Does Sachin Tendulkar deserve the Bharat Ratna?

By Gulu Ezekiel 

Trust our politicians to jump on the bandwagon and bask in reflected glory after Sachin Tendulkar’s latest world record feat.

Bharat Ratna for Sachin Tendulkar?

With both the ruling Congress party in Maharashtra and the Shiv Sena endorsing awarding the Bharat Ratna to Tendulkar, we will no doubt see many more politicians adding their support to this movement. Now every Indian cricketer too is being asked his opinion on the subject. Dare even one of them disagree?

What is most amusing is that it is the same Shiv Sena who had roundly condemned Tendulkar just a few months back after the maestro had made the innocuous and obvious comment at a press conference that Mumbai is for all Indians.

At the outset let me state my opinion which is that Sachin is indeed a jewel of Indian cricket.

But these national awards have long since lost their lustre as the ruling party at the Centre invariably awards them to favourites of the party, irrespective of the individual’s achievements or merit.

Every party in the opposition will condemn such meaningless awards. But no politician is willing to start a campaign to scrap them altogether which is exactly what needs to be done.

As far as I am concerned, the Bharat Ratna lost is value back in the 80s when the Congress party in power granted it posthumously to late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran simply because his party, the AIADMK was at the time supporting the Congress at the Centre.

Tendulkar has received every national and sporting award from the Arjuna to the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan. Only the Bharat Ratna remains, the highest civilian honour in the land.

But why only for a cricketer? What about hockey, badminton, chess, billiards, shooting and tennis which have brought us international laurels? And remember, cricket is played at the top level by just a handful of countries while the above mentioned sports are practiced worldwide. 

So the question will invariably crop up: if for Tendulkar, then why not posthumously for hockey wizard Dhyan Chand, former world badminton champion Prakash Padukone, Olympic gold medalist shooter Abhinav Bindra, world chess champion V. Anand and so many more, including former cricketers ranging from CK Nayudu to Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar?

Let us not fool ourselves. Just because cricket is the most popular sport in the country, it does not stand to reason that it should monopolise national honours. After all, football is Britain’s number one sport by far. But the Queen’s annual birthday honours list hands out gongs to sportspersons across the spectrum.

Giving Tendulkar the Bharat Ratna will only open the floodgates and drag him into an unseemly controversy. Let us treasure him for his contribution to Indian cricket and not distract him from the biggest prize that still awaits him, the World Cup. Just one year to go for that.

World’s Funniest Cricket Quiz # 1

Who said this:

” Test Cricket is actually our bread and butter, which people don’t understand. We are never going to compromise on Test Cricket. When I talked about doing something for Test cricket, it’s for other countries where Test cricket is going down. In India, our ratings are going up. We are tracking that year by year, it’s going much better for us, and in fact we get paid highest for Test cricket.” ?

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Answer: Lalit Modi

Ravindra Jadeja’s Appeal Rejected by IPL Governing Council

Ravindra Jadeja: Will Have to Sit-out IPL 2010

Looks like Ravindra Jadeja will have to pay a heavy price for his misadventures. The Rajasthan Royals all-rounder was handed down a 1 year ban for flouting the IPL’s terms and conditions – Jadeja was caught trying to negotiate a contract with other IPL teams, something which he was clearly not supposed to do.

He had subsequently filed an appeal with the BCCI. Jadeja pleaded innocence stating that his contract with the Rajasthan Royals team had expired in December 2009, and since they had not shown any interest in renewing his contract, he was free to sign a contract with another team.

At a meeting in Mumbai yesterday, that appeal was quashed by the BCCI President Shashank Manohar who rejected the plea citing that he didn’t want to set a wrong example by being lenient on Jadeja. That effectively kills the player’s chance of playing in IPL 2010 – indeed a big price to pay because it was in the IPL that he had first been noticed, and which was his stepping stone to the Indian cricket team. Of course and probably more importantly, that is also a huge financial loss for the young man – with this tarnished CV he will also find it tough to get a good contract in the future editions of the IPL, although two new teams joining in with IPL 2011, the avenues will widen.

Johnson-Styris Row should make the 2nd Aus-NZ ODI a Lively One

Match Preview: Australia vs New Zealand 2nd One Day International | Match Date: 6th March 2010 | Venue: Eden Park, Auckland | Watch the Live Telecast of the match on the channel Set Max from

The Mitchell Johnson-Scott Styris row towards the end of the Australia-New Zealand 1st One Dayer at Napier has definitely raised the interest levels in the ongoing One Day series between the two Trans-Tasman rivals. The Kiwis have a way of imbalancing the Aussies even when their much stronger opponents are at their peak performance levels – Australia came to New Zealand having not lost a single game this summer, and here they have already lost two matches in a row now. Probably that’s what bugged Mitchell Johnson…  

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori missed the last game due to a neck injury, and if he returns to the side for the 2nd One Day tomorrow, that should only add to Rickey Ponting’s problems. The Australians have not fared too creditably against the wily Kiwi spinner in the past, and more importantly, he is a shrewd captain – definitely one of the best in the business today.

Four more games remain in the Chappell-Hadlee Series. With the big brother down 0-1, we can expect more sparks to fly tomorrow. This is what Shane Watson had to say after calls from everywhere to tone down things:

” We’re always going to be aggressive. That’s how we play. “

So you better not miss the live cricket and fireworks at the Eden Park tomorrow.

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We hate the foul-mouthed Aussie cry babies as much as anyone does. Why don’t you leave a comment below telling us what you think of them – it will be good fun.