The Hindu : Sport : Let beauty reign

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 09, 2006

Sport

Sport

Let beauty reign

Football is not merely about winning and losing. It is about flair, about invention and, most of all, about beauty, writes Nirmal Shekar

For a little over four weeks, our planet will become flat. There will be no time zones. Circadian rhythms will be ignored by vast numbers of the earth's dominant species, as every day becomes a seamless 24-hour cycle.

In many of the world's bustling cities, main thoroughfares will often be deserted during evening peak hours; everywhere, more workers will call in sick more often than at any time in the last four years.

Wives, girlfriends, mothers and sisters will yet again wonder if mankind and sanity can ever be mentioned in the same breath as grown, middle-aged men suddenly regress to wobbly adolescence.

These few weeks, skeletal rickshaw pullers in the chaotic, over-crowded lanes and bylanes of Kolkata and company directors in Armani suits sipping champagne in exclusive London clubs will mostly be discussing the same thing — the very thing that will dominate the consciousness of out-of-work Afghan warlords and conservative European Union policy makers alike.

Afghanistan and Iraq, bird flu and AIDS, poverty, terrorism and global warming...every major world issue that was viewed with a certain universal urgency and deep concern until the other day will vanish from public consciousness almost without a trace.

Collective amnesia

A sort of collective amnesia will strike mankind; and it is the only time the masses will achieve what Zen masters spend entire lifetimes seeking — a monkish onepointedness, a state where the many becomes one, where conflict and duality disappear as eyes, heart and soul focus on one thing.

That one thing — the football World Cup — is, of course, like no other sporting event in the world.

There are religions. And then there is football. The world game is the ultimate religion, one that cuts across every known border on earth, something that, like every great religion, unites, divides, provides inspirational highs and sets off fits of deep depression, touches chords hardly touched by anything else, shoots up nerves and puts one on edge and makes one scale the gamut of emotions in just 90 minutes.

"Football is not a matter of life and death. It is much more important than that,'' said Bill Shankly when he was manager of the Liverpool team.

Matchless game

After all, life and death are everyday realities. The World Cup happens once in four years. And no other sport can hope to showcase anything quite like it; none can even aspire to match the status of the football World Cup.

Four years ago, 28.8 billion viewers tuned in to watch the matches in Japan and South Korea. Germany 2006 could see that figure being surpassed by a few billion as the matchless Brazilians seek to extend their domination of the world game.

Then again, if tens of millions of fans who are geographically far removed from the land of samba passionately follow Brazil's fortunes, it is not only because they are the most successful side in World Cup history.

Brazil is the connoisseur's favourite because, in football, style of performance has always counted for something. The game is not first and last about winning. It is about flair. It is about invention. Most of all, it is about beauty and aesthetic appeal.

And if a bunch of gifted magicians such as Ronaldinho, Messi, Beckham and Henry can deliver on their promises, then Germany could well witness the sort of transcendence — sport mutates into high art — not seen in a World Cup finals since 1986 when a squat little man managed to temporarily suspend the laws of physics to achieve on a football field what a Rembrandt might have sweated considerably to create on canvas.

Two matches. One man. A few brilliant pieces of sublime magic. Not even the greatest of them all — Pele — could have matched the genius of Diego Maradona as was evident in the games against England and Belgium in Mexico 20 years ago.

Maradona's second goal against England — coming not long after the infamous Hand of God strike — heads the list of great goals in World Cup history. But that is a no brainer really. And, to place this goal alongside others is an act of criminal under-valuation of priceless art.

Ah, those legs, Maradona's legs! Watching the little man work his magic, you were reminded of Leonardo da Vinci's words: "The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.'' On that day, timeless biological work of art helped create a few breathtakingly awe-inspiring sporting moments that should rank among the highest forms of art that any sportsman might have ever aspired to.

Outrageously brilliant

Nobody who saw that goal will ever forget its impossible beauty. In conception and execution, it was outrageously brilliant. The beauty was in the motion — motion that was at once ephemeral and timeless — as the virtuoso performer danced along in a magic moment of sheer inspiration.

It was one of the all-too-rare moments when sport sprouted wings to fly high above its earthly pasture, soaring and soaring and soaring. And for those who witnessed this flight, self consciousness was blocked. We were one with the action, achieving a sort of Aristotlean eudaimonia — a time when time itself stops.

That's the apotheosis of Pele's Jogo Bonito (The Beautiful Game). Few mortals can hope to raise the bar that high. But if there are moments in Germany 2006 when we get to sight that bar clearly, we'd be lucky.

Let beauty reign. Let the games begin.

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