Divine grace and Tendulkar

By John Cheeran
Though Saatchi and Saatchi is confident of Sachin Tendulkar's star status, the star himself is not sure of his footwork.
Tendulkar has sought divine intervention to get back into form according to reports in the national media.
Priests traced the trouble to "sarpa dosha" or evil snake effects in the planetary alignments of the 33-year-old, The Times of India said on Monday. To correct the evil, Tendulkar, draped in white silk, and his wife Anjali began two days of prayers at the Subramanya temple complex in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
"The master blaster's loss of form and injury problems were traced to adverse planetary positions for which corrective rituals are taking place," the report said.
Recovering from a shoulder surgery a year after being treated for a tennis elbow, he missed the recent one-day series at home against England and will also sit out of the five one-dayers in the West Indies later this month. He was, however, confident of being fit for the four Test matches against the West Indies starting on June 2.
"I hope to be back in the Indian team soon,"Tendulkar said after the temple visit.
Is there anything wrong in seeking God's help to sort out cricketing matters?
There should not be.
In a crisis, every human being prays to God. I do pray.
But I also concede that certain things man has to do; man has to take full charge of himself.
I thought cricket was one such field where men are pitted against only men. I have a doubt now. Recent developments and poojas force me to ask whether Tendulkar has become the Tendulkar we know, only thanks to the planetary positions and divine grace.
Yes, divine grace has blessed Tendulkar. But what about those bowlers who are troubling Tendulkar consistently these days? I must say they have succeeded in their dharma.
Those bowlers are also blessed by the divine grace. Or is it that in the last four years bowlers of the world consulted their spiritual gurus and corrected their planetary positions?
Truth must be something like this.
God has blessed Tendulkar for the last 33 years. And Tendulkar has made the most-- runs and money -- out of the divine grace.
Now to believe that Tendulkar's form has waned only because of the planetary position would be preposterous.
It would be a tragedy if Tendulkar himself believes so.
It would be Tendulkar's end as a professional cricketer. It is a pity that after all these years Tendulkar cannot admit that he must be losing his powers of concentration and big time play owing to the advancing age.
There are fitter, faster and wily bowlers than when he started out his career. Tendulkar is young in years but he is a veteran in international cricket. It would be naive to think that Tendulkar will be able to bat with the freedom and assurance when he was absolutely young at the crease years ago.
The solace, however, is at the other end of the crease. A four year older Brian Lara, at 37, still bats well for West Indies. But Lara's secret to success is that he enjoys his cricket, has no eye on the record books and on the fine print of the marketing deal.
Lara, whenever he visits India, has no qualms to say that Tendulkar is the best batsman in the world even when the Indian legend is struggling to live up to the rigours of international cricket.
By showering praise on Tendulkar Lara has won the pressure game. Now when India take on West Indies I'm sure Lara will speak with his bat and outclass Tendulkar.
And by the way, how often Tendulkar has said Lara is the modern batting great of the game?Or how often Tendulkar has come out and praised rival cricketers?
Tendulkar definitely needs assistance beyond cricket but I'm not sure whether he is getting it from the right sources.
Let there be more runs for him.