This is absolutely true. It confuses me so much when people bring up population as a a reason why Tendulkar > ____________. Do you think Ponting was under less pressure because Aus is only 20 million people?
To be fair irrespecitive of the population the Indian fan is a lot more fanatical both ways than compared to other countries.
Sometimes can be downright silly and the media is so overcriticising and overpraising from one end to the other. Though it is getting better.
Don't think Ponting has ever been booed in his home ground in Tasmania ,has he?
Or been mobbed at the local barber shop to just catch a glimpse of him and have to call the police to ****** him out?
The whole billion thing exaggerates the pressure point a bit ,but the pressure in India in this day and age is i think more than in other countries. And the avenues to release the pressure are restricted too.
Besides the money and all the extra curricular activites and the dummy god status makes it real tough to keep motivated for long these days and in all sports the peak of a sportsperson is coming down .Thanks to one thing - Motivation.
When you have almost done it all ,earned enough money to make sure that even your great grandchildren won't have to work ,what really is the motivation to carry on when your body is injured and your home crowd (where you have grown up) are booing you and people like Chappell and Manjrekar are out with knifes in the media to get you.
Just look at Yuvraj who lost his way after a great start and gained weight and was more interested in girls and cars later on.
Also look at Ian Thorpe if you want a australian example in other sports who was only at the top for a short while and then lost motivation.
To stay at the top for 21 years is that more tougher.