Dear Sachin,
In all my excitement, as I woke up on Friday, November 25th, all that I wanted was your 100th ton. Just like billions of others like me…
The way I saw you bat in the morning, not only re-affirmed my devotion for you but also took my breath away. The shots that you hit, the technique that you displayed was flawless and I couldn’t help but admire your genius. But the catch from Sammy, not only stunned Wankhede crowd but also shocked us mortals and we retreated back in our cocoon of everyday frustrations and happenings…
When I got back home later that night, I connected to mycrickethighlights.com, just to have a look at your entire innings and believe me, I was mesmerized. Those 94 runs were like 194 to me at that time. It didn’t matter that it was not converted into a century…It didn’t matter that we still have to wait for your 100th ton….All that mattered was your game….your un-tarnished, unbeatable natural flair….
Sometimes we wonder whether we are true fans. We so desperately want you to hit that elusive ton, yet we do not realize that all this hype is just pointless…
A person of your stature does not require reaffirmations from us to continue your natural game. For you, milestones have always been secondary to your passion for the game and a chance to serve your motherland.
It is an undisputed fact that one fine day, you are definitely going to hit that ton and silence your critics and I realize, it really wouldn’t change anything… It won’t change you as a person, or it wouldn’t change our love for you….It would only just add yet another feather to your cap…
Sachin, isn’t our love for you kind of contradictory? We want you to keep on playing as you always do, yet we pressure you with our burden of expectations..
Because after all these years, the only thing we desire is to keep watching you play…whether you hit a 20, a 50, or a 100…..there is pleasure in every boundary you hit and your every six is like an burst of enthusiasm…
The respect that you command is so unparallel, that you are an object of fascination among many. We pray for you, we pray to you and we hold you so close to your hearts that our lives revolve around you..
I remember when you once said in an interview- “I hate losing and cricket being my first love, once I enter the ground it’s a different zone altogether and that hunger for winning is always there.” It not only explains your youthful desire to stick to your love for the game but also the attitude to better yourself with time. I just consider myself lucky to be born in era that serves as a witness to your life.
In hailing you as God, we do satisfy our inner urge to worship yet forget easily that on a basic level, you are human too. You aren’t a machine that we can control to our liking…You cannot hit a century in every match…You are very well going to be bowled out on ducks and failures will be in plenty always….And if it weren’t for those failures, those minor disappointments; we would never have understood our faith in you. What makes us worship you as God, is the likeness we observe in you as a human….something to which we can identify ourselves with and still the difference between us that is a result of a divine character that you have unknowingly created for yourself.
Stupid news channel and newspaper editors don’t bother me anymore. I do not even consider them worthy enough to get angry on.
As I spend yet another day going through all their baseless assumptions and accusations in all media (whether in print or audio-visual); I cannot help but feel a kind of hopeless pity on their tiny brains and even more non-existent heart.
Their public disapproval of you, your genius, your perseverance, your strength just makes a mockery of the pure faith and devotion of billions of us worshipers all over the world; becoz in this world of deceptions, such purity is an illusionary concept.
As I print these words out, they not only exude my love for you but also echo the sentiments of billions of other fans like me. Fans who, feel like breaking TV sets when you get out early; fans who skip food to get a glimpse of you; fans whose only source of real happiness comes from seeing you bat; fans who have cried rivers with happiness when you finally got your world cup dream…
On the day you hit your 100th ton; see how crazily this same media will carry you on their heads and show your entire lifetime on television…They shall proclaim it as history being created…..Stupid Morons!
What they will not realize is that history was indeed made, long time ago…one fine day in the past…when world came to a standstill, one fleeting moment on April 24th, 1973….
With Respect, Love & Devotion,
A fan you will never know about
