Old icons fade as new stars arrive

Hyderabad: Stanislas Wawrinka begins 2015 in Chennai much as he did last year when he went on to create history by winning his first Grand Slam (in Australia) just a couple of weeks after taking the Chennai Open prize.

He may not be exactly everyone’s version of an elite, tuned-to-the-minute athlete, probably more like a visiting handyman, but what he did was to take down the then world number one, the Spaniard Rafael Nadal, in a final, which takes some doing as everyone knows, particularly as the terrier on court comes back with energy redoubled when he is down.

The pressure of expectations may make 2015 a different year for Wawrinka, as also for Marin Cilic, who emulated the Swiss in winning his first major, in the US Open. At the end of the four slams of 2014, the tennis world wears a different look, with two champions who were not members of the formidable Federer-Nadal-Djokovic-Murray quartet of the modern game. If the two winners have set a new trend in opening the floodgates for upcoming talent, it will be good for the world of sport, which needs more and more icons to sustain interest.

The soccer World Cup was remarkable also for throwing up new talent in the exciting James Rodriguez who mesmerised the world with his lovely and free style of playing the simple game complicated only by the impossible demands that the celebs of football face as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo would vouch.

Both had their moments in the World Cup, but it was not quite as memorable for them as it should have been despite Messi playing in his first final and upping the expectations of his countrymen, who believed they could not possibly lose with the world’s best player on their side.

As we recollect the year that has passed by in the peaceful start of the new, what stood out was the emergence of the new as well as the fading of the super stars, a part of which we saw in Mahendra Singh Dhoni throwing his towel in the Test arena, unable to keep up with the triple demands of modern cricket.

At the other end of the bathos scale came the tragic death on the pitch of Phillip Hughes, at whose original home pitch begins the fourth and concluding Test of the series which matters, that is if you believe the promotional jingles. The Sydney Test does, however, represent the start of a new era, specifically of Virat Kohli as captain.

His immediate task would be to get his fast bowlers to see reason and start bowling within themselves rather than to the old Caribbean length with which those quicks terrorised the world.

Indian quicks are nowhere near the same class in sustaining their pace and they should be told that. Just because they won one Test at Lord’s with the short-pitched stuff last year it did not mean they had to pursue it in Australia beyond a point.

Also, the bowlers lack the work ethic of the great champions from the tennis world discussed earlier, who are all in a different league when it comes down to logging the hours, on court, in practice and in competition.

Can we say the same thing about our millionaire cricketers, particularly bowlers who get a prince’s ransom for bowling four overs in a couple of spells on their big IPL working days? Truth to tell, it is the current generation of bowlers who have buried Team India in terms of the combination not being able to compete abroad. Kohli can make a difference if he can get through to their minds, mend their psyche and amend their ways. But that is a long road to success.