The retirement of Sachin Tendulkar, unarguably one of the greatest cricketers
the world has ever witnessed, was a major landmark in the recent history of
sport and generated a widespread media discourse across the world. This paper
analyses how differently Indian and foreign media engaged with this celebrity
discourse through a comparative analysis of the online editorials of three
leading international dailies namely, The Hindu (India), The Guardian (UK) and The
New York Times (US) during a given period. During the study, the resea rcher
identified contrasting online editorial approaches (Indian and non-Indian
pattern) to the treatment of Tendulkar’s retirement. The retirement articles of
other Indian greats in these three newspapers were also analysed and compared
with the articles on Tendulkar. A number of variables and sub-variables were
identified and analysed to discuss the key differences in the two ‘patterns’ of
media representation. The paper concluded that while the Indian pattern
idolised Tendulkar and made comparisons to God; the ‘non-Indian pattern’ was
objective and neutral.