Sportspersons, like film stars, are a different breed than the rest of us. With my recent PhD after seven years of hard toil, sure, I've contributed to the betterment of Science. Well... scientific Engineering. Urm... let's be honest... to practical Engineering. Uhh... well to Engineering practices. Oh, what the hell, to getting a dusty ledge in a dirty library in a defunct wing of a WORLD RENOWNED (heh... heh.., got you) university. But the point is, I've done something that will most likely end up as a footnote in the annals of human history.
Sportsmen and TV stars, the good ones atleast, do something that people will remember as defining epithets of that field (ha... ha... fancy word there... a pity these are disallowed in rigorous scientific prose). They are remembered as icons. And unless you are a Newton or a Gauss or an Einstein or a Feynman, Science beleaguers you into being one of among a fifty thousand or so who graduate every year. And I bet you that you will be hard pressed to find two other scientists with a vowel appellate. I will name one for you... Abel. Not so with sports and cinema. There are atleast 50 different scientific fields, and I can think of only one name of note that started with an A. But come sports and movies, I can name three: Agassi and Alain (Prost if you are churlish) and Arnold.
So there. In the final tally of what matters to most men - and women, since Amelia Earhart, she who was blessed with not one but two vowelline names and was the progenitor of modern airfield games - its the sports and movie superstars who take the icing on the cake of superstardom built of others in less fortunate fields. And between the movies and sports, there is one key difference. One is live... the other is not.
So then... as an average human being, albeit with an IQ slightly higher than the average bear and with a degree most of you can only hope, in the best of circumstances to come through the mail for services otherwise rendered, the best sportsperson I've seen in my lifetime is... Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum... Saurav Ganguly!
He is the man who transformed Indian Cricket from the immensely popular but also ran Minardis to the powerhouse that is a Ferrari. He changed the face of Indian Cricket from an often mercurial, but more often predictable US Davis cup team to the world beating Aussies. He made Indian Cricket into the Lancia Delta Integrali, a car that could be relied upon to win and win consistently, from an Audi TT, that could only do wet hillclimbs magnificently. He changed Indian Cricket from a side that had its Bests and Beckhams and Rooneys, to one that could challenge for the World Cup everytime with a Pele and a Ronaldo an a Ronaldinho. In short, he was to Indian Cricket as Michael Schumacher was to German Formula One. Better yet, he was to India's new millenium National Anthem of Chak De Blue. as was his compatriot to the Jana Gana Mana decades ago.
As a Cricketing legend who transformed into the Dark Side of the Moon, there can be no other than the great Dada. Not even Bradman, with his uparalled might against the short ball (he managed a hundred in the days when a ball to your ribcage was considered unEnglishmanlike - although, given their conduct through the Raj, I use the term very loosely), or Marshall with his blinding pace that scared tailenders into eternal nightmares, or Sobers with his first six home runs off consecutive pitches (yes, yes, but I do have an American audience as well, you know), and the evergreen Sachin, who is only as old as his next announced retirement is, could match the wholesome grandeur he has brought to Indian Cricket, first as a swashbuckling an critically acclaimed Prince of the off side, and later as India's most successful captain.
Dada gave this side a self belief in itself that none other managed before in any form of the game with any country. You could draw parallels to the great Alain Prost who did something similar with the then fledgling McLaren Porsches, or with Schumacher and the positively uncompetitive Ferraris, but those were more about an individual building a team around THEMSELVES. Here was, in my humble opinion the first example of a TEAM built around an individual. An Individual whose record of four hundred and twenty four intentional matches, 38 centuries and 132 wickets speak for themselves, but who also as a captain led the team to 97 victories in 195 matches with way more wins than losses (97 to 78). More importantly, he won us almost twice the number of matches he lost in tests (21 to just 13). Most importantly of all, he won more matches outside India in tests than he lost (11 to 10), and crucially won in Pakistan, England, Australia and South Africa, the perennial final frontiers for Indian Cricket. Feats unheard of till then except for the great Kapil Dev who only managed it in Old Blimey.
Of all the things that Dada has done for betterment of Indian Cricket, he did a few things that stand out as pure genius. Backing Harbhajan Singh when he
was only one among the pack... that speaks for itself. A Matchwinner par excellence for India with his 400 plus wickets. Lobbying for the great, perhaps greatest Indian captain of all time, Mahendra Singh D when he was but a lark of lad with an Imran Khan wanna be haircut, and controversially but wisely relegating Tendulkar to number four in ODIs to make way for the most explosive batsman the Cricketing world has seen for a while, Sehwag. Canny decisions all... and all indicative of a brain that's fed to the gill with fishes (after all, what else would you expect from a Bengali?), bulging as it does end on end.
Most of all, he swirled his blue shirt at lords and got his first hundred at lords, and well, he lords over all over Indian Captains before or since in terms of just plain Attitude. To a fan of a game that is marginally more than a unifying religion in a country that is divided by a lot less high profile stuff, he is, and will remain, the one and only true DADA.
Honorable Mentions:
Michael Schumacher, for taking a car that would not turn into corners to a memorable win in Catalunya and then onto five consecutive world Championships
Andre Agassi. for proving that talent alone is not the only recipe to become a pop culture superstar in the era or the infinitely more talented Sampras
Lance Armstrong, for quaffing in the face of Cancer? What cancer?
