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| SPORTS TRIBUNE | Saturday, July 28, 2001, Chandigarh, India |
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The
biggest mistake a caddie can make It
wasn’t the caddie’s fault! Anand has
ability to bounce back Asian
cricketers on England duty Physically
challenged swimmer aims for more laurels TEEING-OFF |
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The biggest mistake a caddie can make WE all make stupid mistakes at work, but few of us have done so in such spectacular and public circumstances as Miles Byrne managed on Sunday (July 22). Byrne was caddying for Ian Woosnam in the Open Championship at Royal Lytham when, on the grandest stage of all, he dropped the most elementary howler of his career. It cost his boss $ 310,000, and earned him a leading place in the hall of sporting infamy. When Byrne took on the job of carting Woosnam’s clubs, it did not threaten to be too onerous a task. Woosnam was a shadow of the player who stormed to the Masters title in 1991, and he had cut back on his playing schedule. Byrne looked forward to steady appearance money and the odd weekend off when his man missed the cut. But far from joining the illustrious names putting their feet up on Sunday, Woosnam and Byrne arrived at the first tee with a share of the lead and the giddy support of 40,000 spectators. Two swings of a club later and Woosnam had birdied the opening hole, giving himself a fighting chance of a wonderfully unlikely first Open championship. By the time the pair left the next tee that dream had faded faster than an amateur hacker in a gale. Surveying the second fairway, Woosnam called for his driver. Looking into the bag the caddie saw not one but two drivers, making a total of 15 clubs in the bag, one more than the legal limit and punishable by a two-stroke penalty. Instantly grasping the enormity of the cock-up, Byrne turned to his boss and said, with absolute prescience: “You’re going to go ballistic.” Incredulous, the Welshman grabbed the offending club, paused as if to consider whether it might be best inserted somewhere about Byrne’s person, then hurled it into a hedge. After his tee shot, he stalked off muttering, “You just had one job to do and you couldn’t even get that right”. After remarkably still managing to finish third, Woosnam appeared to have rediscovered his compassion. “It’s the biggest mistake he will ever make and he will have a severe bollocking,” he said of Byrne’s gaffe. “But he is a good lad and I am not going to sack him.” In truth, it will be a miracle if Byrne carries a bag at a major again, let alone Woosnam’s. He is far from the first caddie to pay the price for a misjudgment out on the greensward, and he will not be the last in this most unique of sporting roles. The job has its origins back in the 18th century when the game was the preserve of gentlemen and aristocrats. With personal servants in every other area of their lives, it made sense to take a man with you on to the links. The caddie would tee balls, replace divots, look for the ball in grass kept short only by the appetite of grazing animals as well as tote the bags. In addition to overdeveloped shoulders and a stooping gait, the caddie also brought a second brain on to the course, and over time the role developed from that of pack horse to tracker. Caddies tended to work a single course, learning its every undulation and gust of wind by heart, information they could share with the paying player. Some of the game’s greats — Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead — all learned their trade with someone else’s bag on their shoulder. While the boss walks serenely down the centre of the fairway, the caddie struggles behind under a 35 lb golf bag, wearing a funny- coloured bib. But they are just as vital a part of the player’s team as the swing guru or the sports psychologist, roles they sometimes have to fulfil themselves when things start going wrong out on the course. Yardage, helping to choose the right club, knowing the position of the pins, reading putts and where to land the ball on the green to stop it from running off into that 12-foot deep pot bunker. All tasks that fall within the remit of the caddie. According to Norman Dabell, author of How We Won the Ryder Cup and a BBC golf correspondent, the relationship between a caddie and a player is crucial, and usually very close. “The player has to have absolute trust in the caddie, which was the problem on Sunday. Woosnam trusted Miles to get it right,” he says. “The caddies always describe themselves and their player as ‘we’. They will always say: ‘We hit a good drive. We hit a six iron.’ Of course, if the player misses a six foot putt, then it is always ‘he’ that missed it.” But if caddies can be fickle, they have nothing on their employers. Take Christophe Angiolini, the man who had the misfortune to be carrying the clubs of Jean Van de Velde at the Open Championship in 1999. Van de Velde was a French no-hoper, but for a brief moment at Carnoustie he had a chance to add his name to the list of legends who have won golf’s most prestigious tournament. Walking down the final hole, the Frenchman had a three-shot lead. His ball was lying in the rough but a short iron down the fairway followed by a wedge to the green and two putts would have given him the title. Instead, for some inexplicable reason, he elected to use a two iron, one of the most difficult clubs in the bag. Inexplicably, Angiolini let him do it. The resulting shot hit a grandstand and bounced back into knee-high rough. From there it was a short chip into the Barry burn that runs in front of the green, and his hopes of victory floated downstream. He ended with a seven, lost the play-off, and walked off the course as one of sport’s heroic losers. For all that, his caddy was cast as the villain of the piece. He should have taken the two iron and broken it across his knee rather than let his man use it, was the opinion of everyone, from the other caddies to the woman who served the tea in the R&A marquee. Angiolini was sacked a month later. Occasionally, things can even turn violent. Take the case of Gary Coch, now a commentator for American television, who got so upset at hitting a bad drive that he threw the club in the general direction of his caddie. It bounced off the turf and caught him in the testicles. After hitting another bad shot at the next hole, he pretended to throw the club again. The caddie flinched and jumped out of the way. “Got you that time,” Coch said. The caddie, unamused, picked up the driver, snapped it across his knee and promptly walked off the course. “Ay, and now I’ve got you as well,” was his parting shot. It will be scant consolation to Woosnam today, but at least he would have had a spare.
By arrangement with The Guardian |
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It wasn’t the caddie’s fault! POOR Myles. Idiot, fool, innumerate clown, the numbskull who cost Ian Woosnam $ 310,000. Well, here’s something you might not read about Myles’ club counting adventures: it wasn’t his fault. Sure, he should have counted the number of clubs in the bag, but what about his employer, Mr Woosnam? The last time I looked there was nothing in the rules of golf that said a player isn’t allowed to count the number of clubs in his bag. In fact, I’ve never known a professional golfer who didn’t stand in the first tee nervously fingering his precious blades. Its called: “personal responsibility.” Eamonn Darcy, the Irish pro-golfer and part-time wit, put it best: “Don’t worry, it’s not your fault, it’s my fault for employing you,” he once said when his caddie gave him a particularly useless piece of advice. My own former employer — a gentleman golfer called Ross Drummond — put up with my own (multiple) errors with a weary smile before finally stumbling across a much better plan. “Hey, Lawrence,” he said, as we stood on the practice tee one morning, “why don’t you carry the bag, keep quiet and let me make the decisions.” Alas, in this case the golfing world has opted for the more traditional approach: blame the caddie. No one who has ever been on the circuit will be surprised, least of all Myles. He’s been doing the job long enough to know that galley slaves in colonial Spain were treated with more respect than golf caddies on the pro-tour. In fact, I could write an 800-page anthology of humiliations heaped on caddies but I’ll stick with just one: the last time the Open championship was held at Royal Lytham, in 1996, the changing room provided by the R&A organising committee for 150 caddies was four plastic chairs in a converted fish and chip van. This is what happens at the “best” tournament in the world. Can you imagine what happens at the worst? Why do caddies put up with the crap? My bag carrying days are over now but at a guess I’d say it’s one half glory and the other half money. When he was growing up in Bray near Dublin, Myles Byrne no doubt dreamed of the day he would walk down the 72nd fairway of an Open championship. Alas, he wasn’t blessed with Ian Woosnam’s ability to swing a golf club. Carrying the Welshman’s bag was the next best thing — fame by proxy. As for the money, I’ve no idea what Woosnam was paying Myles but I do know that Lytham could have been the most lucrative weekend of his life. Under the unofficial caddie pay structure, Myles would have got 7.5 per cent of any cheque his employer would have won for finishing in the top 10. Woosnam might be upset for his lost $ 310,000, but trust me, his suffering will be but a pin prick compared to the agony poor Myles is feeling over $ 23,100 that might have been. Publicly, the caddie has accepted the blame but who knows, he could be sitting at home right now saying to himself: “Christ, if only that idiot, fool, innumerate numbskull Woosnam had counted the number of clubs in his bag.” I, for one, wouldn’t blame him.
