Sportingly

In India, cricket is finally Americanized (June 2008)

Cricket is India’s most passionate sport. The new shortened and fast-paced avatar T20 is a huge success, competing with staple entertainment avenues, Hindi movies and television soaps.

Some have called T20 the Americanization of cricket, packaged and delivered in a high-action, high-impact capsule, like basketball or boxing.

Fans have loved it so that observers now say that T20 cricket with 3-hours play time (the length of an average Bollywood movie) could eventually end up replacing the full one-day format.

The longest five-day test match version should, however, survive, given the millions of purist followers of the ``gentleman’s game’’ originally played by aristocratic Englishmen.

This Sunday the Indian Premier League (IPL) series (the first big-ticket club cricket tournament in India) ended after weeks of non-stop league action that brought the country to a virtual standstill every evening when the matches were played and telecast live. An estimated 25-million watched the finals.

Though cricket is played and followed in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, West Indies, England, it is the zealous Indian fans and consequent multinational sponsorships given the huge reach that has sustained the economics of the game worldwide.

Indian cricketers from diverse backgrounds, also reflect the premium on performance and merit. Indian captain M S Dhoni grew up in small town Ranchi (in eastern state Jharkhand), while another hero Iran Pathan studied at a madrassa (traditional Muslim school) in Gujarat.

Cricket is also about the only sport that India has managed to perform consistently at the highest levels. There was a time when India ruled hockey but the standards have fallen to levels that the team has not even qualified for the Beijing Olympics.

Thus the expectations of millions of cricket fans borders on the frenzied with cricketers routinely idolized as demigods or pilloried after every tournament, match and shot depending on the result. Everybody wants India to win every time which is not possible in sports.

The IPL follows the immensely successful T20 world cup last year in South Africa that India won and set the stage for another big event. Thus, the run up to IPL witnessed franchised team owners spending millions of dollars in auctions to procure the world’s best players.

The money doled out has raised similar questions, especially with soccer players, elsewhere in the world: will cricketers be more loyal to the club rather than donning national colors, which may be a less lucrative option.

Dhoni, for example, was bought at US$1.5 million, a handsome sum for a short duration tournament like IPL.

Each franchisee, in turn, is allotted rights in gate earnings, sponsors and from television.

Existing investors include big corporate names such as Mukesh Ambani (promoter Reliance Group) and Vijay Mallya (owner UB Group), Bollywood mega stars Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta and corporations such as Deccan Chronicle, India Cements and construction company GMR.

The IPL is estimated to be worth US$4 billion with team-owners needing to fork out about US$125 million every-year to the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), to retain their rights.

It is predicted that over the next few years T20 will earn cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council, US$1.5 billion from television rights alone.

Essentially, the change has come about in keeping with dwindling spectator attention span given fast paced lifestyles combined with the need for that quick adrenalin rush that only sports can provide.

The new game also seems best practiced by the young, who have imbibed fearlessness with gusto as there is simply no time to think in the short game. There is only one option with the bat --- to hit.

To add to the fun, the wham-bang cricket matches are peppered by American-style razzmatazz; there is much dance and music by big names and Bollywood stars (such as Salman Khan at the grand finale in Mumbai).

Professional cheerleaders in skimpy dresses imported from Europe and Australia, created some controversy with the local overzealous cultural hawks keen to ``protect’’ Indian ethos by threatening violence and disrupting matches.

There are fireworks and other pyrotechnics and the message has resounded clear as the many clean hits to the stands: that T20 is a massive hit with the audiences.

Indeed, snappy cricket was born at last year’s first world cup for the genre.

Even as the tournament progressed and India emerged champions, back home traffic dwindled with reports of innumerable appointments cancelled and even the usually efficient and hard working private sector took a pause, to toast the team.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took time off to watch the final, closely contested between traditional rivals India and Pakistan that was eventually won off the last ball. The Indian team was given a rousing welcome back in Mumbai.

India played without the big three aging stars, considered cricketing gods, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly. The team with an average age of 24 years was among the youngest.

Yuvraj Singh emerged as the new youth icon smashing six sixes (ball hit in the air out of the boundary line) in an over against England in a do-or-die match, the maximum possible in an over, and that too against a frontline pace bowler.

