Sachin Tendulkar’s relative silence on the fixing episodes are a wasted chance to inspire, inform and instruct
Gaurav Kalra06-Nov-2014The chronicle of an exceptional life in the words of that very individual has an enduring appeal. Sachin Tendulkar’s time in the game has been more remarkable than most, so it’s no surprise his autobiography has generated enormous traction.While some of its extracts in the public domain have been revealing, Tendulkar’s fleeting references to the two major fixing scandals in Indian cricket are disappointing. Speaking on the eve of the book launch, Tendulkar had justified omitting references to fixing on the grounds that he did not have full knowledge of events. “The things I am not aware of fully, it would be unwise to comment on those,” he said.The book does, however, deal with both episodes in a few lines. A reference to the fixing scandal of the 1990s begins the chapter on the 2001 home series against Australia. “Cricket plummeted to a low in the wake of the match-fixing scandal. The credibility of the game had been compromised and I found the revelations about matches being thrown for money distasteful and disgusting. The whole thing was repulsive and what was seriously worrying was that fans had started to lose faith and the integrity of our sport was in doubt. We desperately needed to bring credibility back to the game and we hoped that we could do so in the course of playing the Australians at home in a much-anticipated series in February-March 2001. It would allow fans to move away from the sordid tales of corruption and focus on the real thing: quality Test cricket.”Those five lines probably throw up more questions than answers. Was Tendulkar consumed by turmoil on learning some of his colleagues had possibly manipulated the outcome of games he was part of? Did he attempt to find more details of leads that investigators were chasing? Was there a call to the board president of the time about how deep the rot was? Or a teary-eyed conversation with a confidant?Tendulkar had both captained and been led by two men who were handed bans for their alleged involvement in fixing. Did he ever confront them and demand to know their side of the story? What is his equation with those men today? Does he view them as traitors or has he learnt to forget and forgive? Did he ever lie back in bed and wonder about moments in games that seemed unusual in hindsight? Did he ever watch footage of a passage of play and say to himself, “Hmmm that doesn’t look right?”In the period immediately after the match-fixing scandal Tendulkar, in the company of Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Javagal Srinath, rebuilt faith among distressed fans. That series against Australia did indeed achieve what it set out to do: quality Test cricket bringing credibility back to the game and allowing fans to move away from the sordidness. Should the book not have thrown more light on how this golden generation of players handled the fixing scandal? Was there ever a conversation among them about its implications? Was there ever a team meeting where a pledge to play the game with utmost integrity was made? Did they recognise the future of the game in India rested on their conduct?The 2013 IPL fixing controversy – its fallout has not yet been contained – has a shorter mention in the book. Among those implicated, arrested and banned was a fellow player from the triumphant 2011 World Cup campaign and a team-mate over several years. “I was disappointed, shocked and angry at the goings-on and said so in a press release at the time,” Tendulkar wrote on the issue. “There has to be a complete zero-tolerance policy against corruption and more should be done to educate the players but on the other hand the tournament as a whole cannot be blamed for the wrongdoings of a few.”More questions arise: Was he fearful at the time of what other skeletons could come tumbling out of the closet? Does he believe the IPL structure needs an overhaul? How did he view the actions of a player who had played at the highest level and knew fully well the perils of getting mixed up in corruption?At an interaction with journalists, Tendulkar was asked whether he felt some players had under-performed deliberately during the match-fixing phase in the 1990s. “No, I mean the guys fail, but who doesn’t fail in life, everyone fails,” he said. “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.”While Tendulkar correctly makes the distinction between “failure” and “deliberate under-performance,” he chooses to remain almost silent about the same men who were punished precisely for “deliberately under-performing.” These were men he went on tour with, played World Cups with, took instructions from and gave instructions to. Surely if they were found compromised, he couldn’t have been divorced from that reality? Surely an autobiography is the appropriate forum to describe that phase as he saw it? Surely his emotional response to the events unfolding around him wasn’t restricted merely to the “details he knew” about?An autobiography is a not a newspaper column or a television interview. It can unshackle itself from the burdens of a professional career. In , Andre Agassi admitted not just to failing a drug test but also lying about it to escape harsher punishment. For all the criticism Kevin Pietersen received for being self-indulgent, his recent autobiography pulled no punches. It was his side of the story, all of it.At first glance, Tendulkar has tackled several prickly issues in the book, including Greg Chappell’s controversial tenure as India coach and the racism charge levelled at his team-mate Harbhajan Singh during the 2007-08 tour of Australia. Cricket’s greatest scourge, however, is fixing and two of the most serious episodes took place during Tendulkar’s career, with him at ringside. Why he needed to almost totally ignore its significance and impact isn’t as clear.
