Will Sachin live up to the hype?

On Monday morning, as Sachin Tendulkar entered the Eden Gardens around 11am, to train ahead of his 199th and penultimate Test match, he was showered with rose petals. The master blaster sped through it as quickly as possible but frankly, he looked embarrassed.

Kolkata likes to deal in hyperboles especially when it comes to their sporting heroes. But even then, the preperations for Sachin Tendulkar’s 199th Test can’t strike anyone as less than ridiculous.

A few days back as he made his way to Lahli to play his last Ranji Trophy game, Times Now trailed him from the Mumbai airport all the way to Lahli — they said they didn’t want to capture every move of his but it certainly felt like a stalking mission. Moving back to Kolkata, the rose petals were only the start.

As Tariq Engineer told First Post, “The front façade of India’s largest cricket stadium has been adorned with life-size cutouts of Tendulkar, with two of them guarding the entrance.” There is a sketch of a young Tendulkar — curly hair and all that — on the tickets, there are giant hoardings and posters all over the city, there is a photograph exhibition with exactly 199 pictures showcasing various moods and highlights of Tendulkar’s life, as the batting genius gears up for his 199th Test match.

The coin for the toss will have Sachin’s image embossed on one side and the Eden Gardens on the other side. And before we can catch our breath, the CAB will hand the coin over to the batsman himself along with a silver banyan tree. It will get stranger still. Singer Piloo Bhattacharya has come up with an album titled — hold your breath – ‘We Miss You Sachin.’

The album has been endorsed by the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and will be played at the Eden Gardens. And listening to those songs will be thousands of spectators wearing masks — Tendulkar masks. Can we hope for some vigilante justice?

The CAB has also organised placards for all the spectators with special congratulatory messages on them. Why not let spectators say what they want to… A travelling tableau of Tendulkar moments has already been let loose on Kolkata and if things weren’t bad enough — the West Indies team was forced to cancel their press conference because the police took over the media centre to review security arrangements.

And there is also the utterly ridiculous plan to shower the Eden Gardens with 199 kilos of rose petals during the match. Yes, 199 kilos — the symbolism is important. But who is going to clean up a field of rose petals?

In the middle of all this, Tendulkar has been desperately trying to stay focused. Yesterday’s nets session was an optional one but Tendulkar turned up to practice — perhaps it was the only way to get away from the madness. He had his usual nets session — batting against the bowlers, throw downs — chats with Shikhar Dhawan and Ishant Sharma followed. He was trying to stay on track but then every now and then an official would walk along and make small talk. He has felt this kind of madness before — the 100th ton had attracted a similar kind of frenzy and it had gone on for longer.

When he finally did get it, before anything else he felt a sense of relief. “I felt it [the milestone] was there somewhere in my subconscious mind, though I kept telling myself that above all, I just need to enjoy playing cricket and be myself. But when you get at least 100 reminders daily, it becomes difficult not to think about it. You are forcibly made to think about it. That was getting tougher and tougher as the days wore on. I felt like telling everyone ‘let’s just talk cricket and not talk about the 100th hundred,’” Tendulkar had said after he got his 100th international ton.

Indeed, the message from Tendulkar has always concerned cricket. So why is that message lost in this whirlpool of hype? There are even reports that Tendulkar himself has been unhappy with the tamasha and perhaps that is why part of him must be wishing that he hadn’t announced his retirement publicly. In that sense, his retirement from the IPL took everyone by surprise — Mumbai Indians won and he decided that he was done. It was perfect — it spared him and his fans the prolonged bout of media madness that has become the norm with everything Sachin.

The Cricket Associations will want to put on a show but perhaps they will realise that the best show anyone can put on will be an exciting Test match. Let the occasion be about cricket and that will make everyone, including Tendulkar, happy.