Since Arjun Tendulkar started playing cricket, his fame has always trotted well ahead of his name. It is amazing to see someone who has not yet featured in any international game or let alone an international game, not even a first-class game to have such stardom.
Arjun Tendulkar as a cricketer and as a hotshot is growing leaps and bounds with time and his surname gives him all the limelight for he is the son of the man who once was regarded as the ‘god’ of cricket in India.
Arjun Tendulkar has not played any first-class cricket yet but still, he was seen bowling to the Women’s Cricket Team of India ahead of the ICC World Cup 2017 final at Lord’s. Isn’t this just to cool for someone who is yet to make a mark in the cutthroat completion of cricket?
Then Arjun made headlines again when he was spotted bowling in the nets to the likes of Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan during the ODI series with the Kiwis. While other aspiring cricketers are dying to be with Kohli or even get to see him, Arjun had the leverage of bowling to him.
The kind of attention that he gets while practising with these star cricketers is something that even the stars don’t get. But has this sense of nepotism triggered a tussle between Arjun and his name? Arjun has every opportunity and exposure to his disposal and on the other hand, aspiring cricketers of his age have none of them. You got to say that nepotism is real even here.
His popularity also radiates and reflects upon some cricketer tournaments which were not recognised by people before Arjun participated in them. For example, Before Arjun was picked up for the under 19 squad of Mumbai for the JY Lele All India Invitational cup not many of us knew that a tournament of this sort also exists.
Every star kid by default gets attention and it is even more prolific when a star kid decided to pursue the same profession as done by their mother or father. Arjun’s case is one of those and we can understand that this might be a real pain in the ass sometimes. There is huge pressure on you to perform when you are a star kid or a celebrity kid. Would Arjun be able to handle this humungous pressure?
Anna McEnroe, the daughter of the tennis maestro John McEnroe, had once shared how difficult is it to cope up with the ‘surname pressure’.
“I am Anna McEnroe, and to the eyes of a spectator, I was moulded from the clay of Roland-Garros and run on the grass at Wimbledon. I am a McEnroe, a McEnroe who plays Tennis well; a McEnroe who plays well, but not well enough.”
Arjun has all the good prospects of being a successful fast bowler. He is tall, has a strong built, a nice action and decent pace being an 18 year old. Besides talent, he has the best facilities that a budding cricketer could ever get. But given all this, would be able to live to the expectations and not sulk in the pressure chamber that his surname is building around him?