Is Sachin Tendulkar being unnecessarily targeted?

Sachin Tendulkar finished 20 years in international cricket but during the press interaction invited trouble when he openly spoke his mind on Mumbai and it belonging to India and not just Maharashtra. Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece ‘Samna’ immediately condemned his statement and retorted he should have focussed on cricket and shouldn’t have got into politics as his statement hurt Marathi sentiments. As the matter was dying down Sena once again brought it in the limelight by explaining why Sachin was not a true Maharashtrian. Samna’s editor Raut wrote, “There has been no instance of Sachin extending a helping hand to other Marathi cricketers. Forget others, he did not even support Vinod Kambli. In contrast, Gavaskar when he captained India, had half the team drawn from Mumbai and Maharashtra. He gave Test caps to many Marathi players including Suru Naik and Zulphikar Parkar at least for one match. In this context, Gavaskar is a genuine 'Maharashtrian' and the whole country loves him even now in the same way.” “Players like Sachin have become rich because of the game of cricket. Sachin's wealth has crossed Rs 200-crore mark. We expect Sachin to be as 'proud' of Maharashtra as Saurav Ganguly is of Bengal. Rahul Dravid too is a Marathi player but he is loyal to Karnataka,” said Raut.