Way to go
As a nation, we tend to overly celebrate our own sporting achievements. With so few sporting heroes, this is perhaps a forgivable tendency. But it should be a sobering thought that for every Vijay Amritraj or Leander Paes, there have been hundreds more in the international arena who have far outstripped their achievements. For one Milkha Singh who stood fourth in the 400 metres final in the Rome Olympics of 1960, there have been legions of athletes from even poorer nations than India who have been infinitely superior.
In badminton, despite the achievements of Prakash Padukone or a Saina Nehwal, there are dozens of others from smaller nations like Malaysia or Indonesia who have more feathers in the cap. Even the recently dethroned chess champion Viswanathan Anand comes once in several decades, and that is in a sport purportedly invented in India. Despite recent successes in wrestling and boxing, our record in the Olympics has been abysmal with a meagre bag of just 20 medals won so far, and in field hockey, a sport we once dominated, we have been reduced to virtual also-rans, finding it difficult to even beat small nations like New Zealand. And about our achievements in football, that ‘people’s sport’, we deserve a kick on our backsides.
Given this depressing scenario, it is little wonder that we crow over our achievements in the only game we excel in: cricket. But even in this field, as has been proved once again with the tour of South Africa, we are bullies at home and abject victims abroad. Very rarely do we win a Test match in alien conditions, leave alone a series. In fact India has suffered nine defeats in the last 12 Tests played abroad, without even a consolation victory. This is a poor record that needs to be set straight, especially in the only sport we truly excel in. More importantly, we need to be more objectively appreciative of the feats of individuals from other nations in the cricketing arena.
This niggardly response came to the fore with the recent retirement of South African cricketing hero Jacques Kallis. There were no reams of print even in cricket crazy India to celebrate his extraordinary achievements in Test cricket: well over 13,000 runs at an average of over 55. Unlike the quite embarrassing fanfare over the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar, Kallis went quietly, bat raised to the few applauding spectators at Kingsmead in Durban, and with a typically obdurate century to boot in his final innings. That is the way for true sporting heroes to depart. Contrast this with Tendulkar’s exit in the Mumbai Test in the series against the West Indies, a match belatedly organized in his own homeground and against an enfeebled side and with a long, rehearsed speech to mark the end of his career. Leave alone Kallis, even Rahul Dravid’s equally brilliant career ended without even half the fanfare accorded to Sachin Tendulkar.
It is true of course that Tendulkar’s style of batsmanship was far more attractive than Jacques’ more solid approach. But in the end if you look at the hard data, there was very little to choose between them. And as an allround cricketer, Kallis scored heavily over Tendulkar. Besides his achievements as a batsman, he captured almost 300 Test wickets and has been cricket’s greatest allrounder since Ian Botham. And unlike Tendulkar, he did not stretch his career beyond breaking point.