Such a feat has been achieved only once in international cricket, against a slow bowler from a team on the fringes of commercial cricket. Each T20 game averaged 8-10 sixes compared to much less in the one-day format.

The IPL too has thrown up a set of young heroes, both Indian and international --- Shaun Marsh, Yousuf Pathan, Swapnil Asnodkar, Shane Watson, Sohail Tanvir, to name some.

Latest TV ratings indicate that women, the usual watchers of TV soaps, have also taken well to T20 cricket and also turned up in good numbers at the stadiums.

Unlike men in India, women are not avid watchers of cricket. Somehow, it doesn’t appeal to them. That has changed with T20.

The uncertainty, with fortunes changing by the ball and the non-stop action matches any reality TV show or soaps with sub-plots and twists by the minute.

Indeed, those feeling the pinch of IPL most are cinema theatres and the hugely popular TV soaps. It is expensive to watch a movie at a multiplex while cricket can be beamed for almost free.

A big banner Bollywood film “Tashan” starring top names Akshay Kumar (ironically, a brand ambassador for IPL team Delhi Daredevils), Saif Ali and Kareena Kapoor has hit the box-office dust.

``The evening shows (with highest audience) have been affected due to the matches,’’ a spokesman of a leading movie theatre has said.

Another movie that has suffered is Bhootnath, aimed at school kids on summer holiday, starring famous actor Amitabh Bachchan.

Mega star Shah Rukh Khan's (again ironically, IPL team owner of Kolkata Knight Riders) new TV-game show has also not been able to garner attention either. Cricket has been blamed again.

The game has changed forever.

India world champions of snazzy cricket (September 2007)

It is fast, furious and intense and fits into the country’s new credo of high energy, instant gratification, money and success, especially applicable to the young generation, most targeted by marketers in India.

The Indian sub-continent’s most passionate sport, cricket, has emerged in a fresh avatar fitted into a shorter time frame, accompanied by American style flamboyance and razzmatazz such as dancing cheer leaders, fireworks, fast music and more.

Twenty-Twenty cricket is the quick paced shortened and energized version as opposed to the original slam-bang daylong 50-overs-a-side or the 5-day test matches.

The team’s now have to slug it out like boxers or gladiators, going for the big hits, combining technique with raw power, the slog and dollops of luck, all packed into three hours of rapid action.

The uncertainty, with fortunes changing by the ball literally, and non-stop entertainment keeps the audience on the feet through the duration.

Essentially, the change has come about in keeping with dwindling spectator attention span given fast paced lives combined with the need for that adrenalin rush from sport.

Cricket, too had to change.

Indeed, over the last couple of weeks the first world championship and also the first tournament of the kind featuring top teams, in the new format has proved the skeptics wrong.

It has been a resounding success.

The icing has been an India-Pakistan grand finale played this Monday in South Africa that India won after a closely contested match that could have gone either way.

But the winner, was also the game of cricket, re-invented and served spiced up to sell-out crowds and TV audiences around the globe.

The matches were choc-a-bloc, TV ratings zoomed and given the eyeballs, advertisers have gone home happy despite paying broadcasters up to US $25,000 for a 10 second slot.

It is estimated that over the next eight years Twenty20-cricket will earn cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council, $1.5 billion from television rights alone.

In India, cricket ratings knocked off established soaps, musical contests and reality shows that have dominated, especially after the early exit of the Indian team from the world championship of the traditional slower form in the recent past.

The illegal satta (gambling) market has also been reporting brisk business.

An earlier India-Pakistan league match witnessed frenzied betting to the tune of a reported Rs 5 billion just in regions around commercial capital Mumbai.

Almost all 20-20 matches were fiercely fought with the result apparent at the end only.

Australia considered almost invincible into the tournament was humbled by the lowly rated Zimbabwe in an earlier round. The result was akin to Brazil or Germany beaten by USA in soccer.

India was almost knocked out and had the only option of winning by big margins to stay afloat. They managed it quite well.

Even as the tournament progressed and India emerged champions of snappy cricket, back home traffic dwindled with reports of appointments cancelled all over and the usually efficient and hard working private sector took a pause, to toast the team.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too took time off to watch the final.