By arrangement with The Guardian |
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Anand
has ability to bounce back INDIAN
sport appears to be going through a bad phase these days. The defeat in the final of the cricket tri-series in Zimbabwe followed by the reverses in the opening matches against New Zealand and Sri Lanka is still all too fresh in mind. And so is the continued choking in front of the goalmouth in the qualifying matches for the World Cup hockey in Edinburg. But then defeats in cricket and hockey is not a new thing. What is really baffling is the winless stretch which Vishwanathan Anand has gone through in the recently concluded Sparkasssen Chess Championship in Dortmund. Anand has always been reckoned as a winner all the way and his performances last year and in the tournaments before the Dortmund exercise all pointed to his being able to add another glorious chapter to his triumphant run. But if Anand has failed at Dortmund, it is a failure by his own standards. He himself appears to be totally unruffled by his lack of success at Dortmund. He has gone through a similar patch earlier though not as bad as this and it has not prevented him from bouncing back to the top of world chess. Anand would quite rightly forget the happenings of Dortmund and concentrate on the events ahead of him. The tournament at Dortmund has indeed been a nightmarish one for Anand. He finished minus four, the worst ever in his life. For a world champion to finish last in a tournament is bad enough and that was Anand’s lot at Dortmund. He has lost in this competition earlier but he then tied for the title. Kramnik had won it last year and he retained it now. His failure is of a one time theme not like Indian cricket, football or hockey. He is one of the constant stars of Indian sport, has been performing like one for the last one decade. Anand in fact has been the showpiece of Indian sport for a long time. No other sportsman has displayed the consistency and brilliance of this smiling, affable mental giant. Anand’s record speaks for itself. Winner of almost every title at stake during his career Anand is now placed to become the first non-Russian and third man ever to break the 2800 point barrier. And he has come this far with some rare achievements. Holder of the World Blitz, World Cup and the World Championship crowns, all won last year, Anand, notwithstanding the aberration of the Sparkassen chess Championship in Dortmund, has been in great form this year. And he has quite often shown his ability to bounce back with rare vigour. One recalls the time when he hit back to down Gata Kamasky after the Russian had drawn first blood in the PCA World Championship in 1995. His temperament and class was again obvious in the Corus Touranment at Wijk aan Zee (Netherland) in January this year where after a somewhat indifferent beginning he came back strongly with three straight wins to finish second to Kasparov. Then there was the drama in Mainz, Germany in what was classified as the battle of world champions. Vladimir Kramnik had raised visions of an upset with a win in the very first battle but reckoned without Anand’s ability to bounce back. And how the Indian star came back is now history.. He did it with considerable elan to win the rapid series to enhance his already growing reputation achieved when he won the World Championship. Rapid chess is of course supposed to be Anand’s special theme, as if it was developed only for him. But even in the conventional variety, the classical form, he has remained unbeaten for almost a year until the sequence was shattered at Dortmund recently. His overall record for the year has been so outstanding that it can take any minor reverse without suffering from a loss of reputation. So strong has been his showing all though. It must be remembered that Anand remained unbeaten right through his campaign in the World Championship. And as for his consistency, there is his record in 12 appearance in the year 2000 he won eight, finished runners-up twice, came third once and fifth on the other two occasions. Anand’s main loss in Dortmund is not the fact that he finished last with minus four. Losing is something that happens to the best of players. His bigger loss because of the reverses in Dortmund will be in Elo points. For a man trying to reach out to 2800 and beyond, the loss is quite considerable. He is bound to lose about 15 hard earned points in the January 2002 rating list or earlier lists if the Federation updates them. But what about Anand’s immediate goal. Fortunately for him the competition is in rapid chess to be held in Spain from August 18-19 and his main rival will be Alexei Shirov. |
