Sania reached 3rd round so whats all the noise about?
Some of the headlines after Sania reached the 3rd round read "Sania Mirza wins, makes history- The Times of India","BBC SPORT Tennis Indian woman makes tennis" , 'Sania Mania' grips India. Well she defeated some Cindy Watson and Petra Mandula who? Even as she "Stormed her way into the 3rd round" in the words of some. When I read all this my first reaction was "what in the hell, all this fuss about?" Ok! Accepted she was the first Indian woman to reach the 3rd round and that’s a gr8 thing. Ok she played the legendary Serina, who as expected steam rolled her 6-1 6-4, but to portray it as a epoch making event makes me hang my head in shame. Our sports men and women have performed soooooo well in recent past now seemingly trivial things like reaching 3rd round become history-making events and MANIA grips our ppl.
Looking at other sports we cant take heart from any of them either. Hockey has reached its nadir, we had to take a wild card to reach the champions trophy and the performance once we got there "The less said the better". Indian cricket team, the "Men in Blue" created history of sorts by losing a series to the Aussies for the first time in 33 years. After the All England championship win in 2000 Pulela Gopichand has vanished from the scene, and finally coming to the Olympics campaign, well what to say? We got one silver medal, as if that was not bad enough, to be tainted as drug cheats in weight lifting is simply disgusting.
This is where Theory of relativity comes in, when we see Sania’s performance through the prism of the over overall sports scenario we see a "History making event" don’t you think so? But is that some thing to be proud of? I sincerely hope not, we should never be satisfied by mediocrity other wise the next headlines may read "Yuvraj creates history, Becomes the batsman with most no of Ducks", "Ganguly says Yuvraj makes us proud".
To be fair to our sports men there has been a shining exception among all the mediocrity and that has been chess. Vishu has been the only silver lining among the dark void that our sports have given us. He had a great year in 2004 hope he carries his form ahead in 2005.
Disclaimer: My intention is not to deride the wonderful and partially successful run Sania enjoyed but rather remind people that reaching 3rd round is no great deal and instead look at ways and means to win the grand slam events.
Updated to congratulate Sania on her maiden WTA title at Hyderabad and hope that many such victories follow.
Looking at other sports we cant take heart from any of them either. Hockey has reached its nadir, we had to take a wild card to reach the champions trophy and the performance once we got there "The less said the better". Indian cricket team, the "Men in Blue" created history of sorts by losing a series to the Aussies for the first time in 33 years. After the All England championship win in 2000 Pulela Gopichand has vanished from the scene, and finally coming to the Olympics campaign, well what to say? We got one silver medal, as if that was not bad enough, to be tainted as drug cheats in weight lifting is simply disgusting.
This is where Theory of relativity comes in, when we see Sania’s performance through the prism of the over overall sports scenario we see a "History making event" don’t you think so? But is that some thing to be proud of? I sincerely hope not, we should never be satisfied by mediocrity other wise the next headlines may read "Yuvraj creates history, Becomes the batsman with most no of Ducks", "Ganguly says Yuvraj makes us proud".
To be fair to our sports men there has been a shining exception among all the mediocrity and that has been chess. Vishu has been the only silver lining among the dark void that our sports have given us. He had a great year in 2004 hope he carries his form ahead in 2005.
Disclaimer: My intention is not to deride the wonderful and partially successful run Sania enjoyed but rather remind people that reaching 3rd round is no great deal and instead look at ways and means to win the grand slam events.
Updated to congratulate Sania on her maiden WTA title at Hyderabad and hope that many such victories follow.
posted by JC at 9:19 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home