The new game seems best practiced by the young and fearless. India was without the big three aging stars, considered the cricketing gods of India, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly. The Indian team with an average age of 24 years was among the youngest.

Yuvraj Singh emerged as the new icon smashing six sixes in an over against England in a do-or-die match, the maximum possible in an over, and that too against a frontline pace bowler.

Such a feat has been achieved only once at the international level in the entire history of the game, and that too against a slow bowler from a team on the fringes of commercial cricket.

Yuvraj also scored the fastest 50 runs off 12 balls compared to the international record of 20 balls in the thousands of matches played till now.

The intensity of the new game will ensure that Yuvraj’s feat, considered near impossible till very recently, will be replicated and possibly improved in the future, given the number of sixes that have rained in the tournament.

Each game averaged 8-10 sixes compared to 3-4 in the most exciting one-day tournament.

Fans have loved it so that observers now say that 20-20 cricket would end up replacing the one day format, though the longest test matches should survive, given the millions of purist followers of the game.

Though cricket is played and followed in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, West Indies, England, it is the zealous Indian following and consequent multinational sponsorships given the big market and reach that has sustained the economics of the game.

Cricket is about the only sport that India has managed to perform consistently at the world stage.

Thus the expectations of fans, across social, caste and religions, borders on the frenzied with cricketers routinely raised to the level of demigods or pilloried after almost every match, depending on the result.

Cricketers and film stars are by far the most adored celebrities in India, minting millions as brand ambassadors of sundry products

Cricketers from diverse backgrounds, also reflect the myriad and often complex structures. Captain M S Dhoni grew up in small town Ranchi, while another hero Iran Pathan studied at a madrassa.

Indeed before 20-20-cricket, Bollywood, India’s huge film industry has been quick to catch the pulse of the new generation. A recent global survey voted Indian youth as the happiest given the high expectations, jobs, income and changing lifestyles.

Bollywood has churned out four super hits in the recent past, Lagaan, Rang de Basanti, Lage Raho Munnabhai and the latest Chak de India.

Each has showcased a never dying attitude, victory for the underdog and fighting against the odds. Lagaan was cleverly woven around a cricket match during India’s colonial past, with a team of peasants taking on the oppressors, the British rulers.
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In the latest big hit Chak de India, super star Shahrukh Khan turns a band of rag-tag girls into a world-beating hockey team.

The girls end up beating the Australians in the world cup finals. Importantly, there is no Pakistan to drum up the obvious national fervor. The emphasis is on hard work, tactics and strategy to beat professional teams.

Shahrukh, incidentally, was present at the 20-20 final in Johannesburg, to cheer the Indian team.

Cricket and Bollywood often feed on each other, providing film directors, sponsors and advertisers a potent cocktail of themes or brand images woven around the two genres or stars

It was, thus fitting, that India won. But, tomorrow is another day and Indian cricketers know all too well that the fans are only going to expect more.

There is a dire need to promote other sports to levels of excellence in India so that new heroes emerge.

For now, though, India is very happy with its cricketers.



Cricket over Politics

The past month has been a bit of a unique mix for this country. Two subjects, cricket and politics that grip the nation most passionately have been at the forefront of public minds.

The Indian cricket team is on a historic trip to Pakistan, with the two neighbors playing each other in either country for the first time in 15 years, a period that has witnessed the Kargil conflict and near-war like situations with troops amassed along the border.

The month of April-May will witness the nation electing a new government at the Center, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, the two main parties vying for votes.

And as was expected when it comes to a choice between cricket and politics, the country is universal in its preference --- it is cricket. To start with, many politicians, including stalwarts such as Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that cricket was being made to overlap with the run-up to the elections.

The complaint was that people would simply not vote if a match were to be played on voting days, which will be in phases over two months. The other problem was that it would be difficult to draw crowds at election rallies during match days that extended to five one-day internationals and three test matches (a total of 20 days of actual play apart from the pre and post-match hype).

The overlap did not happen as the Election Commission played it safe by ensuring that the voting days fall after the series is over.

