The Hindu : In celebration of the mighty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 26, 2003

Sport

Sport - World Cup

In celebration of the mighty

By Nirmal Shekar

In the world of sport, pigs can fly. When they do, they send our spirits soaring, lifting the mundane to exalted levels, stretching the limits of possibility and making us sit up in open-mouthed wonderment.

A pair of Kenyan brothers with names that roll off the tongue like lyrics in some tribal African rain dance making the mighty Sri Lankans dance to their tunes; a little known Canadian treating experienced West Indies fast bowlers with the sort of contempt that Viv Richards, in his pomp, reserved for anything fractionally short of the very best...ah, how utterly unpredictable and thrilling sporting drama can be!

Kennedy Otieno, Collins Obuya and John Davison were not the sort of names that the best of World Cup scriptwriters might have considered even for bit roles. But each of them has already had his 15 minutes of fame in southern Africa, ignoring the script and assuming delightfully entertaining lead roles.

There is something about the rise of the underdog, something about the flight of the obscure, earth-bound creature that's suddenly taken wings, something about the metamorphosis of a midget into a giant that we find at once soul-lifting and morale-boosting.

Yet, for all the breathtakingly beautiful moments of watching pleasure provided by the Otienos, Obuyas and the Davisons, to me quite the most significant aspect of this World Cup has to do with the overdog rather than the underdog.

Even as the Otienos, Obuyas and Davisons seek to share the spotlight with the Laras, Tendulkars, Flemings and Akrams, the great Australian juggernaut has quietly moved on and on relentlessly towards a seemingly pre-destined place in the Super Six.

But, what's surprising about that? What's new about Australia beating its Group A opponents and racing into the next stage of the championship? They are the favourites, aren't they? They are the champions, aren't they?

Surely, a good majority of cricket fans will say all this and more. The reactions will not only be predictable but will, no doubt, reflect the truth as well. This is what happens when a team wins all the time. We take their success for granted and even, sometimes, secretly pray for their downfall.

But, then, how often do we seriously ponder the phenomenon and ask ourselves this question: What does it take to become the best and to remain the best, match after match, week after week, tournament after tournament?

Before a ball was bowled by Glen McGrath, before a ball was struck by Adam Gilchrist or Matthew Hayden, a bomb as devastating as a daisy cutter was dropped on the Australian camp, so to say. Few teams could have lived with the sort of scandal that Shane Warne's positive test triggered; fewer teams could have made light of the great spinner's absence and gone about their business as if nothing was missing.

Few teams could have afforded to leave behind the single most inspiring cricketer and team leader of our times - Steve Waugh; fewer teams could have performed as if the great man was never part of the scheme of things.

Indeed, to me, quite the most astonishing aspect of the first two weeks of this World Cup is the manner in which Australia has lived up to its billing under Ricky Ponting. They were expected to win every single time they made it to the pitch; and they have won every single time they have been in the middle. Simple, on paper, but not quite as simple on the ground.

"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place," wrote Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass. Ah, No.1. There is nothing quite like it in sport. There is no feeling quite like it, whether it is in an individual sport or in a team game. But as intoxicating and addictive as the feeling may be, you shudder to think what it takes to retain the feeling. The demands made on the best in the business are at once extraordinary and mind-boggling.

It is not only lonely at the top but the climate can be rather oppressive. You need to be adequately clothed, psychologically, to protect yourself from the heat that is turned on from below by your competitors.

Imagine: every single team in this World Cup will go up against Australia with the knowledge that they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Every single time, the pressure is on the Australians, not merely to perform, but to do so like world champions are expected to.

And, for a good part of four or five years, from the time they won the last World Cup in England, the Australians have been doing what is expected of them without complaint and with considerable success.

Then again, if all the world loves a World Champion, how many people really know what it takes to maintain stratospheric levels of achievement, to hold on to the enviable status that comes with occupying the ultimate pedestal?

Indeed, as Lewis Carroll wrote, "it takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place." And this Australian side has been doing a lot of running with tremendous motivation and focus.

If they have few fans outside their own country, if they are often deemed arrogant and conceited, then that comes with the territory. "Nobody roots for Goliath," lamented the late Wilt Chamberlain, one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

Now, the other big-league teams, and millions of fans too, would perhaps be waiting for Australia's eventual fall, a fall that would be so much a part of the eternal pattern of things in life and sport. Whether this will happen over the next few weeks is anybody's guess. The bookmakers in London and Melbourne don't think so. More importantly, Ricky Ponting and his men do not think so.

Even if it does happen - even if the Aussies are beaten in this tournament - in my mind they will continue to be the best team until another one, perhaps the team that conquers them, can dominate the sport with such consistent excellence as the men from Bradman's country have displayed over the last few years.

Like Pete Sampras in tennis in the 1990s, like Tiger Woods in golf, like the great West Indians under Clive Lloyd, this Australian team has raised the bar so high that even if a rival does manage to vault that high over the next few weeks, it would probably do so with a lot of luck. Whether it can stay at the level is another matter.

Revel in the heroics of the Otienos, Obuyas and Davisons. Salute the gutsy Kenyans. But, at the end of the day, tip your hat for the best in the business - the Aussies. They deserve it.

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