No Way To Treat A National Hero: The Sad Story of Sehwag’s Goodbye

It’s still not too late to give Virender Sehwag a farewell that honours the cricket hero, writes Shashi Tharoor.

Remember Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell? Announced well in advance, a two Test build-up, a grand finale at his home ground with his thank-you speech televised live to an adoring and tearful nation, followed by a Bharat Ratna, the nation’s highest civilian award, within weeks of his retirement. Entirely fitting for arguably India’s greatest cricketer, a man who gave pleasure to, and inspired, millions.

Now think of Virender Sehwag. Dropped without a word a mere two Tests (and just three months) after a stirring Test century against England, left to scratch around the fringes of first-class cricket, and comprehensively ignored until he saw the writing on the wall and announced his exit on his 37th birthday on October 20.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Very simple: comparisons are invidious, but Sehwag gave just as much pleasure as Tendulkar, if not more, to as many millions. And his achievements are to some degree even greater than Tendulkar’s: he is the only Indian to score a triple-century in cricket (he got four scores higher than Tendulkar’s highest), a record strike-rate, and a talent for winning matches off his own bat, while so many of Tendulkar’s masterpiece innings culminated in an Indian defeat. I don’t begrudge Tendulkar’s triumphant farewell in the slightest; I just don’t think Sehwag deserved his own cursory dismissal.

Deprived of an Honourable Goodbye

If, during that home series against Australia in early 2013 when Dhoni’s men were carrying all before them, our selectors had come to the conclusion that Sehwag’s shelf-life had reached its expiry date (a highly contestable conclusion at the time, but clearly that’s what they believed), wasn’t there a better way to bring his career to an end? A man who had played 104 Tests and 251 ODIs for the country, who had brought joy and excitement to millions, who had transformed so many matches off his own swashbuckling blade—shouldn’t he have been afforded the opportunity to say goodbye to the cricketing nation he had so brilliantly served?

Imagine if the selectors had taken him aside and said, “Viru bhai, we think it’s time you hung up your boots, and we’d like you to do this with dignity rather than drop you. We’re inclined to give you a rest in the next Test and try out young Shikhar Dhawan, your natural successor. But would you like one final opportunity in the final Test of the series, at your home ground in Delhi, to say farewell? We can announce it well in advance and give an adoring nation a chance to show you the respect you deserve.” It would have been fair, it would have been honourable, and it would have been a great occasion.

They didn’t have the decency to do that. They just dumped him. Worse, when his replacement, Dhawan, got injured and couldn’t play the last Test, they picked Gautam Gambhir, who fell ill, and then decided to do without an opener altogether rather than give Sehwag a final game before his home crowd. It was churlish in the extreme and no way to treat a national hero.

What the BCCI Should Do

This disgraceful treatment of a cricketing icon cannot be undone, but it’s not too late to make amends. Here’s what the BCCI should do immediately:

1. Announce a fitting tribute to Sehwag on the occasion of the first Test against South Africa, the team against which he made his Test debut in 2001. Dedicate the Test to him. Let the players applaud him onto the ground under a canopy of raised bats. Give him a memorial plaque that commemorates his great innings.

2. Work with the Delhi cricket authorities to name a stand at the Ferozeshah Kotla after him.

3. Lobby the government of India to give him a Padma Vibhushan at the next Republic Day honours, just one notch below Tendulkar’s Bharat Ratna. (All Sehwag has so far is a Padma Shri, three rungs below).

4. Institute an annual prize for the Test batsman with the highest strike-rate each year and name it the Sehwag Prize. Or have the fans vote online for The Player We Would Most Like to Watch and name that for Sehwag.

Virender Sehwag’s achievements guarantee his cricketing immortality. But the manner of his departure dishonours the sport he graced and all of us, the fans whose support and passion sustain it. It’s not too late for the powers-that-be to do the right thing...and to do the thing right.

(Former UN under-secretary-general, Shashi Tharoor is a Congress MP and author)