Viswanathan Anand, for showing the world that Chess is not a bohemian pasttime of the idle Russians
Baichung Bhutia, for bringing football to the Cricket crazed billions in a country where that sport has its own holy Trinity
The Black Caps, for showing us that a nation with more sheep than men can actually be good at something
The Giants, for bringing back the faith after the longest interval between superstars and also rans
Sportsmen and TV stars, the good ones atleast, do something that people will remember as defining epithets of that field (ha... ha... fancy word there... a pity these are disallowed in rigorous scientific prose). They are remembered as icons. And unless you are a Newton or a Gauss or an Einstein or a Feynman, Science beleaguers you into being one of among a fifty thousand or so who graduate every year. And I bet you that you will be hard pressed to find two other scientists with a vowel appellate. I will name one for you... Abel. Not so with sports and cinema. There are atleast 50 different scientific fields, and I can think of only one name of note that started with an A. But come sports and movies, I can name three: Agassi and Alain (Prost if you are churlish) and Arnold.
So there. In the final tally of what matters to most men - and women, since Amelia Earhart, she who was blessed with not one but two vowelline names and was the progenitor of modern airfield games - its the sports and movie superstars who take the icing on the cake of superstardom built of others in less fortunate fields. And between the movies and sports, there is one key difference. One is live... the other is not.
He is the man who transformed Indian Cricket from the immensely popular but also ran Minardis to the powerhouse that is a Ferrari. He changed the face of Indian Cricket from an often mercurial, but more often predictable US Davis cup team to the world beating Aussies. He made Indian Cricket into the Lancia Delta Integrali, a car that could be relied upon to win and win consistently, from an Audi TT, that could only do wet hillclimbs magnificently. He changed Indian Cricket from a side that had its Bests and Beckhams and Rooneys, to one that could challenge for the World Cup everytime with a Pele and a Ronaldo an a Ronaldinho. In short, he was to Indian Cricket as Michael Schumacher was to German Formula One. Better yet, he was to India's new millenium National Anthem of Chak De Blue. as was his compatriot to the Jana Gana Mana decades ago.
As a Cricketing legend who transformed into the Dark Side of the Moon, there can be no other than the great Dada. Not even Bradman, with his uparalled might against the short ball (he managed a hundred in the days when a ball to your ribcage was considered unEnglishmanlike - although, given their conduct through the Raj, I use the term very loosely), or Marshall with his blinding pace that scared tailenders into eternal nightmares, or Sobers with his first six home runs off consecutive pitches (yes, yes, but I do have an American audience as well, you know), and the evergreen Sachin, who is only as old as his next announced retirement is, could match the wholesome grandeur he has brought to Indian Cricket, first as a swashbuckling an critically acclaimed Prince of the off side, and later as India's most successful captain.Dada gave this side a self belief in itself that none other managed before in any form of the game with any country. You could draw parallels to the great Alain Prost who did something similar with the then fledgling McLaren Porsches, or with Schumacher and the positively uncompetitive Ferraris, but those were more about an individual building a team around THEMSELVES. Here was, in my humble opinion the first example of a TEAM built around an individual. An Individual whose record of four hundred and twenty four intentional matches, 38 centuries and 132 wickets speak for themselves, but who also as a captain led the team to 97 victories in 195 matches with way more wins than losses (97 to 78). More importantly, he won us almost twice the number of matches he lost in tests (21 to just 13). Most importantly of all, he won more matches outside India in tests than he lost (11 to 10), and crucially won in Pakistan, England, Australia and South Africa, the perennial final frontiers for Indian Cricket. Feats unheard of till then except for the great Kapil Dev who only managed it in Old Blimey.Of all the things that Dada has done for betterment of Indian Cricket, he did a few things that stand out as pure genius. Backing Harbhajan Singh when hewas only one among the pack... that speaks for itself. A Matchwinner par excellence for India with his 400 plus wickets. Lobbying for the great, perhaps greatest Indian captain of all time, Mahendra Singh D when he was but a lark of lad with an Imran Khan wanna be haircut, and controversially but wisely relegating Tendulkar to number four in ODIs to make way for the most explosive batsman the Cricketing world has seen for a while, Sehwag. Canny decisions all... and all indicative of a brain that's fed to the gill with fishes (after all, what else would you expect from a Bengali?), bulging as it does end on end.
Most of all, he swirled his blue shirt at lords and got his first hundred at lords, and well, he lords over all over Indian Captains before or since in terms of just plain Attitude. To a fan of a game that is marginally more than a unifying religion in a country that is divided by a lot less high profile stuff, he is, and will remain, the one and only true DADA.Honorable Mentions:
Michael Schumacher, for taking a car that would not turn into corners to a memorable win in Catalunya and then onto five consecutive world Championships
Andre Agassi. for proving that talent alone is not the only recipe to become a pop culture superstar in the era or the infinitely more talented Sampras
Lance Armstrong, for quaffing in the face of Cancer? What cancer?
Viswanathan Anand, for showing the world that Chess is not a bohemian pasttime of the idle Russians
Baichung Bhutia, for bringing football to the Cricket crazed billions in a country where that sport has its own holy Trinity
The Black Caps, for showing us that a nation with more sheep than men can actually be good at something
The Giants, for bringing back the faith after the longest interval between superstars and also rans
