An open letter to all Tendulkar ‘fans’ who are after Sharapova’s life

I am generally not inclined towards writing such personal rants on the internet. I’d rather discuss major sports controversies with my peers and that’d be the end of the story. But the ludicrous events following Maria Sharapova’s innocuous disclosure that she isn’t aware of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar have coerced me to pen my thoughts and restore some sanity among the humungous group of Sachin fans who’ve taken Sharapova’s comments a little too seriously.

First and foremost, let’s do a quick round-up of Sharapova’s upbringing. Maria was born in the hitherto Soviet Union, in a city close to the Ukrainian border. She moved to the USA at the age of seven to train at the famed Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida and she has been residing with her family in the States ever since.

Maria is a fully professional tennis player who travels all year long to participate in tennis events all across the globe. She is involved in several modelling assignments; she is a brand ambassador of various consumer products and international organisations. She also runs a premium candy brand called Sugarpova.

There are two important inferences from the above two paragraphs about Sharapova’s life. First, she has only lived in two countries all her life – Russia and the United States of America; two countries which have no history of playing or following the game of cricket. Second, she is an extremely occupied professional athlete whose engagements are not limited to just tennis but also extend to a plethora of endorsements and other engagements.

Now we come to the core of the controversy. She does not know who Sachin Tendulkar is. The first thought that came to my mind after reading this piece of news in a tabloid – “So what? Why is this even in the news? Is it really that unusual of a fellow human being to be a stranger to Sachin Tendulkar’s existence?”

Does each of the seven billion odd people living on this planet know the Indian cricketer? No, absolutely not. Let me tell you why. Cricket is an ‘international sport’ played competitively by only a handful of the 196 countries recognised by the UN. More importantly, it’s a sport concentrated in certain regions of the world - Indian subcontinent, British Isles, Caribbean, Southern Africa and Australia/New-Zealand.

Many countries have adopted the game in the last decade or so but the infrastructure, fan following and the administration are fledgling and in the very early stages of development. But countries like the USA and Russia have zero to almost no association with the game.

Given his/her zero exposure to cricket, isn’t it normal of a Russian/American to be unaware of the icons of the game? How many Indians know of any famous rugby players/ cycling icons/ basketball superstars? Isn’t the same applicable to Maria Sharapova?

Sachin’s ‘fans’, the ones who’ve been vilifying Sharapova on all major social networking platforms, need a thorough reality check. By posting scornful comments about Sharapova’s integrity on her own fan pages, they are not only disrespecting a venerated world-renowned athlete but also leaving a very disgraceful impression of Indians on an international community. How will these fans react if one day Tendulkar were to say that he doesn’t know who Yelena Isinbayeva is?

I want each of these fans to put themselves in Sharapova’s shoes. Now tell me, have you ever heard of Richie McCaw? Peyton Manning? Sidney Crosby? Bradley Wiggins? No? I’ll tell you why. Because these names play a sport having no traces of existence in India. But that isn’t reason enough, is it? We should be aware of the living legends of every sport since it’s the prime responsibility and fundament duty of every inhabitant of earth.

A new Twitter trend ‘Who is Maria Sharapova’ indicates a different angle to this story. It gives you the sense that the false egos of many Indians have been brutally hurt after the world’s most recognisable female personality refused to identify India’s greatest sporting hero. My fellow Indians, stop thinking this highly of yourselves and kindly desist from inflating your bulging egos. I’m not trying to pacify you, but when did Sharapova become a yardstick for a sportsperson’s popularity?

It is not the moral obligation of Sharapova, or any ordinary person for that matter, to be aware of any other individual in the world. Even if that was the case, you have no right to stalk and harass a public figure in the deplorable manner that you are currently doing. The man you’re doing it for would by no measure be impressed by your conduct.

So please refrain from taking inordinate advantage of the freedom granted to you by the powers of the internet. Stop embarrassing the rest of the country for satiating your pseudo-moralistic contentions and above all, at least start respecting women from other countries, if you can’t respect your own.