Poor Adam Gilchrist! The moment his epochal quote “Sachin Tendulkar is a liar” flashed across TV screens as breaking “Sachin” news, I suspected the eminently respectable former Aussie keeper will find it difficult to sustain the mighty allegation.
Hours later, he was prodigiously apologizing to Sachin, the media, the world, the springy kangaroos, and perhaps even his puppy. Whether Sachin in fact controversially dumped principles for patriotic duty in Harbhajan Singh’s celebrated Monkeygate affair will remain a dark buried secret till someone with sufficient salvo and with adequate courage emerges.
For the moment, Gilchrist’s reputation has taken a heavenly blow, and judging by his extremely frenetic reactions, Gilly has behaved like Chicken Little. But the fact that perhaps an Australian NRI who has purportedly purchased Deccan Chargers for a princely sum, and where Gilly boy needs to preserve his IPL millions besides being the franchise skipper, may have significantly altered his assessments.
Not surprisingly enough, almost all of the ex-retired bunch in Mera Bharat Mahaan have collectively descended on Gilchrist. It requires little intellectual capital to gauge about the timing of the release of the book,; after all, aren’t we ourselves gloating in vicarious delight that the real contest in world cricket is now between the teams from Down Under and Over The Top country? Thus, from the perspective of both the excited publisher and the celebrity author, it makes commercial sense and marketing ingenuity to launch the autobiography ‘True Colours’ when the Test series is on in India, and cameramen and journalists are awaiting some juicy gossip, salacious tales and nuclear emissions.
The fact that Sachin has scored his 12000 odd runs, and that India seems to have fortified itself against a withering Aussie attack ( although we were 2 down for 37 runs in Kotla when I started penning this piece), will only add further chilly peppers to the roasted tomato soup that is the current drama all about.
What I have never been able to figure out though is this frenzied obsession that we have in Indian cricket about the apparent invincibility , and the beyond- reproach- and -critical- scrutiny unwritten code that is adhered to about Sachin Tendulkar. The fact that he is a great cricketer, outstanding achiever and a revered national icon is undoubtedly true. And fully deserved.
But imagine the untold surgery and immense analysis that would have been let unfettered if lesser mortals like Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly et al had been involved with similar allegations?
I dare say it would not have been so easily dismissed as a sales ploy or a publicity stunt, as it has been so cursorily done this time around.
After all, Adam Gilchrist is no small-time cipher himself , is he? In fact, I rate him as the single man who revolutionized attacking cricket in Tests, and being the most destructive batsman in the history of the game. Someone who could singularly win matches, destroy opposition from seemingly hopeless positions of despair.
Honestly, Sachin does not even bear comparison to Gilchrist in match-winning feats; just check the statistics and match outcomes. At least his numbers don’t lie. Gilchrist is miles ahead.
In India, we are just too obsessed with raising our heroes on to an unnecessarily dizzying pedestal. No one says or can say that Gilchrist is right about Sachin, till factual evidence is clearly established. Or some others dare to challenge the flimsy trial proceedings that unfolded in a grotesque affair in Australia earlier this year.
But let us cut out the sanctimonious crap. Gilchrist’s accusations, even if taken out of context, cannot be treated by us holier than thou brigade as blasphemous.
Let me pose the question back; what if Adam Gilchrist is speaking the truth, despite his subsequent back-track on account of squashing a brewing diplomatic row?
We are all human. Everyone can make a mistake. Say a lie. A white lie, maybe. Even Sachin Tendulkar.
Posted on June 18, 2009 by Sanjay Jha
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