With the entire world still battling to understand the Coronavirus (COVID-19) that has been branded ‘pandemic’ by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Indian cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar has urged fans to deal with this deadly virus the way cricketers have been dealing with their challenges when it comes to Test cricket.
“Cricket is a unique sport. Most sports compete against other sports for fans’ attention, but cricket competes with ever-evolving versions of itself. There has been much debate about the relevance of Test Cricket in the fast-paced T20 world. While the world battles the Covid-19 pandemic, this is probably the time for all of us to draw lessons from the grand old format of the game,” Sachin wrote in a column for the Times of India.
Citing similarities between Test cricket and Coronavirus, Sachin advised people to take lessons from the longest format of the game which is known to challenge players at all intervals, forcing them to respect the aspects that they aren’t aware of. Similarly, when it comes to COVID-19, there isn’t absolute surety as to where the virus came from and how to stop it from spreading. In such a case, we human beings need to be in the defensive mode in order to ‘attack’ the virus.
“Test cricket rewards you for respecting what you don’t understand. It makes you value the virtue of patience. When you don’t understand the pitch conditions or the bowler, defence becomes the best form of attack.
“Patience is what we require now, if we have to defend well. In my entire life as a professional cricketer and beyond, I never thought I would see anything like this. Cricket in India and globally has come to a complete standstill,” Tendulkar advised.
Governments and health & welfare authorities all across the globe are taking strict measures to tackle the coronavirus threat. Their sole efforts, however, will go to waste if people don’t take precautions on personal levels. In this hour of need, as per Sachin, teamwork is required more than individual efforts
“To use a cricketing metaphor, while individual brilliance can help a team in shorter formats of the game, in Test cricket it is all about partnerships and teamwork. If a batter faces the easy overs and keeps letting partners take on the menacing bowlers, then he or she may score runs and remain unbeaten, but the innings will collapse. This is a valuable lesson for us to learn from,” Sachin further wrote in the column.