The other predicament is very much on and making matters worse politically is that the series is turning out to be a closely fought one. Facing the brunt of cricket is Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani who is on a country wide Rath Yatra (caravan) across the country proclaiming the BJP message.

People simply do not turn up to listen to Advani when a match is on. Advani has resorted to fitting wide television screens either side of his caravan bus, telecasting the matches live to draw the crowds. He peppers his speech with the latest score in order to keep the crowds updated and humored.

Advani’s is not the only dilemma. News reports from across the country tell the same story --- sparse crowds at election rallies whether India is batting or fielding. Such is the interest that even film stars, the one perennial weapon used in politics to draw the crowds have failed.

Major political parties have assigned staff to monitor the match days so that no big announcements such as release of manifesto or a press conference by any leader of standing happens if India is doing well.

This is to prevent being relegated to inside pages of newspapers or the post-commercial slots in television news, as cricket takes the front slots. Regular party briefings are postponed during match days to prevent journalists being inconvenienced.

Election speeches with cricket lingo are the order of the day for maximum response from the crowds. In a recent speech Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said that the number three is lucky for the country as well as him.

This is the third time that he would be Prime Minister if the BJP won, the Indo-Pak peace process was a result of his third attempt after Lahore and Agra and Virendra Sehwag has become the first Indian ever to score a triple century during the ongoing series. Sehwag drew the biggest cheers.

Others have also joined the cricket bandwagon. Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi sought to make amends to his personal attack on Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul by saying that in such a big electoral match-up no balls and wide-balls are bound to be delivered.

There is a perpetual race to send congratulatory messages across the border each time India performs well.

Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi as well as sundry other politicians wire instant missives to individual players as well as the team for every victory or milestone. The Indian team that has been performing quite well over the past couple of years has perhaps never received so many posts for one series.

The BJP and the Congress have also been at pains to put each other down on where the credit for cricket should lie.

Each time India wins, the BJP makes it a point to club ``India winning’’ with its election campaign of ``India Shining’’ while at the same time reiterating that the matches are being played due to the initiative of Vajpayee, in the first place.

The Congress, on the other hand, uses every sophistry to convey that the achievements of the cricketers should be seen as such and not as a victory of the BJP, which the party is trying to portray.

It is true that cricket is the one opium that unites the country like none else. While politics is about vote-banks whether based on caste, creed, religion or the rich and poor, cricket cuts across all social barriers.

Top corporate offices as well as roadside vendors witness people in well-heeled suits and ragged clothes glued onto televisions sets. One of the best performers during the one-day series was Mohammed Kaif, a Muslim who has the whole-hearted support and wishes of every Hindu in this country.

Sehwag, the toast of Indian cricket, belongs to a lower middle-class family, driving a scooter to work, until he made it big. Other stars such as Rahul Dravid and V V S Laxman belong to middle-class erudite families of professionals.

The captain Saurav Ganguly comes from a well-settled business family. Indian icon Sachin Tendulkar grew up playing local cricket in the maidans (playing fields) of Mumbai.

All the big names from diverse backgrounds above are linked by one parameter --- performance, a microcosm for the entire nation striving for the ideal of unity in diversity.

It is no wonder that when the Indian team performs well one billion people celebrate. It is also apparent why the people of India prefer cricket to politics --- no sectarianism, no religious fanaticism, no pseudo-secularism. Cricket is all about hitting a six or taking a good catch. It cannot get simpler and straighter.

The cricketers themselves have been under pressure to balance the needs of diplomacy that demands best behavior with the cutthroat competition of international cricket where sledging and frayed on-field tempers are the order of the day.

Before embarking on the tour, Vajpayee personally told the players that their aim should also be to win hearts.

The cricket matches so far have been mostly free of any fracas and played with a fair amount of spirit. Indian fans who have traveled in the thousands have been treated to warm hospitality by the hosts.

As far as people are concerned it is clear that the peace process enjoys full support. And, it is the performers who are always revered first.

Will baseball catch on in India (September 2003)

Things American are already a rage here, the latest being `Charlie's Angels'. But, the current debate is about baseball and the reluctance of Indians to imbibe the sport.

