CAVALCADE OF SPORTING CHAMPIONS
From Balbir Singh (Senior), who took over the mantle from Dhyan Chand to Abhinav Bindra, who is desperately seeking company in a club where he remains the only member, HT looks back with wonder and respect at the country’s sporting heroes and heroines since Independence.
As India enters its eighth decade as a nation, HT looks back with wonder and respect at the country’s sporting heroes and heroines since Independence. Any compilation such as this is certain to spark conversation, even consternation. Debate will inevitably focus more on those omitted than the chosen 70. The challenge for us was not compiling a list of sporting icons because there are many, but keeping it to 70 because that is what the occasion demanded.
Excluded, therefore, are those who shone for India when it was still a colony or who had their best years as sporting legends before the country became independent. Some others didn’t make the cut because what they excelled in did not match our definition of sport; no offence meant, really. And there were cricketers, shooters and archers who were world-beaters on their day but lost out because we felt they weren’t consistent enough.
Each one of us will have a list of favourites. But if this compilation has 80% or more in each of those lists, the effort would have been worth it. So here goes: from Balbir Singh (Senior), who took over the mantle from Dhyan Chand, through Sachin Tendulkar, whose batting records could be to cricket what a sub-nine 100m dash would be to mankind, Abhinav Bindra, who is desperately seeking company in a club where he remains the only member, MC Mary Kom and more.
LESLIE CLAUDIUS
Perhaps apocryphal, but a story about him still does the rounds of the Kolkata Maidan showing that nearly 60 years after his fourth and final Olympic medal, the legend of Leslie Claudius shines bright. In the sunset of his career, India’s finest half-back had lost a lot of mobility but not his uncanny sense of anticipation. So, as he would go for an interception, he would keep saying aloud “Le lega, le lega” (will snatch, will snatch) and it was usually followed by a triumphant “Le liyia (have snatched).” Rarely have opponents been psyched thus by reputation alone. Claudius has three Olympic gold and a silver in his cabinet. Claudius, a small, soft-spoken man who took to hockey by chance, has been immortalised in stone in Kolkata and has a road named after him in the city that was his home for over seven decades. During the 2012 Olympics, London renamed a metro station after him. The first Indian hockey player to get to 100 caps, he and Udham Singh are our only athletes with four Olympic medals though it never stopped hurting him that his lone Olympic silver (1960) came when he was leading India. He was a player about whom the legendary Dhyan Chand would say, “Claudius selects himself, now I have to select the team.”
MAHENDRA SINGH DHONI
Who would have thought that this young man from Ranchi making a living as a TTE at the Kharagpur railway station would be the first captain in the history of the sport to win all ICC global events?
That happened when MS Dhoni bagged the 2013 Champions Trophy after taking India to the 2007 World T20 title and the 2011 World Cup, which was also the first time a host country won the 50-over championship. That was sealed with a six over long-on from the India skipper and the manner in which the Wankhede stadium then erupted could be the visual and aural definition of euphoria.
Under Dhoni, India have also topped the Test rankings just as they have lost eight successive Tests. But numbers can never really define the man whose ability to stay calm under pressure will be talked about as long as this game is played. Ditto his finishing skills in 50 and 20-over games. Even someone like Sourav Ganguly, India’s most successful captain till the mantle passed to Dhoni, said Dhoni was always ahead of the curve in limitedovers cricket. Need we say more why India got high on MSD?
SACHIN TENDULKAR
This is the story of a man who lived his life between 22 yards of a cricket pitch and had a nation in thrall. For one day short of 24 years. And when he left, it was with a farewell speech that has over 5 lakh hits on YouTube. Hours later, it was announced he would be conferred the Bharat Ratna. From November 15, 1989, when he began batting for India to when he finally gave up, the country went through eight Prime Ministers and five Presidents. In that time, Tendulkar had scored 34,357 runs in 664 matches including 100 international hundreds. He also took 200 international wickets and scored the first double hundred in ODIs. He reserved his best against Australia and Shane Warne, who has nearly one thousand wickets, has confessed to having nightmares bowling to him. Tendulkar had Don Bradman telling his wife that he reminded him of his playing days. He had all the shots and monumental powers of concentration, so much so that he could cut out some of his favourite shots and still score an international double hundred. Watching him make that 241 in Sydney, Martina Navratilova had said: “…It was truly remarkable. It was a lesson.”