Fascinating Race of Unequal Equals!!!

By Sreelata S. Yellamrazu

Parallels are not often drawn across different sporting arenas. Yet sport, especially cricket is considered a great leveler. That being the case, England are beginning to question why they find themselves trying to save face on home ground. Across the field, or should we say tarmac, Fernando Alonso is asking pretty much the same question. In danger of being dumped unceremoniously, will Alonso play the same scapegoat card that England are holding tight in their pocket in the event that India should pull off the unthinkable?

It must seem an unlikely idea to even compare banalities of cricket with a sport like Formula One. After all the only time the two sports even came together was for a photo op between Sachin Tendulkar and Michael Schumacher. However, the situations in both sports are not as remote as one thinks. The conundrum of equality amongst teams, amongst men must all be queried, deliberated upon, if not downright dissected.

India finds themselves in a unique position, but not that uncommon. Times in the past have shown the team on the rise only to hand the initiative back to the hosts. It has happened in Zimbabwe. There is no reason why it should happen in England. But cricket has a way of both, elevating and humbling human spirit, in manner few can fathom despite years of studying the game. Sometimes about India this time though wants every Indian to believe it could just happen. England could well slip up in the face of an Indian resurgence.

On the same note, it should be rightly remembered that India could very well have found themselves in the hole that England find themselves today ahead of the third and final Test at the Oval. It took a couple of desperate innings and a massive let off from the weather gods for India to get out of the hell hole at Lord’s. Now finding themselves in a situation where one innings could have a telling and decisive effect on the series as it stands, perhaps England wants everyone to remembers the circumstances at Lord’s that deprived them of what they consider a rightful victory.

The way the whole jelly beans issue was blown over the top worked brilliantly into India’s hands while opening up England’s edged behavior dramatically. Suddenly the rambunctious lot needs to be tamed and told to get down to the nitty-gritty of trying to win the final Test and square the series. And really the odds should look pretty even, or should we say, equal. India’s batting should have outshone England’s. England’s bowling should have shown the Indian line up a thing or two. But where England’s batting has failed to keep up, India’s bowling has tottered between temperamental and tenacious. The teams do look equal, even when they should not.

It is hard to tell how much the jelly beans actually affected the outcome of the Trent Bridge Test. It will perhaps be arduous research subject no doubt. But it showed India in the plaintiff’s position and a naïve victim of an unruly bunch of schoolboys. England had not only lost the Test but also, come out looking like sore losers. It was easy to label that England’s despicable behavior threatened to throw the fine line between friendly banter and rivalry to outright bullying, bustling tactics into a tedious tantrum. But subtle tactics are far more fascinating to read. If memory serves right, India dished out almost eye for eye. This was not about being the righteous one. This was about putting people in their place and showing hospitality and etiquette at a foreign table were both better left for the bestsellers. This was a cricket field and there would be nothing gentlemanly about it. But it would be equal, about using the same tactic, one against the other. Fair, wouldn’t you say?

Perhaps the only thing cricket can be grateful for is that at least the game is not being sullied by dissensions within its own ranks (mind it; this is only within the boundaries in which this article is being discussed. The perennial muddles of the cricket are best left out at the moment.) Look across to Formula One and the fiasco is threatening to throw apart the whole system like a pack of cards. Forget a rival competition, Formula One is embroiled in a massive mess of embittered egos that a solution only leads to new complications.

The best solution for the rest of the overshadowed Formula One competitors would be for McLaren and Ferrari to take each other and breathing in a complete new world order that would turn Formula One on its head. But neither is McLaren nor Ferrari going anywhere. But that may not be the case on their camps.

Kimi Raikkonen seems contented enough to wrest the early glory that Felipe Massa soaked in with the timely displacement of Michael Schumacher. But clearly the battle is not where we expected it to be. Lewis Hamilton’s spectacular rise may have given a huge fillip to Formula One in Schumacher’s absence, but it has been nothing short of nightmare of the McLaren bosses, and Fernando Alonso.

The heir apparent and two time world champion is fuming. Worse still, he is beginning to feel disowned. The king wanted to be treated like one, unaware that a commoner was threatening by way of natural talent. While it became obvious that the 2007 season would be a more perceptible battle between champion and challenger, the scale is getting deceptive equal. It is hard to make out who is the veteran and who is the rookie and their rambunctious behavior has meant more headaches than on Ron Dennis can handle.

Handling Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard must feel like a piece of cake for Dennis and the crack in his otherwise austere career may come with the news that Alonso has been offered open doors to walk out in the midst of a typical dirty boy tricks that made the McLaren team eat not humble pie but also the laughing stock meal. Yet unclear who’s telling the truth in the principal’s office. But Alonso has been billed trouble maker, Hamilton the cause for trouble and McLaren the team to take the punishment.

For Alonso, to command respect as a two time world champion is considerate. But to expect the team to deprive another of the same level of development only because he happens to be a rookie is preposterous. At the end of the day, it is a team and it is a battle of equals, of talent that is; of that there can be no doubt.

Holier than thou or eat cow? It is hard to tell one from the other. It is, in very clichéd fashion, the pot calling the kettle black. If Sreesanth is being outlawed for bowling a beamer at England by all of England and Kevin Pietersen, where do England get off for their slighting behavior? How can England maintain that we-could-do-no-wrong face and put up (a seemingly naïve but deceptive) Monty Panesar as the poster boy of England’s pristine gamesmanship when not so long ago a certain England captain lay his greasy hands on a cricket ball? It’s all equal, fair and square, if turned the other way around. Now let’s get on with the game, gentleman, please!