Sach is life: Tendulkar's 'Playing it my way'

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar wrote his book. Critics may have missed the point. On the one hand, some slammed him for whipping up controversies like the serial episodes of the Chappell Brothers to sell his book while others upbraided him for not speaking up enough on issues like match-fixing. All of them missed the point that Sachin wished to be his own man in writing his autobiography. He did not need to whip up public support for the project since his book — the most pre-orders recorded in Indian publishing history — was already guaranteed phenomenal success.

“I wanted to address everything in my knowledge — the funny incidents, the controversies, but most of all I wanted all areas to clearly reflect my thinking, my ideas,” he had said a day before the book launch. If there was one basic trait in the Master Blaster, it was probably individualism, which may have stemmed from realising early enough in his career that you cannot please everyone. A remarkable facet of his extraordinary 24-year international career is he remained his own man. He did not take sides in handling the divided house of BCCI with its myriad political angles based on five zones. He led the team as best as he could without leaning on any strategic geniuses for tips.

When he sat down to talk about his book to his collaborator (Boria Mazumdar) and his conspirator (Anjali) over three and a half years ago, Sachin may have taken this very conscious decision to publish a book that reflected only his thinking and his view of life and events. It makes little sense that critics should now be baying about what he did not say or chose not to write. November became the season of the book rather than being the month of international cricket as the all too familiar tourists, Sri Lankans, were visiting once again.  So everyone had to have an opinion on the book regardless of whether they had read it or not.

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An opinion peddler even went to the extent of saying on television that Greg Chappell should sue Sachin for defamation. Apparently for some people the supposed witness for the foreign coach in the ‘firangi’ physio, who was said to be present at the conversation in Sachin’s home, was more trustworthy than the wife of the cricketer, who the cricketer emphasised was actually present.  Whether Sachin wished to do so or not, his book is dividing some people, but then the written word invariably causes such disagreements. A fleeting opinion stated on television is often forgotten while the word in print has a more devastating and more lasting effect.

Cricket, for that matter much of sport, loves its storms, although too many of them blow over in a teacup. There is no reason to believe anything serious like court action would come of Sachin Tendulkar’s Playing It My Way. The intent of the author is, perhaps, implicit in the title itself. It is about his way, not of the rest of Indian cricket and its considerable number of major players, including administrators. Nor is it likely that the BCCI would acknowledge the author’s disgust with match-fixing and take genuine steps to eradicate it. It appears the gambling link will go on regardless of the best efforts of the likes of Mukul Mudgal and the investigators who are digging into the latest episodes of the canker.

“If I was 100 per cent sure, I stood for writing about it. But if the info was not firsthand, I didn’t go by it,” Sachin had explained. He dismissed what others thought of the amount of fixing going on by saying in his knowledge no one had deliberately under-performed. “No, I mean the guys fail, but who doesn’t fail in life, everyone fails. It would be unfair to just pinpoint someone and say that he was under-performing, didn’t try his best. I have played the sport for 24 years and failures do happen,” he said before the book launch on a memorable evening in Mumbai when he kept his promise to meet cricket writers exclusively. No distractions, just cricket talk focused on the book for a straight two hours.

Even so, it is disappointing that Sachin did not put down stronger words on the issue although he himself was the impeccable exception to the rot that overtook the system. You could almost believe that the bookmakers never set the odds too high on India so long as the master batsman was in. It is also known that Sachin’s antenna went up the moment he suspected any hanky-panky may be attempted and he would play out of his skin that day. The fact remains that the betting controversies are like so much water flowing down the Ganga even a world leader’s opinion on it would not have woken up the Kumbakarnans to the moral fabric of the game being destroyed by betting, spot and match-fixing and insider trading.

The book does lend us fascinating insights into the mind of one of the world’s greatest cricketers. He was always a very private person, never letting on to even those of us who interacted with him on an extended basis on cricket tours abroad when the atmosphere was not crowded out by people seeking his time. Having known him well when he was young, it is easier to understand why he wrote the book on his own terms, treading into prickly issues when necessary but never doing so just to titillate or get the cash registers to click. Critics may crib that he did not let on despite his ringside view of events. But then no one ever writes a book with critics in mind. To write a book is to chronicle a life’s journey.  And he has led a remarkable life.