Tendulkar needs to rein his handlers in

Sachin Tendulkar needs to keep a straight bat if he's to remain immortal, says Mukul Kesavan, in the National.

A birthday tweet by Tendulkar summed up the new tone deafness: "Hello friends, you can join my birthday chat and send me your wishes at 12.30pm today. Dial 5100100 from your Airtel phone." However blasé fans become about endorsements, there is something a little off about a great man leveraging his birthday to produce a revenue stream for his sponsors. It almost begged the question: "And how do I say happy birthday if I'm on Vodafone?"

Someone about to be canonised ought to count the cost of individual self-promotion at a time of collective defeat. A sportsman as adored as Tendulkar owes it to himself and his admirers to rein in his handlers when they crank the machine too hard.