The Hindu : Sport : Agassi, Lee and the need for spirit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 11, 2005

Sport

Sport

Agassi, Lee and the need for spirit

By Rohit Brijnath

The strangest thing happened during the Davis Cup weekend in America. Not so much that an unheralded Croat Ivan Ljubicic caned Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick in succession to win the tie. But that Agassi, who had reason to feel forlorn, strolled into the Croatian locker room and told a stunned Ljubicic that he was privileged to watch his decisive match against Roddick and that he should cherish the moment.

It wasn't bizarre because it was Agassi for like some anti-Samson he cut his hair and discovered a moral strength a while ago. What was unusual was the act itself, an offering of sportsmanship, a gesture of fine spirit, in a sporting time when antagonism is the norm.

On the same day in America, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson set out for the final round of the Ford Championship. A perfunctory handshake was offered before, and after, but in the four hours of play neither acknowledged each other, keeping their distance as if there was something inappropriate about their respective choices of after-shave. No "well played". No "top shot". Not even a "you lucky". It was sport at its sullen best.

Impoliteness is routine

This, we are more used to. Impoliteness is routine, discourtesy has become humdrum. At the Australian Open tennis, Juan Ignacio Chela spat at Lleyton Hewitt, and Hewitt pumped his fist in triumph after an opponent's unforced error.

At the Australian Grand Prix, Jenson Button needlessly suggested the attention showered on local favourite Mark Webber was hype. In England recently, Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho put his finger to his lips as if demanding the Liverpool crowd should shut up when his side scored. Apparently in the heat of combat this has all become acceptable.

No one expects Glenn McGrath to offer batsmen a rose when they walk out or Woods to hug Mickelson after an eagle putt. Admittedly teams will bump egos, indulge in a little needle and frustration will find an outlet.

But somehow we've arrived at the point where basic civility is considered an achievement, where shaking hands before a match is the most grace that can be mustered.

Not all sportsmen are expected to like each other, and that is fine. But one might expect that even during competition there is a mutual admiration for each other's striving. That while one team might be superior to the other, there is an appreciation that they are on similar journeys.

That if the public, and media, cannot understand their tribulations (a common complaint) then they, at least, have a certain empathy for each other that translates into respect.

Rare commodity

But it is hard to come by, the spirit that should underlie what is indeed a game has mostly become a victim of a warped philosophy wherein winning excuses everything and victory miraculously rights every wrong. The result is viewed as so important it has somewhat made the process redundant.

Captains, coaches and agents are complicit in this, summarily handing out clean chits to an offending player. Hewitt's camp, for instance, will have you believe there is an international conspiracy against this little angel. The media fails as well.

If this paper's columnist Peter Roebuck had not castigated Brett Lee on the recent bean-ball incident in New Zealand, incredibly, it would have passed without scrutiny.

Whether it was a deliberate act cannot be established, yet Lee's assertion that he was not that sort of person (i.e. mean-spirited) was somewhat at odds with his chasing of a retreating tailender Nantie Hayward with a bouncer some years ago. He needed to be challenged but wasn't.

Much has been written about India extending hospitality to the visiting Pakistani team and supporters and with good reason. But it is a spirit that must extend to the field of play as well, for a single gesture sometimes speaks more than a hundred runs.

When Ernie Els on Sunday eagled the final hole to win the Dubai Desert Classic and break his rival Miguel Angel Jimenez's heart, one man clenched his fist and the other sank to his knees. Then, incredibly, they embraced.

Both men had come equipped with skill but armed with spirit, virtues not in conflict but in fact complementary.

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