A: Sport, Celebrity and Popular Culture Sachin Tendulkar

Abstract The theme of sporting celebrity has attracted a significant amount of attention in the sociology of sport in recent times. Evident here has been a sense that the autobiographical details of contemporary sports figures represent key sites through which cultural change can be observed, inter-preted and analysed. In this article we take one particular sporting celebrity, Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, and assess his image in terms of its contribution to debates surrounding politics, religion and Indian nationalism. Our central thesis is that whilst Tendulkar affords all the hallmarks of cele-brity status, his identity remains rooted within the context of certain political and nationalistic values, all of which shape the contours of his iconic status especially in his homeland. Key words • cricket • Hindutva • Indian nationalisms • sporting celebrit