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Asian
cricketers on England duty WHEN English selectors picked Nottinghamshire’s Rawalpindi-born Usmaan Afzaal for the first Ashes Test team against Australia, it highlighted the presence of a host of Asian cricketers in England. Every year, the number of cricketers from South Asia and those of South Asian origin is growing in Britain, both in the County Championship and local leagues within the Old Blighty. The Asian strength starts with Chennai-born British captain Naseer Hussain. His family migrated to England when he was only five. Hardly a month before giving the gutsy Afzaal his first Test cap, England selected Karachi-born Owais Alam Shah of Middlesex to bail them out in the one-day triangular NatWest series, involving Pakistan and Australia. That England failed to make it to the final is another story. Many cricketers currently representing English national or county sides were either born in Asia, have strong roots there or migrated with their families to England. Most Asian-Britons come from the West Midlands. So there should be no surprise that Worcestershire has the largest number of six players in its current squad. Vikram Solanki, the lanky Udaipur-born batsman and an effective off-spinner, leads this brigade. Solanki, who attended St. Luke’s in Udaipur before migrating as an eight-year-old, has eight one-day internationals under his belt and now awaits his Test debut. Among others is Kanpur-born Anurag Singh (25), a right-hand batsman and off-break bowler. He is also a former England under-19 and Cambridge captain. Ali cousins Kabir and Kadeer have played for English under-19 besides Worcestershire. Kabir is a pace bowler and Kadeer a batsman who has been picked for the England ‘A’ squad. Depesh Patel, the six-foot-four-inch tall fast bowler, and Alamgir Sheriyar, another six-foot-plus speedster who should play for England soon, complete the Asian lineage. Minal Mahesh Patel, the Mumbai-born left-arm spinner, has been a regular for Kent for some years but has failed to make a mark at the highest level. The 30-year-old has played two Tests but got only a solitary wicket. Stylish Leicestershire batsman Aftab Habib is also of Asian descent. Habib, whose parents are from India and Pakistan, has played two Tests and represented England’s under-15 and under-19 teams. He made his first class debut for Middlesex, but later joined Leicestershire where he is doing very well. Apart from those who have qualified to play for England, many Indian and Pakistani Test players have been playing county and league cricket in England, Scotland and Ireland for years. Last season Indian captain Saurav Ganguly and his deputy Rahul Dravid turned out for Kent and Lancashire, respectively. Dravid won many a heart with his batting and his off-field conduct. Leg-spinner Anil Kumble, presently out of action with a shoulder injury, has had two fruitful seasons with Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. In the past, legendary Indian left-arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi played for Northamptonshire, all-rounder Ravi Shastri for Glamorgan, left-arm spinner Dilip Doshi for Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire for years and Kapil Dev for Northamptonshire and Worcestershire. Even Sunil Gavaskar, who never liked the county rigmarole, spent a season with Somerset in 1980. Indian Madan Lal, an all-rounder, played for several years in the central Lancashire League, known to be one of the toughest competitions outside of the national County Championship. Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, who represented Lancashire in the 1990s, was perhaps the first cricketer from the subcontinent to sign a six-year contract in county cricket. His predecessors who have put in successful stints include Mushtaq Mohammed, Intikhab Alam and Asif Iqbal, all former captains.