Two baseball experts flew into India recently to teach Indians baseball know-how and, predictably, invited considerable attention. Their effort is part of India's amateur baseball federation's move to boost the game in the country, and add further drops to the ocean of America that exists here.

Symbols of American life that pervade India include kids grown up on MTV lingo, `Friends' and HBO, sounding more American than Americans. Pepsi and Coke, Pizza Hut and Macdonald's, CNN and Fox, Kentucky Fried Chicken and IBM, have set up shop and are a part of every day life and culture and also the subject of public ire each time there is a ventilation of anti-American sentiments.

News follows Christian Amanpour as much as Britney Spears or Jennifer Aniston. `Bruce Almighty' registered a good opening while Julia Roberts is the Pretty Woman and India's Sweetheart as well. A mass of Indians employed as call center executives masquerade as Americans (Reena becomes Ron) on phone, catering to a Citibank account holders' inquiries from Oklahoma.

Indians also know that George Bush's (mis) pronunciations on TV affect their lives as much as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee -- an attack on Iraq that can wreck stock market fortunes here or a meet with President Musharraf of Pakistan at Camp David that is a matter of life and death in Kashmir. Jay Leno jokes abound.

But, it is in sports that American influence has been rather limited. Indians don't understand American football and don't play baseball. Basketball is practiced by a few, while boxing news is limited to Evander Holyfield in the ring and Mike Tyson off it.

If there is one game that has taken recent root in the country, it is golf, proven by the proliferation of golf courses in the last few years. But, this has been more of a corporate effort than a people response, which means golf is fast turning into a popular game of the rich.

Further, golf is as European as American. Similarly, there is an increasing stock of people interested in Formula-1 racing and bowling.

But baseball is as true as American can be. Thus, when two American baseball coaches arrived here, the talk centered around why do Indians who have taken to every American facet, including accent, like fish to water, resist baseball?

The answer lies in a continental divide. What baseball is to America, soccer is to Europe, cricket is to the Indian sub-continent consisting of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India.

If Europe cannot look beyond David Beckham, whom Americans ignored on his recent trip to promote football in the US, Indians cannot see beyond Sachin Tendulkar, the cricketing God of India.

This writer is not aware of a single baseball player. Only that Michael Jordan is, or till recently was, the God of America and Reebok -- or was it Nike. If Sachin steps out of his house in India, David in England, Michael in America, it is news as flashy as it can get.

When golf made its hesitant beginnings in India, a prominent coach from the famous David Leadbetter academy said, “Indians will never learn how to play golf as they can play no game unlike cricket. So, a slice is a cover drive to the right and a hook is an on-drive to the left.''

The coach was wrong -- Indians took to golf and there is a legion of Indian golfers now, making more money than most cricketers, which was just a dream a while ago.

But, will the golf case mean baseball can succeed as well? To reverse the question, could cricket translate into an American success, like Indian curry and `Bend it Like Beckham'? What are the chances of Sachin Tendulkar turning God in America? He is an icon in England, South Africa and Australia, where Donald Bradman is on the pedestal.

Essentially, cricket and baseball look similar on TV. There is a guy who chucks the ball, another who wields the bat, catchers all around and, to make a run, you need to run.

If the two are just different garbs, and sports as we know can bring people together, as was attempted by the recent US-Iraq football match, baseball and cricket should build further bridges between India and US.

It will not be so easy. Indeed, to make any beginning, one has to further ask whether Americans would like to watch Sachin on Oprah, or would Oprah feature Sachin.

This writer wouldn't watch an unnamed baseball star on a TV chat show here -- Sachin on ESPN/Star Sports any day. It is the icons that create a particular sporting spirit -- Germany took to tennis after Boris Becker, Beligum, after Justin Henin, and the world has taken to golf after Tiger Woods.

Sports can be an intense personal choice -- hamburgers from Macdonald's may not be changing filiations, but here it is a matter of changing Gods -- from Sachin to Michael or vice versa. It can be an impossible decision or a matter of time. Unless Anna Kournikova chooses to play both, which has nothing to do with God or tennis.

Birdie for all

A few years back New Delhi, the capital of India, boasted of just one 18-hole golf course. There are over a dozen now. Several Indian golfers are making it big in the international circuit and many starry-eyed parents now perceive golfing as a viable career choice for their wards, given the millions in prize money.

