 |
|
| SPORTS TRIBUNE |
|
|
|
Best failed to complement his genius with discipline. Shot in the arm
|
|
|
Best and worst George Best was Britain’s greatest footballer — or was he, asks James Lawton
In all the sadness of George Best’s departure, and so much of the glory it recalled, perspective was always likely to be listed as a casualty — and so it was with the assertion that he was the greatest football player produced by the British Isles. Saying that he was the greatest talent is quite another matter. It is one sustained quite spectacularly in a barrage of film for those who never had the privilege of seeing him in the shining flesh. His virtuosity has been demonstrated so many times in the past few days. But the greatest player? It has been a claim allegedly supported by such giants of the game as Pele and Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff, but when you closely examine their remarks, and review the very meaning of the term, we see that an understandable generosity has been in the air. George might have been due that ultimate accolade of being Britain’s all-time No. 1, and maybe the world’s, had he gone the full course; had he in his playing maturity — one that generally comes around the age George, 27, was turning his back on the best of himself — brought a new degree of discipline to the outpourings of his native genius. But he didn’t, and no amount of revisionism or sentimentality can alter this. It means that in honouring the beloved dead we may have done something of a disservice to the living, and that among their number is one of George’s most public mourners, Sir Bobby Charlton. No doubt this naturally retiring man would discourage speculation of this kind at such a time, as would other contenders for the title of greatest British player like Sir Tom Finney and the late Sir Stanley Matthews and John Charles. But their work, too, is on the record and it glows no less intensely because their lives outside of football accumulated so much celebrity — or because they never argued for their place in a game to which they always extended the greatest of respect. When George left Manchester United in 1974 he had been a first-teamer for 11 years. He had played 474 times and scored 181 goals, an astonishing ratio by any standard, but then it is also true that in his final days at the club he had become a sad parody of himself, and it was a decline which became sharply progressive just a few years after his European Cup final triumph in 1968 as a 22-year-old. Charlton played 766 games and scored 253 goals, which meant that from midfield and for several frustrating years from the left wing he scored a goal every 3.027 matches. George, who marauded at will and hogged the ball often to the torment of Charlton and Denis Law, did it at the ratio of 2.619. Law, the third member of the blessed trinity, scored 239 in 409 games at a strike rate of 1.71. Statistics will always be only part of a football story, but when they accompany performance of great beauty, as was the fact in different ways in all three cases, they probably have added relevance. In the end the obligation is probably to detach yourself from all the recent emotion and ask a simple question : whose performance and talent was most satisfying for the longest time, who seemed to understand most implicitly the demands of a great player, whose underlying, supreme loyalty, was to the team? Was it Best, Law or Charlton? The opinion here is that it was Charlton, spraying passes of magnificent range and insight, moving through the midfield like a great galleon with the wind in its sails, scoring goals of bewildering power and authority like the one he scored against Mexico to set England rolling towards World Cup victory in 1966. Because of circumstances, Best never had the chance to display himself in a World Cup, and Law only when the best of his talent had flown, but then if Charlton got the opportunity no one could have exploited it so masterfully. With his United team-mate Nobby Stiles, Charlton is the only British player to have won both a European Cup and a World Cup winner’s medal, and if this was to exploit favourable circumstances his presence was undoubtedly part of their creation. In the European Cup final, Best scored a goal of unforgettable enterprise, but the record reminds us that Charlton scored two. Two years earlier, England had triumphed over West Germany in the World Cup final, and one of the most significant reasons was that West Germany’s player of genius, Franz Beckenbauer, was deputed to mark Charlton. These past few days, Wayne Rooney might be excused the belief that the star he must follow once belonged exclusively to George Best. That one shone a beautiful light, no question, but it was not so constant; the one guiding Bobby Charlton was never obscured. In giving to the young, dark Caesar all that he is due, it is maybe something that should not be forgotten. Not, this is, just for the morale of a great, ageing footballer, but to remember how it was all those glorious, under-stated years.