IANS |
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Physically
challenged swimmer aims for more laurels LIFE, for the most part of Masadur Rahman Baidya’s 32 years, has been a big challenge. And, so far, he has won each time. Four years after he hit the headlines when he swam the English Channel, physically challenged Baidya is preparing for more battles with the waves. The Strait of Gibraltar and two more stretches of rough waters off Italy are in the sight of the Indian Railways employee, who lost both his legs from the knees when he was 11. He will be daring the world again to pin the “handicapped” tag on him. “I hate that word (handicapped),” Baidya says. “I will do anything I’m told to if it helps dispel that notion. There are a few things that I may not be able to do because I lost my legs, but there are many more things that I can do as well if not better than those who have both their legs.” As he presents his list of outstanding feats — almost all of them in long-distance swimming events — he points out they were not special events for the physically challenged but highly competitive ones open to the best. It is almost as if he has thrown a challenge at life itself for playing cruel joke on that dreadful morning 21 years ago. In trying to ape other schoolboys jumping on to a passing freight train, Baidya slipped and fell, his legs coming under the wheels. When he regained consciousness in the hospital, they had been amputated from the knees. “I was shattered. The first thing that struck me was I’d never be able to run and play like my friends. No amount of encouraging words could get me out of this deep depression,” Baidya remembers. The future looked gloomy, till he made a trip to Pune in 1979, a year after the accident, to get his artificial limbs. “I had to stay there for six months and during the rehab programme I was able to see and meet many others with similar problems. Some had lost both legs and both arms, and some legs, arms and even eyes, yet there was so much love for life left in them. When I was down and dejected, they always had the time to come and cheer me up,” he says. “It was a very important lesson for me.” Instead of wallowing in his own misfortune, young Baidya found the resolve to “celebrate what I still had.” Ten years later, on another visit to the Pune centre, he won 16 of the 17 sports events he participated in on Artificial Limb Day, four of them in swimming, and a dream was born. “I realised I had to stand up and be counted, and I saw swimming as the best bet,” he says, pointing out that it had to be long-distance events because “I would stand little chance in speed events because it’s the legs that help get all that thrust”. Baidya began training and vowed to never participate in another competition for the physically challenged. His rebirth as an exceptional athlete was first announced when he finished fifth in the annual 14-km swim organised by the Ahiritola Youth Swimming Club on the Hooghly in 1989. There was no looking back from there. He finished among the top in swim after swim and then became the first man with such physical challenges to cross the English Channel. Now Baidya has opted for the most arduous of the three options across the Strait of Gibraltar — a 22 km swim that will have him set off from Tarifa Island in Spain and touch land near Punta Cires in Morocco. “If everything works out well, I could be attempting it next month,” he says. The Gibraltar crossing will be followed by a 3-km swim across Stetto Di Messina and a 28-30 km effort across Zannone-Circeo. Baidya is now trying to raise the Rs 1.1 million he needs for the trip. His problems have been compounded by the fact that one influential man who was helping him, West Bengal Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty, is now in the midst of a political controversy. But he is hopeful that his appeal to the Union sports minister will yield results. He is, meanwhile, training hard under the watchful eye of his coach Pijush Kanti Barua at the Subhas Sarobar pool in east Kolkata. The final training will be in the Bay of Bengal off the coast in Puri, Orissa. Baidya feels he is a better swimmer now than he was when he crossed the English Channel, but some difficulties will not go away. “Eighty per cent of the work in swimming is done by the legs, but I will have to again rely almost entirely on my arms. They have served me well, and I’m sure they’ll do that this time too,” he says.
