everybody understands that age catches up with everyone and we all surrender to time.

ICC Championship: Indian-Australia: what a convincing loss

Is it the team selection or again the same attitude problem that grips Indian sports, whether it is cricket or hockey.

Thank heavens that no new countries are taking into cricket! Else Indian cricket would have had the same fate as that of Indian Hockey.

The first few overs reminded me of Sanjay Manjrekar's article about Sachin Tendulkar. The article seemed so true to me. Tendulkar definitely has a attitude and confidence problem with the better bowlers. Is he really afraid of another surgery? Tendulkar's wicket might be a great joy for the Australian bowlers but for me it was something that was very soon expected going by the master batsman's approach to the game today.

Next came Dinesh Mongia. I frankly do not know his credits that made him to the team but whatever game I have seen of him, I think there are better batsman for this job in India. It is definitely a selection problem. Parthiv Patel is definitely a better batsman with a better temperament to play pressure games. I can never understand why is he not in the team inspite of his great batting showmanships in the challenger series and previous to that in Australia against the Australians as a opener.

Is the selection process straight-jacketing him as a wicket keeper? Are we ignoring a great batting talent just because he happens to be a wicket keeper and Dhoni is playing his best as a wicket keeper batsman? Rahul Dravid was a wicket keeper too but he came to the team as a batsman and it is for all of us to see what he has contributed to the Indian team.

We had wasted too much time by the time Mongia departed. Kaif was under the pressure of too many failures. What can we expect? We played a very mediocre innings. Whats worrying is the lack of the fighting spirit, the lack of a positive approach to every ball.

Only Sehwag and Dravid showed that positive outlook. Here the coincidence is that Manjrekar was the comentator. He very rightly said during the game when Sehwag and Tendulkar were batting that Sehwag do not bring baggages to the field. He plays his normal game even when he is not been performing lately. Every game is a completely new game for him. And he approaches each new game with the same positive outlook. It somehow seemed to me that Manjrekar was actually talking about Tendulkar and was reminiscing about the truth of his article a month back.

The key to any sport as always is the winning spirit and this takes me back to the Ganguly era... He could somehow bring out the fighting spirit of players like Yuvraj, Kaif, Harbhajan and Irfan Pathan. Look at how they are languishing at the present. They have talent and so they would surely shine once in a while but look at the trend... I dont see the fighting spirit that they had. No way I am suggesting Ganguly should be back.

I really dont have the answers.... and would really want everyone to think that they dont have the answers and so everone should try to discover new answers.

Lets all find the answer. I am sure it wont be difficult. And this answer would lift Indian sports and not only Indian Cricket.