The Cult of God in Indian Cricket Not Just Sachin Tendulkar

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On one side there are fans of Sachin Tendulkar refusing to admit that his prolonged slump is a problem. On the other hand there are his critics, zooming in on cricketers summoned from the recent past, hauling them way past their achievements, to the level of the absolute ideal, in order to compare and contrast with Tendulkar’s supposed shortcomings. Arunabha Sengupta delves into his conversations with veteran sports historian Mihir Bose to conclude that cricket in India is a mythological drama depicting the clashes of created gods.

If we don’t like a god, we must create another. In God we trust. The rest bring data.  These words of wisdom are attributed to Professor W. Edward Deming, American statistician, author and consultant. Applying quality control techniques and sophisticated statistical methods, Deming was instrumental in rebuilding post World War II Japan into a leading producer of high quality innovative products and shaping the country into an economic powerhouse.

In a perverse way, the quote offers a curious explanation of the sound and fury that surrounds the Indian cricket world, especially the fan-frenzy that hems it in and sustains its commercial fumes.

As the ocean of opinions on Indian cricket are tossed around and violently churned in many turbulent discussion forums, the beliefs and convictions that rise up are often deep-rooted in personal perceptions. Data is most often a bothersome evil surprising too, since cricket has one of the richest trail of numbers found in any sport. The ideas and conjectures have all the reasons to be more robust, backed up by reason and logic, with aid of figures underlining the facts.

Yet, it is not so. Figures and objective evidence do not seem to fit into the equation. The perceptions are most often as detached from facts as possible. And we need to look at the Deming quote backwards to decipher a reason behind this phenomenon.

Indian fans do not follow cricketers  they believe in the gods that they make out of them. Hence, data is an overhead and sometimes a menace for their fanatical convictions.  There are plenty of beliefs littered around the cricket world that are considered gospel that fall miserably in the face of facts. We have covered several of them on Cricket Country earlier. From the ridiculous claims about Indian defeats when Sachin Tendulkar scores a century, to the best players against the fearsome West Indian pace bowlers, from the supposed fab-factor of the fab-four to the luck factor of MS Dhoni, there have been examples aplenty about the misconceptions that run amok. However, for the purpose of this article it will suffice to look at the latest burning question surrounding the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar.

When we shared some views on the topic, we as usual received plenty of reactions from all corners of the cyberspace.  The points put forward by our article were simple enough.  Yes, Tendulkar is going through a prolonged trough. Yes, the dip in form has lasted 21 Tests. Yes, there are growing reasons to suggest that he should call it a day.

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