— IANS |
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TEEING-OFF HER mind is sharp. This helps her stay on target. For her age (she is only eight years old) and size, she hits a long ball. Her rapt concentration helps her play the short game accurately. Not for nothing, some experts rate her as a golfing prodegy. The conservative evaluation of her play is that she has high potential and promise. She is Delhi’s Tanya Wadhwa, a student of class four. She won praise from all those who saw her play. She finished third in the recently-concluded World Junior Golf Championship in the USA. Her performance was all the more admirable as she was pitted against much taller and sturdier rivals. But she maintained her poise and composure to prove that she was talented. Tania’s golfing sense is more developed than her age. She needs to be groomed meticulously and requires an adequate quntum of exposure at home and abroad. But the Indian sporting officialdom, out for its own pound of flesh, either throttle them young or pamper them to go astray. There are many young persons, like Yashpal Rana (there is another shooter who is being pampered at present), who have not lived up to their expectations because too much pressure has been placed on them. Tania needs different kind of handling. Before participating in the World Championship, Tania had aquitted herself superbly in the junior programme conducted at the Delhi Golf Club course. She came up with several prizes. Those who were conducting the event were visibly surprised at her ability and skill at such a tender age. The programme was a success. But the fee for children of members and non-members was rather higher than it should have been. The reasoning that many youngsters of caddies were admitted free is not a very justifiable argument. The under-privileged children should be helped but it should not be at the cost of others. The DGC is known to spend quite a sizable amount on unnecessary avenues, like renovating of change-room. It should cut such expenditure to help promote and popularise junior programmes. The better the junior gold, the better will be the standard in the years to come. The DGC’s programme has been satisfactory. But it should not yield to bureaucracy. The more it yields to social-climbers, the more it will be pressed. The club should adhere to age-old rules of according membership to genuine golf lovers and those who have patiently waited for years instead of ‘bestowing’ membership on bureaucrats just because of their high offices in government. Failed to qualify Amandeep Johl and Jyoti Randhawa failed to qualify for the British Open at the St Annes Old Links and Hillside Courses recently. They did raise visions of qualifying. But their nerves failed at crucial moments. Pro golf in the international circuit, like British Open, US Open and Japan Open are nothing but matter of enduring the pressure. Those who play with calm and steady nerves succeed and those who become edgy falter. Until Indians sharpen their mental faculty, there is little hope of making their presence felt in such razor-sharp competitions. |
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Walsh will always be missed On August 1, the cricketing world will see its one hundredth day without Courtney Walsh. It seems the West Indies team is in no mood to avail the offer it got while Courtney said goodbye. He promised to be back if his team was in crisis, but the team seems to be suddenly out of crisis winning the one-day series in Zimbabwe and now defeating Zimbabwe by an innings and 176 runs in the first Test match. Maybe Courtney will never come back now but one thing is for sure — he will always be missed both by the cricketing world and his fans. HANNY GANDHI,
Chandigarh
Threat to Sachin The recent threats to eminent sportsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Dhanraj Pillay, is a cause for worry not only for the players, their families, and fans but also for the government. The best possible solution to tackle this problem will be to set up a special sportsmen’s protection force. The force, apart from providing the much required protection, will also serve other purposes. It will keep a watch on any unlawful activities of sportsmen like match-fixing and drug taking. The setting up of special force will also create ample employment opportunities. The reservation policy could be relaxed during the recruitment process and preference can be given to sports lovers. MANAN GUPTA,
Kapurthala
Cricket team Indian cricket team once again failed to win the Test series on foreign soil when Zimbabwe defeated them in the second Test. The Indian team did well in the one-day series league matches winning all the matches. But in the final match against West Indies India’s top order was made to lick the dust and they lost the final. M.
G. GUPTA, Faridkot
2008 Olympics The holding of Olympics in 2008 in Beijing is being opposed all over the world by Tibetans. This is justified. China should free Tibet from its jaws to prove that it has due respect and regard for all nations. It should recognise Tibet as a free country. The IOC’s decision to hold the Olympics in China is a setback to the freedom movement of Tibetans who are protesting rather, peacefully all over the world. It is pity that China is not freeing Tibet despite protests all over the world. I feel the UN should come to the rescue of Tibetans and pressurise China in this regard. UJAGAR SINGH,
Chandigarh |
