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Better role models

Sometimes, I think the Opposition parties are really going a bit crazy in their desperation to find a stick -- any stick -- with which to beat the Bharatiya Janata Party. Take the recent pompous declarations by the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist which damn Nawaz Sharief's visit to Washington as proof of ''third party interference'' in Kashmir.

How was the Government of India expected to prevent the prime minister of Pakistan from meeting his masters? Nor does India have to accept what the United States says even if Pakistan does. Finally, from a purely historical point of view, why didn't the Congress and the Left remember their opposition to third-party intervention when: ( a) Jawaharlal Nehru dumped the Kashmir issue before the United Nations, and ( b) the Soviet Union brokered an end to the 1965 conflict?

Oh, forget it, I am never going to get any rational answers to those questions. It is with an immense sense of relief then that I turn to a more congenial topic -- sports. No, not cricket, but tennis. Because Sunday, the fourth of July, was a great day for India for two reasons: the army wrested back Tiger Hill from the Pakistanis and then Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi took the doubles crown in Wimbledon.

To digress a little, it was a little surprising to see the almost total absence of public reaction in India when the Kargil crisis first hit the headlines. Driving down Shanti Path in Delhi, I didn't see any protests outside the Pakistan high commission, surprising behaviour given that crowds have gathered for far smaller provocation. The only possible explanation is the World Cup, a distraction so immense that Indians couldnąt pay attention to anything else. But do our cricketers deserve the kind of adulation we expend on them?

I suggest that we save some of it for our tennis stars (apart from the men in uniform of course). There are some things that I find truly admirable about the duo of Paes and Bhupathi, things that make them far better role models than anyone in the current cricket team.

To begin with, Paes and Bhupathi know how to function as a team. Put them together and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Can you say that about the cricketers who, for all their talent as individuals, almost never seem to function as a coherent whole?

That is in stark contrast to the tennis duo, and let me cite just one instance. It is universally acknowledged that Pete Sampras is the finest tennis player on grass today, perhaps even the best ever. And Tim Henman is right up there as well, currently ranked at fourth in the world. When the two unite to play doubles -- on grass, in Henman's native England -- you wouldn't give Paes and Bhupathi any chance of winning. Yet that is precisely what happened at the Queens Club tournament. The lesson is clear: a good team can, and does, beat individuals, no matter how gifted.

The second thing is that Paes and Bhupathi play to win. How often have you seen the Indian cricket eleven droop, almost wither away, when the going gets tough? If Sachin Tendulkar gets out early or the strike bowlers fail to get quick wickets, the whole team sags in dejection. The tennis stars are a different story.

In the Wimbledon semi-finals, the Indian duo were two sets down in a best-of-five situation. They went on to win the next three sets. In the finals, they lost the first set, despite having four set points. Instead of losing heart, Paes and Bhupathi simply stuck it out -- and won the championship. The contrast with the cricketers is striking isn't it -- they manage to lose matches they should win. Remember the Zimbabwe match?

Finally, the tennis duo know how important it is to play for India. Neither Paes nor Bhupathi is ranked in the list of hundred best players, and that shows when they are playing on the professional circuit. But there is a magical transformation when they play for India rather than themselves. There is no prize money at the Olympics and very little in Davis Cup matches -- but wave the flag a bit, and Paes and Bhupathi suddenly challenge the best in the world.

Cricketers attract far more advertising revenue than Paes and Bhupathi, but who are better role models? Better able to function as a team, more imbued with the killer instinct, aware of their responsibilities to India? Sports has often been described as war by another name. If so, I suggest Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are better soldiers than the entire cricket squad.

T V R Shenoy