Shiv Sena chief hurls beamer at Sachin

This evoked an angry reaction from India’s political establishment and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

In no time, voices across India, which is celebrating 20 years of Tendulkar’s glorious career that has made him a cricket legend, hit out at the Shiv Sena founder leader.

“He should not have taken a cheeky single by making such remarks,” Thackeray said.
He added: “You have got run-out on the pitch of Marathi psyche.” Bal Thackeray’s remarks were made in a scathing editorial in the party mouthpiece ‘Saamna’.

Referring to the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement for the foundation of a Marathi-speaking state, the Sena chief said: “You (Sachin) were not even born when the ‘Marathi Manoos’ got Mumbai, and 105 Marathis sacrificed their lives to get Mumbai.”

Thackeray expressed displeasure that Sachin had “left the crease” and moved to the pitch of politics by making these remarks, “which have hurt the Marathi sentiment.”
The remarks that rattled the Shiv Sena chief were quite straight.

“Mumbai belongs to India. That is how I look at it. I am a Maharashtrian, and I am extremely proud of that, but I am an Indian first,” Sachin Tendulkar had said.