Why is it so difficult to let go of our cricketers?

It was the 16th of November 2013, the last day in Sachin Tendulkar’s career. And around mid-afternoon on that day, he started his farewell speech

“All my friends. Settle down, let me talk. I will get more and more emotional.”

And, as I watched that on television, tears were starting to roll down my cheeks. My mother was also watching the speech with me, and I didn’t want her to see me crying just because a cricketer was retiring. So, I tried to quickly wipe the tears running down and looked at her.

But then, when I looked at my mother, I was surprised to see that tears were rolling down her cheeks too.

And, as Tendulkar finished his 20-minute odd speech, my mother looked at me and said “You see, son” and I could see that her eyes were moist, “I was of your age when Sachin started playing for India. And we grew up watching him.”

For a good part of 2012 and 2013, my mother and I used to have a lot of discussions about whether Sachin was dragging on for a bit too long. Shouldn’t he have retired after the 2011 World Cup? What was left for him to achieve?

But, when the final day of his cricketing career arrived, and when he spoke his heart out to the cricketing world for the last time, none of us wanted to let go of him. Please, Sachin! Don’t go, Please! One more series, one more match!

The reason for this is simple. Letting go of Tendulkar was, for a generation of Indians, like letting go of their childhoods. He had almost become a regular part of our everyday lives.

And as my mother very beautifully told me, “I was so young when Sachin started. And now see, my hair has slowly started greying.”

An entire generation had grown up with Tendulkar.

There is no logic for love, and there is no doubting that we love our cricketers

Fast forward five years to 2018. I was having another discussion with one of my friends about whether Dhoni should be a part of the 2019 World Cup or not. I posed many questions to him, “Dhoni is no longer the batsman he once was. He is already 37. Isn’t it time for him to walk into the sunset? We were going back and forth on this when my friend closed the argument by saying, “I don’t care how he has performed. He should play the 2019 World Cup. That’s it! He had got emotional."

And as I sat and pondered, my eyes started swelling with tears. For, just like my mother had grown up watching Sachin, I had grown up watching Dhoni.

When Dhoni hit that 183 against Sri Lanka in 2005, I was just a 10-year-old boy. I gaped at him, fascinated by the freedom and disdain with which he played on that day. I had sat with all my friends and celebrated wildly when Dhoni led India to the 2007 World T20 title. There were many days when I had bunked school, just to watch him roar.

And when he hit that six in the 2011 World Cup final, I had jumped with joy, as if nothing mattered. That ODI against England on 19th January 2017, when Dhoni turned back the clock and scored a blistering hundred, my heart had skipped a beat.

And as I closed my eyes, there was only one question in my Mind, why is it so difficult for us, to let go of our cricketers?

The answer to this is simple. There is no logic for love, and there is no doubting that we love our cricketers.