In sports, most things are black and white. This is precisely why success and failure are both magnified in enormous proportions.
If success spawns a million myths, throwing logic out the window, then failure triggers all sorts of controversy. Yet it is fascinating, precisely because it has fewer grey areas than life in general.
Sport, as much as it can be a vehicle to stardom and celebrity, seldom showers kindness on sportsmen who are on the downward slope of their careers.
Unlike other professionals, sportsmen have a very short span at the top. In the modern world, where the demands and expectations are ridiculously high, the situation is even worse.
Only a few extraordinary sportsmen ever manage to overcome this harsh reality. They are the ones who stand up to such great challenges – the ones who are special.
I say special because, in a world where the clock ticks faster than anywhere else, where a whole career is a blur in the eternal race of time, if there is something that we take as reassuring constancy, it is the endurance of these few athletes.
What is it about this selected few that makes them break through all barriers? What is it that drives them to carry on under such adverse conditions?
In more than two decades of following sport, more often than not it is all about perspiration, perseverance, extraordinary courage in the face of formidable odds, and above all the strength of will and passion.
For there is nothing quite as awe-inspiring as the sheer strength of will that drives a person to glory and greatness.
Yet even for seasoned sportsmen, who have the rare combination of a level-headed approach and patience, dealing with retirement is a strange business. Whether they welcome or resist it depends on the individual, and quite often it is the latter.
There is no such thing as a selfish decision and no such thing as a selfless decision. Decisions are either good or bad.
Every sportsman is different, and everyone makes their decisions in their own way. Those who express it at the right place and the right time are the chosen lucky ones. Those who express it at the right place at the wrong time, or at the wrong place at the right time, are the majority.
And there are those who have this huge barrier between themselves and those three words; they are the valiant ones who just keep fighting.
A lot has been said and written about sportsmen who fall into that last category. And even more has been said in cricket, especially in India, where there have been endless debates without arriving at any conclusion.
What has not been raised is, why would such accomplished sportsmen go through such embarrassment? What is it that makes them step down from the pedestal and look like mere mortals? What is it that pushes them on until even the more ardent of their fans begin to question it?
Is it the illusion of an individual’s invincibility that prevents them accepting the reality for what it is?
The answer is simple: “I love the winning, I can take the losing. But most of all, I love to play.”
Those are words of Boris Becker, former tennis player. No matter the humiliation, the risks involved, great sportsmen remain ensconced in their own world of dreams, where playing is the noblest and most virtuous of all sports ideals.
But then is it all too realistic to hope for such a perfect world? Should they continue to live in a fool’s paradise, cherishing the belief that playing is the embodiment of all that is virtuous, all that is good and glorious and transcendental among all sports ideals?
At the outset, it may sound a bit ridiculous. But remember that great sportsmen do what they always love to do every day and that is to play. It’s what they do at work, and no great work goes unrewarded.
Likewise, sports fans do exactly what they always love to do: watch their superheroes play day in and day out, and for them there is nothing more and rewarding than watching their superheroes relive the old magic, time and again.
Ageing is the law of nature. It’s just a matter of how long the wrinkling stars can twinkle and shine.
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