The Hindu : Sport : Champions sooner or later emerge with feet of clay

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Saturday, Sep 16, 2006
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Champions sooner or later emerge with feet of clay

Amongst contemporary sporting giants only Woods and Federer have managed to mature into rounded characters, writes Peter Roebuck

— Photo: AFP

FIGHTING SPIRITS: Marcus Trescothick's reluctance to tour India may be out of the fear that the ghosts of his last visit may reappear.

No week in which Sachin Tendulkar returns with a bang, Shane Warne incurs a black eye, Ricky Ponting is censured, a Test cricketer is banned for ten years and an England opener declines the opportunity to tour India can be considered dull. Not even the hottest episode of the most dramatic soap opera can compete with the disturbances that regularly crop up in the game of bat and ball.

Inevitably sport tends to concentrate in its champions, those blithe spirits capable of lighting a fire in a damp forest. Of course it is not possible merely to accept them as actors on a stage, and to leave them alone once the curtain has fallen. Instead they are dissected like locusts in a classroom. Inevitably their greatness remains on the field.

Amongst contemporary sporting giants only Tiger Woods and Roger Federer have managed to mature into rounded characters despite the burning of the brain. But, then, they have something in common, an ability to enter a higher state, beyond any competitor. They know that the battle is with themselves, a realisation that removes pettiness prompted by jealousy and frustration.

Elsewhere champions sooner or later emerge with feet of clay, as drugs are taken or a provocative opponent assaulted. Of course it is absurd to expect sportsmen to surpass common humanity. Considering the opportunities encountered, the miracle is that most retain some semblance of responsibility. Moreover lesser sportsmen are also fallible.

For once let the great names take a back seat and let us instead think about Marcus Trescothick and Mark Vermeulen, fine players enduring hard times.

Trescothick's reluctance

Trescothick's reluctance to return to India so soon after his mysterious departure last winter was hardly a surprise. The beefy opener has many fine qualities. He is level-headed, loyal and committed. He is also human. In his days as an apprentice, he'd report for duty at Somerset with a vast bag filled with bars of chocolate. Here was a young man yearning for the comforts of home even as he ventured into the abyss. Here was a teenager who knew that cricket was his calling but who also sensed that his game would take him away from much that he cherished.

Although his reasons for going home were hidden, it's hard to avoid thinking that he was simply homesick, that he wanted to be with his family and attendant familiarities. Nor should Trescothick be condemned on this account. Certainly his departure should not have been treated as a dark secret, for that only makes matters worse. All except numbskulls allow a man his frailties.

Trescothick must fear that the ghosts might reappear. Better not to disturb them.

Vermeulen case

Mark Vermeulen is a harder case because he has often seemed self-centred and intemperate. Now he has been suspended from English league cricket after charging from the field to attack a rude spectator. He was taken from the ground and the match was conceded. Nor was that the end.

Afterwards club officials worried that he might hurt others, or himself. And it had only been a friendly. Moreover the remark had been harmless. The Zimbabwean bowled a wide whereupon the spectator suggested he take off his sunglasses. Evidently it touched a nerve.

Lately Vermeulen has had a hard time of it. He has consulted psychiatrists in an attempt to ease his troubles. Meanwhile evil runs amok in the country of his birth. Altogether it was an unhappy episode. It was also a reminder of the challenges cricketers face as they try to meet the challenges of a game that can become a torment.

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