Mediocre Perspectives

Sporting greatness is a very difficult thing to settle much more when you consider the element of time. Time is possibly the arch rival of any sporting legend feeding over his prowess with each passing day. When it is difficult to maintain even a shadow of yourself when you are past your prime what unraveled on Wimbledon Centre Court yesterday was a chapter which will go down as ‘The One Where Greatness is Re-defined’. Roger Federer won his 19 th Grand Slam title the highest by a male player in the Open Era of Tennis (i.e. from 1968 when professionals were also allowed to play Grand Slam tournaments). The achievement is Himalayan when one realizes that this man will turn 36 next month and that he did not play six months of competitive tennis after a knee surgery last year. Federer in Wimbledon 2009. His elegance and aggressive style of play was most expressive on Grass Photo Courtesy: Justin Smith Game: Even before this victory, Federer was agreed by most as the...

The Greatest Match of all Time: I have to make a confession here. Close to a decade ago, Federer and Nadal met in 2008 Wimbledon final. Critics expected a classic but few would have declared that it would go down as possibly the greatest tennis match played in the Open Era. Being a fanatic of Federer's game I ought to have watched the complete match. Federer had lost the first two sets when he was leading 5-4 in the third, the match was suspended due to a rain delay. I did not know what came over me or maybe it was already late to bed or maybe I had an exam the next day (you know about the Indian schooling system). I draped the bedsheet over me and turned off the lights pretty convinced from the way the game had progressed that the match will be over soon. I was shocked to see the front page of ' The Hindu'  next morning. I vividly remember the picture, of Federer and Nadal with the title 'Grasscourt Gladiators'. The newspaper said that the match was into the f...

When I was in ninth standard there was a usual discussion in class regarding what you want to become. Back then unrestricted by expectations of society we told our teacher what we really wanted to be. In my ninth standard, I was pretty sure that I will take up genetics. Back then I did not know that the society considers it a foolish aspiration unfit for earning 20000 rupees a month. If I told you that I live in the state of Tamil Nadu your assumption that I took up engineering is dead right. After all, that is what you are supposed to do. There was this one friend who wanted to be in the NBA. When my teacher asked him, “Do you think it is possible?” he silently nodded his head. He was an extraordinary player on the court. I have seen him win important matches for our school in the zonal. He even represented the State once I guess. I am in touch with only a handful of friends after school and I met him only once after that. A few months ago, when I was surfing through Facebook I ...

It is been a very long time since I have watched live cricket. It is partly because I have cultivated aversion towards Television and mostly due to lack of opportunity. But I could not force myself to watch the game without the ‘mute’ button being active. I don’t remember the last time when the commentary was so annoying. One of the important rules for commentary in any sport is ‘not to insult the viewer by narrating what he can already see’. Book cover designer Chip Kidd in a TED talk spoke about one of the important lessons which he learnt as a beginner, “ Either quote the word ‘Apple’ on the cover or print a fleshy picture of the fruit, but don’t do both”. I watched it only for a few minutes. I do not who were voicing from the commentary box, but I certainly found it manufactured noise intended to disrupt me happily watching the game. They were more focused on coming up with more adjectives and innovative scenarios to describe what I was seeing. Let me throw an example. Jadeja...

The recently concluded cricket series between India and South Africa has produced some resilient performances from both sides. Though the Indian side won the series 3-0 the South African have several positives to take back from this tour. The tour rekindled the long standing debate – the importance of the cricket pitch. Perhaps there is no other sport where the performance of the players is affected significantly with change in the battleground. This is certainly attributed to the nature of the sport where the cricketing pitch is involved in every ball bowled. Tennis is probably one other sport where there are specialists for each surface. Cricketing pitches vary across continents. The 22 yards favour swing in Australia, pace and bounce in South Africa and spin in the subcontinent as we’ve seen in the last series. In addition to their inherent nature weather patterns could slightly alter their nature. Pitch preparation which is taken care by the ground staff prepare pitches which...

It would be fair to say that I started watching tennis because of Roger Federer. Tennis was alien to me ten years ago. I didn’t even know that ‘love’ had a different meaning when pronounced on a tennis court. But watching Federer play was enchanting. It felt like poetry in motion. Ten years down the line, I have become an ardent fan of tennis and I realize that I was fortunate to have watched the ‘Big Four’ play in their prime. I am not sure where I read that phrase for the first time but I do know that it suits the four well. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have enthralled tennis fans for a decade. Most sports including tennis see the rise of stars every decade. To quote examples in tennis, there was a decade of John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors. We also had a decade dominated by the likes of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. But the Big four of tennis stand unrivalled due to their contrasting styles and character. I shall rather not go into the...

Andy [ in letter to Red ]: Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. -From the movie Shawshank Redemption Last week, when I went through the newspaper that Sachin has scored a half century in the All Star T20 tournament which took place in USA, I couldn’t help myself from watching it. I managed to browse and watch a 3 minute video of his fifty. It would be unfair to pick a few adjectives to describe the shots which he played. Throughout his career this man has exhausted all the positive adjectives in the dictionary. When I closed my browser my mind was flooded with memories of the ‘Little Master’. I am a rationalist who does not believe in the concept of God. But when Sachin was first adored as the ‘God of Cricket’, my rationality accepted it without any objection. Years later, analyzing reality I believe the phrase will stand the test of reason in the years to come. I remember a conversation with my friend on God. I asked h...

With 24 th May IPL would have completed 8 years. It is widely accepted that even BCCI would not have dreamt that IPL would become an insurmountable giant in 8 years when it was launched against the rebel Indian Cricket League which, has lost its relevance today. The T20 championship has brought a lot of opportunities and threats not just on the cricket field but off field too. Gainers and losers: The IPL has helped many sectors which revolve around cricket. The media has grown a lot due to the IPL, since they gain a lot by the advertisement revenue and some channels in television and FM conduct special programs on IPL. It has definitely boosted the revenue for the cricket grounds which do not earn much by conducting first class cricket matches. Hawkers who usually struggle to make ends meet cash in on this opportunity to make a decent living in these two months by selling sports merchandise of the franchises. Even musicians and dancers have a greater audience t...