For greats like Tendulkar, legacy is such a burden

This piece was first published on March 26, 2013. But we are republishing it in the wake of Tendulkar’s retirement announcement. Who wants to be in Sachin Tendulkar’s shoes? In 2013, nobody. The biggest downside to being a legend is that everyone else thinks they have a stake in you. They are so captivated by your halo that even the slightest hint of damage to it has them scrambling to protect your legacy. This holds truest for sportspersons. The glory of their playing years is relived by fans long after they have hung up their boots. As such, preserving their greatness becomes as important as achieving it. Consider how ‘leave the game on a high’ has been chanted like a mantra for just about every athlete after they cross a certain age and enter that tenuous twilight phase. Just a month away from the big 40 and as the last man standing from the ‘golden generation’, Tendulkar now finds himself at the receiving end of advice that would have been laughable at any other point of his career – to ‘get his timing right’. [caption id=“attachment_675946” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Where does Sachin Tendulkar go from here? PTI[/caption] This time, it isn’t quite as easy as putting bat to ball. Twenty-four years on, after knowing no life other than the one in flannels, he must finally prepare to take a bow. In fact, delaying the inevitable seems almost awkward as the world has already started saying its goodbyes with standing ovations everywhere he goes, assuming it to be his last time. For him, I suppose, it is like the last few minutes of a great movie. Even though you know how it will end, you’re still hoping for another twist before the credits must roll. But with eight months to go before the next Test series, a tough one in a country [South Africa] where India have an iffy track record, there is little room for indecision or twists-and-turns. Even I, a hard-core Tendulkar fan, can see that an emotional approach on his place in the team will be like taking a huge jump backwards from the progress made at home against Australia. However, while age is usually seen as an appropriate yardstick, that should really not be the moot point here. To my mind, only one question seems relevant: Does Tendulkar need Team India more than the team needs him? If the answer to that is yes, then the next steps seem inevitable. Here, the experience argument seems to favour him in a discussion otherwise punctuated with the sentiment of giving a legend a suitable farewell. The recent exploits of the Indian top-order also contribute to the debate. Watching the young guns of the team play the lead role in the whitewash against Australia would have been a bitter-sweet experience for him. Even as it would have reassured him that the outlook was looking brighter for Indian cricket, it would have also made him ponder his own role even in its immediate future. This puts Tendulkar in an unenviable position. How is someone who enjoys the game like a 16-year-old supposed to dispassionately say goodbye because the biological clock is ticking and everyone else is hearing the alarm ring? Throw back to another sport and another legend. Michael Schumacher’s return to Formula One after retiring at an unprecedented high was panned by experts and welcomed hesitantly by fans. He would tarnish his legacy, coming back as he was in an inferior machine and several years older. They were right. The comeback was luke-warm and called a ‘mistake’. But the man was less concerned about protecting his legacy than others, and happy just to be seated in a racing car again. The thrill of the sport and the ability to compete seemed to supersede notions of pride and reputation. Even with Tendulkar, the longer he waits to call it quits, the more ‘damage’ he seems to do to his larger-than-life image. The statistics are less awesome (albeit still better than most) – dropping batting average, century conversion rates and so on. He continues to make contributions to his team but is no longer playing the starring role. It is disturbing when a superstar seems comfortable performing a supporting act. But if his role, although diminished, continues to be significant to the team, should anxiety over legacy be of any consequence? That is the dilemma of Sachin Tendulkar. And that is why no one would want to be him. The author writes on popular culture, cricket and whatever else takes her fancy.