Tendulkar's 200th test: Why you can never plot the perfect ending

If the BCCI has its way, and it usually does, the 200th Test looks set to become the new 100th century. Over-hyped in the build up and underwhelming in the event. The last couple of years in Sachin Tendulkar’s career were coloured by the milestone-seeking frenzy around it. A faux landmark was created; it turned out to be a monster that sucked all the potential enjoyment out of watching the legend and the game. So much meaning was attached to a statistical figure that Indian cricket itself played second fiddle. As far as the man in the centre of it was concerned, two decades-worth of consistency and excellence were reduced to a number. Consequence: When the century was finally scored, the reception was surreally lukewarm. India has moved on from that tumultuous phase. Despite the BCCI’s shenanigans, the trajectory has been upward. The team has changed; newer, fresher players have started to make a mark and the ‘seniors’ are only represented by the last man standing, Tendulkar. By all accounts, even he may not stick around till the end of the year. [caption id=“attachment_1081135” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Tendulkar’s 200th Test being over-hyped, just like the 100th ton. Reuters[/caption] Tendulkar has, over the last few months, been preparing for his exit. He has read the room, as it were. You can tell. Retirement from one-day internationals aside, his comments while quietly announcing his last appearance in the Indian Premier League are indicative of his mindset. “I think this is the right time to stop playing the IPL. I am 40. Got to accept it. I had decided this was my last season,” he had said in a post-victory interview. A ceremonial circuit around the stadium followed but Tendulkar’s acceptance of the next steps was only reflected that of the fans. Now ask any cricketer worth his salt, Rahul Dravid for instance, and he will say the game is what matters, not his own endgame. “Just to keep playing for the sake of playing just one Test match, I didn’t think was right… at the end of the day when a player has to go, he knows he has to go and I didn’t feel the need to drag it on longer [in order to have a farewell Test],” Dravid had said when asked if he would have liked to retire after playing one last Test (he had quit during a hiatus, just a few weeks after the forgettable tour of Australia). He was ‘deprived’ of the fanfare but his dignity only multiplied his fans. But as Tendulkar’s latest statistical accomplishment looms large, the mercenary instincts of the Indian cricket board have kicked in, searching ways to exploit a sunset brand. Combine the 200th Test with the farewell match and it is a blockbuster waiting to be made, they feel. Of course last hurrahs are emotional, and, needless to day, Tendulkar’s, when it happens, will be. But carefully plotting its location, the opponent and the marketing blitz is commercialising – and diluting – the sentiment, not enhancing it. Here’s what they don’t get. You cannot strategise the perfect exit: Hardly anyone has had an ideal one. Even the great Don Bradman didn’t, remember? I say leave it to the fans – the key stakeholders in these farewells. They know what to do. Wherever Tendulkar plays his last Test (or whether he decides not to play another one at all), it will still be momentous. Whether he scores a century or a nought, he will be given a standing ovation. Note to BCCI: The end titles of a movie should not be marketed as the climax. Because the legend can do without yet another anti-climactic event in the last legs of his career – he deserves better and simpler. The author writes on popular culture, cricket and whatever else takes her fancy. She tweets @abbykhaitan