— The Independent |
|
Shot
in the arm It is music to the ears of professional women golfers in the country. Golf aficionado Siddarth Shriram has promised to provide up to Rs 5 crore to promote the women’s professional circuit. “We are nurturing this talent in the hope that the ladies will establish a significant name for themselves in the international arena,” Shriram said at the prize distribution function of the Ladies Northern India Open Amateur Championship, a tournament he has been promoting for the past 18 years. With this financial backing, the newly formed Women’s Golf Association of India (WGAI) should be able to successfully conduct the inaugural championship in March, 2006. The response, according to officials, is encouraging from the region and, maybe, many from the Ladies Asian Golf Tour will participate in the first competition at the Delhi Golf Club (DGC) course. The WGAI, christened the Bhartiya Mahila Golf Sangh in September this year, organised a ‘skins event’ at the DLF Golf and Country Club recently. The interesting format appealed to the women participants, including a few foreign players. “Women’s golf is on the upswing in India”, was their unanimous opinion. “This is a dream come true”, said Smriti Mehra (Guffin), who hits the ball very long. She was first Indian woman to turn pro in 1997. Settled in the USA, she plays most of her pro golf abroad. She is currently playing on the LPGA Tour. Keen to turn pro, India’s unquestionably best current player, Irina Brar, is planning to head for the USA on a golf scholarship next year. She intends doing a masters degree in sports psychology in the USA. Not at her dazzling best owing to the recurrence of knee and back injuries, Irina had no problem in retaining the Northern India title in New Delhi. Her aggregate of 12-over 300 for four days was not to her expectations. She played sub-par round of 71 only once and this made her task comparatively easy. Irina received a stiff competition from a 14-year-old Vaishavi Sinha, who was the leader at the midway stage. For her age she hit a very long and straight ball. Her application was unwavering. It was sheer joy to water her play her shots. She, along with Anjali Chopra, finished runners-up. Parnita Garewal finished fourth. Had Irina not been bogged down by injuries during the past two years, she would have achieved better scores than she had. Endowed with amazing will-power and tenacity, she is expected to scale new horizons because she is one of the few Indians who does not get overawed by the opposition. She is quick to adapt to varying conditions. Outstanding in the domestic circuit, Irina is the only one to have finished among the top 10 in the Queen Sirikit Cup (Asian Ladies Invitational Championship). |
|
Going places When Gursher Singh Harika chose to take up lawn tennis, he showed the boldness to go against the grain. In his native district, Mansa, traditional sports like kabaddi and wrestling are very popular. His decision to go off the beaten track was supported wholeheartedly by his family and friends. It has worked wonders, as Gursher is a rising star in the Indian tennis firmament today. Born on October 20, 1988, 17-year-old Gursher bagged the under-18 boys singles title in Adhgabat, Turkmenistan, in an ITF Grade 5 tennis meet in October this year. He also reached the doubles final in the event with Neil Rajpal of Canada. It has been a great year for Gursher. In September, he reached the last four in doubles partnering Ashwin Vijayragavan, also from India, at an international meet in Lahore. In August, he reached the quarterfinals of the Pakistan International Tennis Championship, also a Grade 5 ITF event, in Lahore. The same month he won the under-18 boys doubles title with compatriot Anshuman Dutta in the Indian ITF (Grade 5) meet in Chennai. In May, he was runners-up in the Uzbekistan Open at Tashkent, where he paired with Alexey Tikhonov of Russia. Gursher is equally at ease partnering Indian or foreign players in doubles. Gursher has also done well in various other tournaments such as Myanmar World Ranking event (ITF Grade 5), the 3rd Dubai Open Championship, (ITF Grade 4) and Enka Junior Istanbul, Turkey, (ITF Grade 5). In India, Gursher has excelled in many AITA-ranked tennis meets. Sky is the limit for Gursher, who is keen to gain valuable points by playing as many international ranking tournaments as he can. |
|
IN THE NEWS They had wowed spectators with their dashing strokeplay during their cricketing days. Now it was their turn to display their skills on the golf course. Kapil Dev, Dean Jones and Ian Botham were some of the cricket stars of yesteryear who showed they were not bad at a different ballgame during the World Cup of Golfing Cricketers in Bangalore last week. Kapil’s dream of winning the title for Team India fell short by about seven feet, as he bogeyed the 18th hole to hand the trophy to Australia B, comprising Dean Jones and Colin Miller. India A, comprising Kapil Dev and Roger Binny, finished with a gross score of 134, one more than the Australians. England B (Ian Botham and Martin Bicknell) grossed 136 to finish second runners-up. Kapil, one of the people who had conceptualised this novel event, however, had the distinction of winning the individual title with a score of one-over 71 to get one back on Jones, who finished runner-up with 73. Bicknell ended second runner-up
with 75. — PTI |
|||||
sm
Superb comeback
That cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties has been proved umpteen times. The paradigm was once again substantiated when Pakistan, who were on the verge of defeat in the first Test against England, turned the tables on their opponents to win the match sensationally by 22 runs. England, who needed 174 runs with nine wickets in hand on the last day of the match, capitulated in the face of accurate and hostile bowling of Danish Kaneria and Shoaib Akhtar, who shared a haul of seven wickets between them to send England crashing to defeat. But for their heroic bowling efforts, Pakistan would not have gone 1-0 up in the three-match series. Their well-earned victory justifies the proverb that every cock fights well on its own dung-hill. Exceptions, of course, are always there. England were let down by their inept batting on the final day of the Test. Despite taking a formidable first-innings lead of 144, they failed miserably to knock off the 198 runs required for an outright win and were dismissed for 175. Tarsem S. Bumrah Giant-killer Kudos to David Nalbandian of Argentina for beating Roger Federer, the world’s top-ranked tennis player, in the season-ending Masters Cup held in Shanghai recently. Nalbandian lost the first two sets in tie-breakers (6-7, 6-7) but in a stunning fightback, he won the next two sets 6-2, 6-1. The fifth set was a cliffhanger and could have gone either way but ultimately Nalbandian prevailed in another tie-breaker (7-6). The match extended to over four and a half hours. Thus Nalbandian accomplished the feat which his compatriot, Guillermo Vilas, achieved back in 1974. Nalbandian won the event by virtue of his grit, determination, stamina and above all his accuracy in serves, shots, placings and lobs. As a result he has climbed to the sixth spot in the ATP rankings, only behind Federer, Spain’s Rafael Nadal, the USA’s Andy Roddick, Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt and Russia’s Nikolai Davydenko. The win augurs well for him in next year’s events, especially the Grand Slams.
D.K. Aggarwala |
IN THE NEWS
