After a long hiatus I am back to the blog. Will not make any promises of keeping the blog updated since I have realized how lazy I am.
Back to business then!! The post has been prompted by the event which happened a few days ago. No doubt a great day for a man and the sporting world. I am referring to Roger Federer finally overcoming his long drawn jinx and finally laying his hands on the coveted French Open. Man!! After all his trials and tribulations and of course tears (courtesy a certain Mr Nadal), his efforts were finally fruitful. A heartiest congratulations to him and best wishes for more silverware in years to come.
However, I have a point to pick here. Not against Roger, who has most certainly been a sporting icon of our generation. It is against us Indian fans of tennis. Right after Nadal’s ignominious exit against Soderling I could see my Facebook home page plastered with my friends status messages egging on Federer. Status message like “Go Roger Go”, “Fedex on the way”, etc were visible all over my FB home page. Almost everyone who knew the T of tennis was throwing his weight behind the man. A most notable indicator of the fan following Roger has.
Amidst all the hoopla surrounding Roger’s march to the title there was another discreet march going on in parallel. It was our very own Leander Paes quietly progressing and then winning in the men’s double. But my FB friends who were going gaga over Roger had no time for our very own countryman. Or maybe they were not aware of Paes’s progress, or maybe they were aware and don’t care. After all in a country so used to mediocrity in sports (with some exceptions) we have resigned ourselves to supporting players/teams of other countries (Brazil in soccer, etc). Nothing wrong in supporting excellence, irrespective of nationalities, but then we should not forget our own sporting stars.
Ever our over-enthusiastic press went gaga over the Federer mania. Flip over to any news channel and it would be showering adulation on the Fedex. Must have repeated the video of Federer weeping atleast a 500 times. And all the weeping ensured that Leander was consigned to a very small mention somewhere in the news. Agreed that Federer is the bigger star with a larger mass appeal. But then Leander’s contribution to Indian tennis cannot be looked over. His triumphs in Davis Cups and the Atlanta Olympics still give goose bumps because of their sheer fervor. Certainly he deserves more of our attention span.
Food for thought!!
Over and Out,
Shubham