There have been many more changes --- a few years back there were no multiplexes, malls, bowling alleys --- they dot the urban landscape now, providing wholesome entertainment, combining food, drink, movies and a bit of exercise. But, this one is about golf.

While the Indian population still remains largely cricket-crazed, golf is generating cultural frissons, giving rise to sporting stereotypes as well as the experience of a global sport that has caught on here.

As a lesser golfer, struggling with the game, one pores over tomes of literature, hopes to hire the best of instructors even if they are unaffordable, spend time and money, yet the muffed shots count the same.

The struggle becomes an obsession even as the mind tries to fathom more complex techniques, the grip and stance, numerous anatomical parts are mentally diagnosed, length and thickness of fingers are analyzed, psychiatric and mental exercises are prescribed.

Feroz Ali, India's leading golfer, recently said that he hits the ball the way he feels it is right, but he can say it, most cannot.

David Leadbetter is to golf what Nick Bolleiteri is to tennis. Recently, it was announced that David would be heading to India for a training session at the Jack Niclaus signature Classic Golf resort in Gurgaon, the outsourcing hub adjoining Delhi, and described by those who have not been to Singapore as the Singapore of India, as Gurgaon still has a way to go.

Considering that Nick Price, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els queue up for a sermon from David, the Indian golfing fraternity tumbled over their tees. Someone remarked that the Classic Golf Resort where David was supposed to descend would have to be auctioned to afford his fees.

Predictably, the announcement was corrected to lessons in fine-tuning by a senior instructor at David's academy. This was big news but digestible.

Corporate bigwigs, media moguls and glamour dolls trooped in, despite the humidity and the rains, as golf is in, in India and invites a good media splash.

There is a change of scale in the equipment the big and beautiful brandish; it is designer golf wear, whilst the latest gizmos become the norm -- video sessions and sound recordings scrutinized by computers fitted with multimedia and soundcards, golf carts, ball-picking machines, remote controlled sprinklers.

No wonder, golf is big business first and sport later. The instructor, whose sermon was the sound of God, said that the problem with Indians is that they play their golf like cricket. A cover drive makes the perfect fade out of the fairway.

Former cricketers Ajay Jadeja and Kapil Dev arrived furnishing good golfing news.

Doctor Pronnoy Roy, India’s media mogul was there too. Hangers-on whispered that he can fire a cool six or seven over, but in keeping with his dictum of reserving the best for the last that applies well to golf too, it is a handicap of 14 that he advertises to the opposite pair.

And unlike Kapil who relies on his cricketing muscle memory to drive the ball into eternity, Pronnoy has his own little secret, ``I hit the hardest and cleanest when I think that the ball is a politician,'' he said. Simar Duggal, described in the press release as the only lady-model golfer in India, invited attention.

Golf makes its exponent think like no other game while modeling could dull an exponent like no other profession. A thinking model comes almost as a relief. And many exponents did not mind hovering around her handling her flurry of pretty and intelligent questions as well as setting her wrists right.

But the rich and famous are in one league. Golf is happening everywhere. Moving onto more regular sights that one would not have encountered a few years ago --- the time is 7:30 pm, the floodlights are on and the golf range at Siri Fort, located at the up market south Delhi, resonates with the sound of crashing club heads, many against the ball, others due to large divots.

The pace is feverish as scores of Delhiites, wrists cocked, knees bent, heads straight, tees firmly in place, are lined up in the quest for the ever-elusive perfect golf swing. A casual inspection would make them seem like just any other gathering while a closer categorization reveals more:

Career Golfers: They are the hardest hit by the images beamed into our drawing rooms by satellite TV. The icons are Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa. Suraj, a picture of intense concentration is practicing hard as he desperately wants to make the cut for the Indian tournaments.

``In India, team sports have always been on the forefront, whether it is cricket, hockey, kabaddi, kho kho,'' he says, ``we have never done well in individual sport. In golf when I win, I get all the credit. Nothing is shared.'' This is true-blue individualism in a country that started out being Socialist at the time of independence in 1947.

