When a Hero Falls

"You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain" - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight (2008)

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was my hero since the time I remember watching cricket. My cricket watching career neatly coincides with his international career. Incidentally he has never been my very favourite Indian cricketer in team (That honour has been taken by Mohammed Azharuddin & Rahul Dravid) but he has been the hero of the team. I have religiously followed his achievements, remember his exploits all through the 1990s when he single-handedly carried the team with him. And it was a joy to watch him finish a World Cup winner in 2011. (Refer some old posts here, here and here)

Since that high, for some arbit reason Sachin Tendulkar seems to have lost respect. I am not sure why. I can give some instances .

• Maybe it was him skipping the West Indies Tests or 
• maybe his stubbornness (as I perceived it) to bat at No. 4 in England Tests despite the rest of the batting order being thrown into chaos with injuries or
• his Refusal to play in the T20 against England
• or the media hype on the meaningless 100th 100 (certainly shouldn't blame him for the media hype)
• or picking and choosing tours without rhyme or reason (why is he in the current ODI squad?)
• Or maybe its just that the 8-nil blanking in England & Australia have numbed my senses and I want to have someone to blame it upon.

There used to be a time when people used to switch off the TV when SRT got out. Last Sunday when I saw Tendulkar come to open the innings, I switched off the TV. In fact, I am really beginning to enjoy not seeing him get to reach the 100th international 100 (Mind you, even 99 is a phenomenal number). 

Seeing a hero fall in your eyes is never a good thing. Probably the only thing that might redeem Sachin is if he quits on his own terms. But letting go has never been easy for any sportsperson, has it.