The lure of being different

On the face of it, there is very little to link the Dakar and the Australian Open, but stop and think about it and there are some startling similarities.

The Dakar, a fortnight of motorised mayhem fought out annually at frightening pace in off road stages across the badlands of South America, requires steely nerves and a determination to win.

The Aussie Open, also over two weeks, is played in the steam heat of an Antipodean summer in Melbourne where players seek even the smallest patch of shade between points. It might not have the potentially lethal nature of the Dakar – no fatalities have been reported thus far – but demands the same mental toughness.

Critics have consistently panned the Dakar since its inception in 1978 as a rally from the French capital Paris to Dakar in Senegal – it changed venues when serious security concerns in Africa emerged – as being a frivolous waste of fossil fuel.

The sheer cost of entry has also come under the microscope. It costs €300 000 per entry (about R4.5 million) and €5 000 per team member, precluding any but the elite factory-sponsored drivers from having any realistic chance.

But it remains motoring’s ultimate adventure and a Dakar finisher’s plaque one of the most exclusive and sought after pieces of automotive memorabilia.

The Aussie Open, founded in 1905, has also been under fire. There remains an undercurrent of discontent by the timing of the first of the four major tennis tournaments which constitute the game’s Grand Slam and the near four-month gap before the next, the French Open on the clay at Roland Garros in Paris, starting this year in the last week of May.

But, typically Australian in attitude, the authorities have refused to even consider a change of dates – allied to the distance from Europe and America, one of the reasons the tournament in Melbourne fell into some disfavour with overseas players during the ’70s.

But it has prevailed as the top names have come flooding back, 728 763 spectators passing through the turnstiles last year.

Like the Dakar, the Aussie Open remains determinedly different. And that perhaps more than any other factor, dictates that year after year the special magic that sport has the power to generate, locks them in.