Not too far away from Suraj, is Zia-ul-Haq, a government officer who presides over the training of his young son, Saif. He narrates the strong influence that parents have had on the careers of the top stars of today, from the William sisters in tennis to Sachin Tendulkar in cricket. Zia, though, is cross with his ward.

``He was disqualified in the first round of an amateur tournament at Delhi golf club, recently,'' says Zia, ``I am very disappointed. If this is the way things are going to turn out, I am sorry to say, Saif's future is bleak.'' This writer is disallowed to speak to the aspiring golfer as his father felt that media exposure at this stage would not be good for Saif's career.

Business golfers: They cart the most expensive golf sets, rattle off quotes from Ian Woosnam's video series and can explain the most intricate nuances of the game. Yet, if they had it their way they would not mind kicking the ball to beat the course. For them it is striking the right banter, not a birdie that is at stake.

``I have paired up with the Army chief, union ministers, police commissioners, cabinet secretaries, cricketers,'' said N K Vohra, a businessman, who had driven all the way from his farmhouse a good 30 kilometers away. It was obvious that Vohra's game belied his theoretical knowledge, but courtesy economic progress, this category has burgeoned learning all the tricks golf can offer.

S Singh, who works for Slumberger was there with his wife and young daughter, sweating profusely with a contingent of coaches around him. Mr Singh struggled to rectify a basic hurrying flaw that had crept into his swing. ``He is keen to pick up the game as fast as possible,'' says his wife, ``his new German MD is an avid golfer.''

Tortured golfers: They have been at the game for eons and are called the brooders and strugglers. Many of them can be seen with scowls on their tired faces and it is anybody's guess that they have had a bad day at the green. Of course, golf is like a game of snakes and ladders and it is equally likely that one would see them up and about the next time round.

Ajay Mehra, an Indian Police Service officer, seemed to have got everything right. Spikes, golf hat, deep blue Greg Norman T-shirt, well-balanced stance. Yet, his misdirected divots dug a veritable crater around his playing area. ``I have been playing the game for 20 years,'' says Mehra, ``and I have learnt to enjoy it within my limitations. There are days when one just keeps on hitting clean. The satisfaction is immense.''

True golfers: They scurry about the range, picking golf balls hit in all directions, hidden behind umbrellas as shields. There is an army of them at Siri Fort.

In the evenings one does not get to see their faces but it is in the heat of the afternoon sun that they brandish their irons to catapult the ball beyond any of the Big Berthas that converge during the regular timings. For them, golf is bread and butter, their life.

There are certainly a few Feroz Ali's and Ali Sher's lurking among them, former caddies who have gone on to greater golfing glory.
Which brings me to the last category to make the account complete. I am left with myself, the struggling-golfer-journalist. I do not think there were any around, poking their noses into everybody’s life rather than letting them be and focusing on their golf.

Double Trouble

Legion of fans follow the progress of sentimental favorite Andre Agassi even as the new order comprising Roger Federer, Leyton Hewitt, Marat Safin are now set to rule the world of tennis, which is becoming even more apparent at the ongoing Australian Open .

There has been the resounding arrival of the beautiful Russian tennis champions Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Myskina, Elena Dementieva taking the wind out of the William sisters (though Serena has bounced back by beating Sharapova), Justin-Henin, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati and dipping brand Anna Kournikova who has virtually disappeared as the pin-up girl of women’s tennis. Looks can only carry you so far.

While tennis aficionados follow Federer’s clinical displays and Sharapova’s feline beauty, here in India all patriotic zeal has been centered around the just arrived new tennis sensation Sania Mirza.

She hasn’t done much by global standards but has become the first Indian woman to make it to the third round of a Grand Slam event (at the current Australian Open) and made Serena break sweat in the second set. In a nation starved of sporting achievement, except in cricket, the 18-year old good looking Sania is the new national pin-up girl.

There are reports that she is being signed up for sponsorship deals that will place her higher than some of the lords of Indian endorsements, the cricketers.

As far as tennis is concerned, the glorification of Sania is due to the fact that Indians have been, sadly, only doing well in doubles and mixed doubles and are world champions at it, for quite sometime now.

In keeping with the spirit of supporting fellow sportsmen, many Indians have been following a few of the doubles matches over the past year including the Indian advance at the Olympics in Greece where India came close to winning bronze.

