Kamal Ghorui
.http://youtube.com/shorts/1UtKIPf6leY?si=x6Dbs9l6q2_hjJsh
Sporting triumphs, like India’s in T20, and heroic defeats, like Lakshya’s in All England, tell us much about life
Team India, SKY leading from the front and coached by the almost never-smiling Gautam Gambhir, reserved their best for the last, to create cricket history on Sunday. In cricket, as in life, it’s not how you start, but how you finish. No team had retained the T20 World Cup trophy before. No team had won it at home. India crossed both milestones. If there was ever a clinical display by any team in a major final, this was it. The top order (Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan) turned batting into a video game. The spinners, especially Axar Patel, bowled with precision, and to a plan. And Bumrah was again, just Bumrah. Simply, unplayable. He is God’s gift to Indian cricket, probably the greatest Indian bowler of all-time.
This World Cup had started unceremoniously, with Bangladesh pulling out, and Pakistan creating acrimony. But as it progressed, sport took over. If social media offers any evidence, the matches were being widely enjoyed even in Pakistan. Sport has a way of telling the world that there are better ways of engaging with each other, than fighting unnecessary wars.
There was a time Brazilians considered coming second in world football a tragedy. National expectations were to always win – always. In white-ball cricket, public expectations in India have also reached such unrealistic levels. We must remember that winning and losing are cyclical, and inevitable, in sport. Not all defeats are disasters; some can be as inspiring as victories.
That’s what the Lakshya Sen story in the All England championship tells us. Despite the loss in the final on Sunday, his lion-hearted showing will become part of badminton folklore. In the semifinals on Saturday, Sen hobbled through much of the third game. Despite cramps, he won a match that, staggeringly, stretched beyond an hour and half. Despite being drained, he was back in court in less than a day, against an opponent who wasn’t wrung out, who had spent an hour less on court over the week. Despite all this, he matched the eventual winner, Lin Chun-Yi, of Chinese Taipei, stroke for stroke. When you are 110% heart, even 70% of physical fitness doesn’t matter.
All England men’s singles crown has eluded India for 25 years now. Only two men – Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) – have won it. But Sen, who was playing his second final after 2021, gives hope that his lakshya of lifting the trophy is likely to be realised in future. His performance underlines another big message: it is always possible to be a better version of yourself.
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