Beauty and the best

John Keats once said: “ A thing of beauty is a joy forever”. We all crave for beauty in life
and work because it acts as an fine ornament on our body of work. Across centuries, there have been been many instances of work across diverse fields where a certain element of beauty has always segregated the smart men from their workmanlike counterparts.Sports has given us ample opportunities to enjoy and cherish beauty.

The ultimate aim of all sportsmen or teams is winning.But the manner in which these wins
come define the grace and demeanour of these teams or individuals. There has to be a reason why we start following teams or players. We may support a team because it belongs to our locality and hate a team team because it is from a opposing locality.That sounds rational enough. But have we ever conjectured why a person residing in a narrow alley at Maheshtala in Kolkata would crave for an Argentinian team from an altogether opposite side of the world. He does not belong to Argentina nor does he has any of his acquaintances there. It is because of the manner in which players execute their work, they win hearts and gather fans all across the world.

There have been many examples where grace has coupled with aggression to bring in a virtuoso combo. But there have also been times where the beauty quotient have had to backseat to the ruthless aggressor.Let us explore the two worlds to find out how a touch of beauty can catapult any sport to another art form.

After the Italian team won its fourth world cup in 2006, one of the leading dailies had run a column which said" You dont always need to play beautiful football to win world cups. Well, I cant disagree to this. Germany has time and again displayed that by winning three world cups when there were far superior teams. The report wanted to convey was that winning requires strategy coupled with grit and a strong mind, which can compromise the aesthetics part of any sport. Very few can bring both flair and victory together. Brazil and Argentina have enthralled us with their beautiful football over the years and have gone on to win several big tournaments. On the other hand , we have had teams like Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and Hungary who generally play the most beautiful football to watch but have perennially choked at the most
important time.Spain in the 2008 European championships, have after a long time undermined their chokers tag and played an amazing blend of football which won them their 2nd european championships. Even in the English Premier League, we can see that Arsenal plays the most fluid and beautiful game, but hardly have they got the number of silverware they actually should have deserved.

Pete Sampras and Roger Federer bring an interesting study in this discussion.Sampras had a monkish single-mindedness towards his game, which reflected in his style of play. He was more like a Julius Caesar"He came, he played, he conquered". Whereas the more silken Federer has brought out an unbelievable mix of beauty and dexterity in his approach which has elevated his game to an art of the highest form. We also have had a John Mcenroe who belonged to this same genre , but he could combine dominance and magic for a relatively short period. But what Federer has done over the years has given so much joy to the purists who argue that beautiful tennis can win tournaments apart from the occasional wows and clapping .Watching players like Federer or Mcenroe makes us feel as if they are painting on a canvas not playing with a racquet.

Every time a Sachin Tendulkar walks out to bat, watching a match becomes even more pleasing to the eyes.It is hard to comprehend how a boy of 16 years has turned into a man of 36 years and still uses his bat more like a magician's wand. The same can be said of a VVS Laxman, a Mark Waugh,a Mohammad Azharuddin or David Gower. It is just the manner in which these men play ,makes the game even more beautiful to watch. If you have a Vivian Richards plundering an attack, you also need a Greg Chappel who can make batting ridiculously easy.

There have been so many champions who have played the beautiful game and have made their sport richer. A Susi Susanti of Badminton, a Michael Jordan of Basketball,a Wayne Gretzky of Ice Hockey or a Stefan Edberg of Lawn Tennis will always add an extra smile on the eyes
of the viewers .As a fan , we feel great when our supported teams or players win. But we feel
elated when they play beautifully and win. Beauty and victory are not two different entities,
they are in fact two parts of the same coin. Class can always co-exist with mass.....any doubt.....
ask Mr. AR Rahman...he can provide us a lesson of how to combine both of them.