The lone silver medalist at the games in shooting, Rajyavardhan Rathore is a national icon. In tennis, most have wished somebody to take on the mantle of the real thing --- singles to arouse complete patriotism.

The impression is that doubles comprises out-of-work singles players still looking for earnings through tennis or people who play for pleasure rather than competition, in which case anybody can watch anybody else. One hears the Woodies were good but this writer never saw them play; Indian Anand Amritraj formed a formidable partner with brother Vijay, but Anand barely existed while it was the exploits of Ramesh Krishnan and Vijay that were followed.

In singles, of course, any follower of the game can recall the John McEnroe-Ivan Lendl clashes, Jimmy Connors fighting spirit, Boris Becker-Stephan Edberg volleys, Pete Sampras-Agassi scintillating returns and the existent Agassi-Safin-Federer battle of the ages.

Some champions like McEnroe in the past and the William (Serena, Venus) sisters now are also diligent doubles players, but one has never got around to watching them play, as doubles is always the sideshow of the main event.

The current lot of Indian doubles heroes have been around for a while --- the scions of Indian tennis --- Leander Paes partnering the legend Martina Navratilova, Mahesh Bhupati the world number one doubles player at one time.

Over the past year Sania Mirza too rose to be the best junior doubles player, although she does not figure in the line-up this year as she tries her hand in individual events.

The question is, after the one-year forced experience of watching doubles tennis involving mostly Paes-Bhupati, does or can one enjoy watching tennis doubles on TV? Well, if it weren’t for India playing, it would probably be difficult.

There don’t seem to be too many people who watch tennis doubles matches on television, though playing it can be much more fun. A glimpse of on-going doubles matches does happen prior to the start of the singles event or if there is re-scheduling due to rain and one switches on the TV expecting a singles match, while a doubles is on. The channel is normally changed after information of the latest timings for singles.

While most doubles matches do not have an audience, a few people do appear in the galleries who are either linesmen/ball boys or girls resting before embarking on their duties again or members of the media belonging to the same nation as the players. After all Paes is big news here.

If there are any more people they look like relatives, as they resemble the players in the court. In few of the Paes matches in the recent past, during a peak run of Indian doubles tennis with Bhupati when the duo won several Grand Slams, the pretty actress Mahima Chowdhury who was seeing Paes made an appearance that made doubles watching colorful which was caught by print glossies, but this is about all.

The game itself is difficult to follow, as the action is too fast, like squash or table tennis where the only people enjoying are the ones playing. It is a bit tricky trying to follow the ball as the two players on either side who stand close to the net can butt in any time.

The person at the baseline can prepare for a shot, but the ball never arrives as the partner close to the net butts in the racket.

So just as one zeroes into one player, the other hits the ball that muddles eye-movement of the viewer watching on television that can be disconcerting. To use another analogy, it is like fencing, in which action progresses very fast and all-of-sudden one player takes off the mask, smiling and laughing at a win.

It is difficult to figure out how and why the victory happened. There is also the feeling that that the court is too small for two big muscular players, as most tennis players including women are, to be on one side of the court.

The minimum that someone like Leander or Mahesh should do is to cover the full court. Why have those toned muscles otherwise? Anybody could manage doubles without the flat-abs.

It is even more complex in mixed doubles as both the sides, including the ladies, decide to attack the other lady, unless Serena plays, which results in the guy butting in even when he is not required to.

The only way to follow doubles tennis is in slow motion, which means one can switch to another channel while the actual game is on and come back to catch it later. In unhurried speed it looks quite interesting with considerable skill, reflexes and combining well like fencing. Of course, one can watch the replays as well as real play that feature Agassi, Federer, Safin even Mark Philippousis.

One does not want to take away any of the laurels that Indian doubles players are bringing the country, as it is good that we are doing well at the international level in some sport apart from cricket, but it would be better if it were singles.

But, as they say, beggars cannot be choosers even in sports where we won just one silver medal at the Olympics.

Now the hope is for Sania to deliver many a game set and match, lest she gets carried away by the hype. The two people she needs to be most wary about are the media and the endorsers.