So Pepsi has chosen not to extend Sachin Tendulkar's contract as its brand ambassador. As much as I don't really understand the commerce and politics of the queer world sport marketing, I know one thing for sure and pretty well at that, after Dhyan Chand, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is the greatest sportsperson the nation has produced. And given the era that the latter has played in, he was, is and will continue to be a genius. Agreed, he's not good at carrying the expectations of cricket crazy billions, falters many a times when we don't want him to, and is not entirely engaged in playing for the country given the way he makes money, through endorsements, food chains and playing paying cricket when he's not entirely fit, but then of the current lot and probably the past ones as well, who doesn't?
Don't we get goosebumps watching that exquisitely timed Sachin™ cover drive played on the rise, or that kiss on the tiny Indian Tricolor that he proudly plants as soon as he is through with one of his centuries? What about the way we switch off the TV as soon as Sachin Tendulkar starts to walk back to the pavillion.
We might have come to adore the fielding prowess of the Yuvrajs or the big hitting capacities of Dhonis but the truth remains that if I still watch a live cricket telecast, its just because of the chance of a lifetime of watching Sachin post another century, break another record, and so on...
And so when the numerous TV channels (when I say numerous, I don't mean all. There are some that can still be relied upon for there authentic reporting.) begin interpreting Pepsi's step as another moment in the sunset of Sachin's carrier, all I can do is smile sarcastically. With due regard to its Youngistan crap, youth is not just about falling for the ball whenever it comes your way... its also about, rather more about being able to pep up the droopin moods on the field, having the child like hunger for more, all the time. And the most one comes to associate such things with, is a guy called Sachin Tendulkar.
Commodities have shelf lives, not legends. They have antique value, something that only increases with time. And only time will tell whether Pepsi was right in doing what it did on the pretext of building a youngistan.
Do vote in the iNFINITY poll of the week to find out what most of us think about it.