The Hindu : An ode to a fire fighter and a genius

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 04, 2003

Sport

Sport - World Cup

An ode to a fire fighter and a genius

By Nirmal Shekar

WATCHING the game's greatest fire fighter get down to the business of dousing the flames and steering his men to safety at Port Elizabeth on Sunday, it struck me yet again how central the role of a handful of key players is even in a team sport and how often we fail to grasp the true significance of their contributions.

No doubt, Andy Bichel was simply marvellous. He bowled as if he had been hauled out of the death row from a top security prison and told that grabbing a half dozen wickets on the day would earn him a Presidential pardon. And Bichel's batting was a revelation too against England.

It was Bichel's day all right; the gentleman whose job it was to name the Man of the Match had a simple decision to make. Nor did millions who watched that World Cup game on Sunday have any doubt as to who won the match for Australia.

But, what of the famous fireman? Didn't Michael Bevan's innings actually stem the rot and turn the tide in favour of Australia at the very end? Did not his one-pointed focus, fierce determination and courage in the face of adversity matter one bit?

Of course it did. For all the heroics enacted by Bichel, England could very well have won the match if they had seen the back of Bevan in time. As many, many other teams failed to in the past, so did England.

The flames had died. Even the last embers were smothered. There was not even a whiff of smoke and out marched Bevan, the hint of a smile on his handsome face. It was time to get rid of the uniform and pick up a cup of tea. Another day at the office had come to an end; another job well done.

In the dressing room, a huge bear hug for Bichel from the mates; just a pat in the back for Bevan. For Bichel was a revelation; Bevan merely did what was expected of him, no less, no more.

Ah, how we take certain individuals for granted! How we take their consistent excellence, unwavering concentration and invaluable contributions for granted! This is true even at a more exalted level in sports, a level which a Bevan, for all his commitment and skills, may never reach, an altitude that is home to geniuses such as Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara and Shane Warne.

In the event, it was not surprising to hear and read about how superbly Mohammed Kaif and Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh played to underline yet again the great new Indian team spirit and carry India to an emotional triumph against Pakistan which, in the end, was a tribute to team-work.

There can be no doubt that it was an inspired team performance. But the big question is, where did the inspiration come from? Surely, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar, who together have more than 1000 ODI victims, looked like expert marksmen whose binocular sights had suddenly turned foggy. The balls were pitching everywhere but where they might have wanted them to.

But why? Were these not the bowlers that did so well even against the mighty Australians before Andrew Symonds played the innings of his life?

Of course they were. It's just that the assault mounted by a solitary genius was so breathtakingly awesome that three of the most experienced fast bowlers in the business looked like frontline soldiers who had been stripped of their weapons.

Say all you will about teamwork. Say all you will about camaraderie and team spirit. Celebrate the courage and skills of young guns like Kaif and Yuvraj as well as The Wall's solidity.

But, against Pakistan, one thing made all the difference, one man made all the difference. Brutal aggression made all the difference. Tendulkar's genius made all the difference. The rest were minor details.

Imagine, now, a situation where Tendulkar, rather circumspect and subdued in the face of perceived pace threat from Akram and Younis and Akhtar, had plodded his way to a half-century in 90-odd balls. What would Kaif and Dravid and Yuvraj have done then? Surely, then, the Pakistan bowling would have looked 100 times as good as it turned out to be on that day.

It was Tendulkar's onslaught that stripped a great, if ageing, pace attack of its manliness and menace. If the master hadn't done what he did in the first 10 overs, 273 would have looked like 473.Ah, what a genius, what a great master of batsmanship he is, what a gifted little man who is, at once, Eminem and Placido Domingo, at once, Mozart and Madonna, whose bat is, at once, a great big axe in the hands of a mad-man and a paint brush in the hands of a Picasso.

In sports such as cricket and football and hockey, teamwork is of great importance. Time and time again, the teams that win are the ones that perform as cohesive units, ones in which each individual understands his role and performs to the best of his abilities.

For many years, successive German football teams have found tremendous success mainly because of their organisation and the quality of their teamwork. As much can be said of Australian cricket teams through the years.

How many times we have seen teams comprising average to good players stepping on some invisible ladder to match sides that feature a genius of two or perhaps an array of great players. In almost all team sports, there are hundreds of such examples.

Quite often, good teamwork is of greater importance than even the presence of an individual genius in the side. For the mere presence of a Tendulkar or a Lara or a Warne is no guarantee for success on the big stage. Teamwork is, too, of greater importance than the presence of an inspired individual like Bevan.

But, then, sport is not always about what is important. At least, not to me. It is about what is truly elevating, about what is at once spine tingling and soul lifting, about what transcends the ordinary and the mundane and offers us a seat on a flight to stratospheric heights of creativity and genius.

A Diego Maradona single-handedly piloting Argentina to victory in the 1986 soccer World Cup in Mexico, a Pete Sampras or a Tiger Woods lifting their sports to levels no other men have aspired to, a Michael Jordan steering the Chicago Bulls to six title triumphs.... And, yes, and a Sachin Tendulkar, like Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, on a perfect flight, taking us on a journey like no other.

Give me a dash of the Tendulkar genius any day. It is far more glorious than flag waving patriotism and magnificent teamwork. For, there is nothing in sport quite as breathtakingly beautiful as the works of individual genius. Nor, for that matter, is there anything quite like the resolve and spirit of a solitary individual who does the trick time and time again like that great Aussie fire fighter Michael Bevan.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport