 "The eerie silence of MP Sachin Tendulkar")
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men – Abraham Lincoln
When Sachin Tendulkar made his debut in Rajya Sabha, he told reporters it was his dream to work for ‘all sports and be remembered as someone who worked for all sports instead of just cricket statistics’. Far from doing anything for ‘all sports’, Tendulkar hasn’t done much for the cause of cricket even, in his capacity as a Member of Parliament, more than a year after he was nominated.
The past year gave Tendulkar ample opportunity to speak up for the cause of cricket. The IPL spot fixing scandal broke out, cricketers were arrested on charges of fixing, N Srinivasan was forced to step aside as President of the BCCI after his son-in-law, Meiyappan was charged and now Srinivasan has been re-inducted as President. Life has come a full circle for Indian cricket, and yet the only thing we’ve heard from MP Sachin about this controversy, is that it hurts him when ‘cricket is in the news for wrong reasons’.
Not once has the master blaster uttered a word about how the BCCI is being run, or what he feels about the fact that sports in India and cricket in particular is controlled like a fiefdom by a bunch of influential politicians and their crony business partners.
BCCI is a private body so it isn’t technically under the influence of government policy making. But it is equally an association that chooses players to represent ‘India’ – the sovereign state at an international level, uses government stadiums, has politicians as board members and so must be open to a great degree of accountability and transparency. There have been several recommendations in the past, like bringing it under RTI, but all of them have run into resistance from our parliamentarians for obvious reasons.
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It is understandable that Tendulkar has maintained a low profile on these contentious issues till date, or that cricketers in general haven’t taken a stance against the body’s misconducts. BCCI after all is the employer, the big boss that controls a cricketer’s fate, and so making an adversarial comment is indeed tricky!
But not speaking up now is morally indefensible. Yes, Tendulkar doesn’t need to, but he must, if he feels an iota of frustration about the degree to which cricket is politicized in India. For a cricketer-politician of his stature, on the verge of retirement, and as someone who enjoys a great degree of mass support and goodwill, he stands to lose nothing. If anything he will gain more respect and adulation in the eyes of gloating fans who’ve endowed him with a demigod like status. He is someone whose word will hold weight, and is unlikely to be dismissed easily by our incorrigible politicians, without taking flak.
The general sense of cynicism people have with celebrity Rajya Sabha nominees is one more reason why Tendulkar must speak up. He’s accessed a position of privilege and it is incumbent upon anyone in that seat to contribute meaningfully. Reports suggest the BCCI is likely to ask him to retire after his 200th test. This is the right time then, to begin his political innings with a bang, rather than throw away this opportunity by paying lip service to other myriad non-issues.
Time to talk, Sachin, because as they say silence is complicity.