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Perhaps it has something to do with romanticising a "fallen hero". A myth which has been perpetuated over the years is that Vinod Kambli was more talented than the just-retired Sachin Tendulkar. That may well be, but talent alone doesn't get you far in life - hard work, dedication and humility are needed as well. That's why today, if we consider Tendulkar to be the hero of a Bollywood film, then his once-close friend Kambli is an item girl who appears for a moment, captures the limelight, and then vanishes. And like most item girls, Kambli is wont to whine about not getting the "lead roles".
This is not a piece meant to kick a man when he is down - Kambli suffered a heart attack recently and has just got discharged from hospital - but that is the extent to which his celebrity is limited. He is in the news not for cricket but for non-sport happenings.
Kambli's most quoted quote is "Sachin took the elevator, while I took the stairs." But the fact is that, at least in 1993, both players were on the same footing. Kambli, in fact, became the fastest Indian to complete 1,000 Test runs. Kambli scored two double centuries and two hundreds in his first eight Test innings. So it's incorrect to say that Kambli didn't take the elevator. Kambli played 17 Tests before the age of 24 and finished with 1,084 runs at an average of 54.2. His friend, focused and grounded, retired as one of the greatest of the game.
"Contrary to his image of a laidback person, Kambli was serious about his cricket. But he needed supervision off the field," says former India captain and coach Ajit Wadekar about the former Mumbai batsman. Kambli was fond of the nightlife, flashy clothes and, of course, there were constant rumours about his troubles with alcohol. The incessant comparisons with Tendulkar didn't help, says a former Mumbai cricketer who played with both Kambli and Tendulkar.
The first signs of trouble - on the field - came when Kambli was dropped after his vulnerability to short-pitched bowling became apparent. While a good player of spin, Kambli struggled against genuinely quick bowlers. Soon, he got the tag of not being suited for Test cricket, and Kambli never shrugged it off. He was picked in the one-day team and remarkably made nine comebacks till 2000. But then the Youngistaan brigade of Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif were breaking into the team. Against them, he was of no compare in the selectors' eyes. Kambli played his last ODI against Sri Lanka in 2000.
Kambli was 28 then and, as always, sought solace in limelight. He acted in a film called Annarth (2002) opposite Sunil Shetty and the film lived up to its title: it wend its way into irrelevance. Kambli, however, wasn't done with the limelight. He tried his hand at politics and joined the Lok Bharati Party. In 2009, Kambli contested the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections from Vikhroli in Mumbai, but lost. He married twice, and has a son named Jesus Cristiano. He also appeared on the reality show Bigg Boss, often derided as the platform for has-been stars.
In 2012, he underwent angioplasty surgery and was rarely seen or heard of, until Tendulkar's retirement in November. In an interview, Kambli said that he was hurt at the retiring maestro not mentioning his name in his retirement speech.
Perhaps Kambli was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He would have been an ideal fit in the Indian Premier League. The IPL, just like Kambli, is more style than substance. More tamasha, than serious business. It craves limelight, just as the dusky former batsman has done all his life.
