Where are the Tendulkarites?u00a0Who have bought/hoarded/sold/distributed all those tickets/passes? Why was the ground less than full? What does ‘sold out’ mean in this context? u00a0

After all the excitement, the predictions, the crash of the ticket-vending website, this is the result? If Mumbai does not turn up for its favourite son playing his 200th and final Test, what does it mean?

“So few of us in Mumbai have been able to get tickets that there are fans who hope that Sachin doesn’t do well – so they can save themselves the pain of a great innings missed,” the gentleman behind me in the early morning queue to enter the stadium said. It sounded excessively cynical, this sour grapes syndrome.

Sachin Tendulkar clips one off his toes against WI at the Wankhede Stadium yesterday. Pic/Suresh KK