Everyone loves a humble champ
When champions fall, people feel bad, sad and indulgent enough to forgive them their occasional misdemeanours. But not so with the Aussies who have been struggling to stay afloat on the top with the ongoing Sydney Test being the decider on who will be No 1 — Australia or South Africa.
The Australians, who have for more than two decades now made winning a very Aussie trait, are facing the prospect of being bundled into a correctional facility called Life in Defeat. Considering their playing acumen, their brilliance, their strategies, their fightbacks, their pace and their willow battery which have together defined how cricket should be played, there should have been a public sympathy wave for their plight. But there are not many people mourning. You could blame that on the undying cockiness of their players, the arrogance, the sledging, the bullying and everything else which has often been justified by them as well-thought Cricket Australia strategy. In actuality, however, it a debilitating form of aggression.
As the Aussies would often pride themselves in saying, “we do not know how to lose.” And whenever defeat loomed in their face, they did not know how to deal with it. They would chatter, they would engage in bullying and they would not hesitate in using any other underhand tactic to derail their opposition. For most of their journey and stay at the top of the cricketing barometer, their unfazed misbehaviour has been as unmatched as their playing brilliance. So, even if you loved to hate them, you never really felt it was possible to overcome them.
But then as Newton’s Law of Gravity told you long time ago, what goes up has to come down, the yellow brigade being no exception to the rule. When we talk of champions, we talk of more pride than prejudice. Somehow, the Aussies revelled in generating prejudice — much unlike the Sri Lankans, for example. The Lankans are universally loved by all. As champions after winning the World Cup, they were applauded in all corners of the world. This was mostly due to their affable behaviour, the small courtesies they sport on and off the field, the approachability and their unique form of humility in success.
The same, however, can’t be said about the Indians who win and become arrogant, lose and become affable. So much so that journos on the circuit have sometimes asked for a defeat just to put the players in their place, the syndrome being most pronounced in the days of Sourav Ganguly as skipper (that was when India started winning at home and away too).
Australians, on the other hand, have sported only arrogance and have not known to respond in any other way. Their way of life has been genetically modified to suit, say, a WWE champion who has to essentially be a pushy rock of Gibraltar. In defeat, a distressed Ponting resembled the poker-faced Bush after he was assaulted with a pair of shoes in Iraq — he also triggered a similar reaction — one of worldwide joy and mockery.
Would a well-behaved outgoing champion generated more public sympathy than the worldwide scorn the blogs have been spilling over with against the now not so mighty Australians? Perhaps, when the Aussies do a collective post-mortem of their downfall, they could also consider devising a strategy for winning hearts the same way they huddle over winning matches. Then the package would be awesome — brilliance and humility dignifying the gentleman’s game. Hopefully, the Proteans already know this. And hopefully, the Indians, who are on their way, will learn to be polite in success.
The Australians, who have for more than two decades now made winning a very Aussie trait, are facing the prospect of being bundled into a correctional facility called Life in Defeat. Considering their playing acumen, their brilliance, their strategies, their fightbacks, their pace and their willow battery which have together defined how cricket should be played, there should have been a public sympathy wave for their plight. But there are not many people mourning. You could blame that on the undying cockiness of their players, the arrogance, the sledging, the bullying and everything else which has often been justified by them as well-thought Cricket Australia strategy. In actuality, however, it a debilitating form of aggression.
As the Aussies would often pride themselves in saying, “we do not know how to lose.” And whenever defeat loomed in their face, they did not know how to deal with it. They would chatter, they would engage in bullying and they would not hesitate in using any other underhand tactic to derail their opposition. For most of their journey and stay at the top of the cricketing barometer, their unfazed misbehaviour has been as unmatched as their playing brilliance. So, even if you loved to hate them, you never really felt it was possible to overcome them.
But then as Newton’s Law of Gravity told you long time ago, what goes up has to come down, the yellow brigade being no exception to the rule. When we talk of champions, we talk of more pride than prejudice. Somehow, the Aussies revelled in generating prejudice — much unlike the Sri Lankans, for example. The Lankans are universally loved by all. As champions after winning the World Cup, they were applauded in all corners of the world. This was mostly due to their affable behaviour, the small courtesies they sport on and off the field, the approachability and their unique form of humility in success.
The same, however, can’t be said about the Indians who win and become arrogant, lose and become affable. So much so that journos on the circuit have sometimes asked for a defeat just to put the players in their place, the syndrome being most pronounced in the days of Sourav Ganguly as skipper (that was when India started winning at home and away too).
Australians, on the other hand, have sported only arrogance and have not known to respond in any other way. Their way of life has been genetically modified to suit, say, a WWE champion who has to essentially be a pushy rock of Gibraltar. In defeat, a distressed Ponting resembled the poker-faced Bush after he was assaulted with a pair of shoes in Iraq — he also triggered a similar reaction — one of worldwide joy and mockery.
Would a well-behaved outgoing champion generated more public sympathy than the worldwide scorn the blogs have been spilling over with against the now not so mighty Australians? Perhaps, when the Aussies do a collective post-mortem of their downfall, they could also consider devising a strategy for winning hearts the same way they huddle over winning matches. Then the package would be awesome — brilliance and humility dignifying the gentleman’s game. Hopefully, the Proteans already know this. And hopefully, the Indians, who are on their way, will learn to be polite in success.
Published on January 4, 2009 in Sunday Pioneer http://www.dailypioneer.com/147583/Everyone-loves-a-humble-champ.html
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