Sharapova knows not her Tendulkar; Neymar’s back’s out

Football player Neymar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sachin Tendulkar (Photo credit: ali_pk)

Maria Sharapova (Photo credit: D. Piris)

Its the 6th day in July; the semi-final line-up for the FIFA World Cup’s finalised and Petra Kvitova reigns supreme at Wimbledon once more.

In Brazil, it’s Brazil versus Germany and Holland versus Argentina.

Will it be an all South American final or an all European one?

Or is it to be a fifty-fifty split? Only the soccer gods know for sure.

Neymar’s horrendous ouster from the World Cup—kneed from behind by his Colombian opponent Juan Camilo Zúñiga—left a sour taste in the mouth.

Is this the end of Brazil’s World Cup?

Earlier in the week, Indian trolls had a field day hurling online invectives at Maria Sharapova for her insouciant response, “I don’t know who Tendulkar is.”

Does it really matter? Did Sharapova need to know who the demi-god of India cricket is to win her five slams?

For that matter, does Tendulkar need to be aware of tennis heroes and heroines to score on the cricket field?

Or do you and I need to know who the President of India is to do our jobs? Not unless your job needs you to know this trivia. But I digress.

Do you think Tendulkar cares that the ruling diva of women’s tennis does not recognise him or his name or his lauded achievements? He will probably breathe a sigh of relief that there’s one less bothersome fan in the world.

Is Sharapova to blame for her ignorance? Does it not have to do with the insular sports coverage of Western media specifically in Russia and the US? But why blame these states? How many Test-playing countries are there? Barely a handful.

Should Maria worry? Only if she’s seeking to package, market and sell Sugarpova in India, right?

Till next week. Adios, for now.