Mumbai, November 23: In a tactical move, the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna once again hit out at cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar in its Sunday edition, claiming that Sachin plays only for the Indian cricket board and not for Maharashtra.
Smarting under all-round condemnation from political parties of all hues for its attack on the media, the Shiv Sena’s renewed dig at Sachin is seen as an attempt to divert attention from its assault on news channel IBN-Lokmat staffers in Vikhroli on Friday.
While lambasting Sachin, Sena MP and Saamna editor Sanjay Raut hailed Sunil Gavaskar, another great cricketer, as a “true Maharashtrian” who had helped many sons-of-the-soil to make it to the national team. Sachin, said Raut, had not supported any Maharashtrian cricketer, not even his best friend Vinod Kambli.
“Sachin is not greater than Maharashtra. He may be a great cricketer, but his runs and shots belong to the cricket board’s record book. They do very little to enhance Maharashtra’s pride,” said the article.
‘‘Players like Sachin have become rich due to cricket. Sachin’s wealth has crossed the Rs 200 crore mark. We want Sachin to be as proud of Maharashtra as Sourav Ganguly is of Bengal. Rahul Dravid too is a Marathi player, but he is loyal to Karnataka,’’ Saamna editor Sanjay Raut said. The article also recalled that the modern architect of Maharashtra, Yashwantrao Chavan, had to apologize for saying that Nehru was greater than Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, in comments disowned by the BCCI, Congress Rajya Sabha MP and the BCCI’s finance committee chairman, Rajiv Shukla, on Sunday ridiculed the Sena’s latest verbal attack on Tendulkar, saying the party was only harming its own image by criticising the revered cricketer.
-Agencies