When 2 becomes greater than 1

Sounds customary, what’s so great about that. Well lets view this outside the statistical world, but that may not be so easy, after all basic math is so deeply in us. Come on….2 > 1 but Number 1 > Number 2. On another train of thought why do we have countdowns, why do we honor the bronze medal first , Silver second and Gold finally in a prize ceremony? Why does the loser in any final get the prize before the winner. It’s a way of showing respect for the opponent who fought hard but was not good enough and stimulate an inspiration to be the last man standing to receive the Gold or winners crown next time they are as close.

Mount Federer Conquered.
Let me come to the point now, by the way Who cares --who lost? We all do when champion Roger Federer loses, more so when he loses to the challenger Raphael Nadal. The words champion and challenger have never been more synonymous with any other two sportsmen as distinctively as RF and RN respectively. It Is a true statistic that Federer and Nadal are the only world No.1 and No.2 pair to contest back-to-back the French and Wimbledon finals for three years in a row (2006-08), thus becoming the only pair, to face each other in six Grand Slam Finals. Typically the challenger has a crack at the champion a few times before conquering and nailing the vulnerable areas to make him the challenger next time. Nadal has done that always in French open while this year he did that in Wimbledon too, much to the heart break of many RF fans. Perhaps deservedly so, spare a thought for all the below mentioned samples and you will know why I am saying that at times a number 2 tag is not so bad after all.

Number 2, not bad at all.
· Stuart McGill on having been born in the same country and era as Shane Warne.
· Ralf Schumacher for being Michael Schumacher’s brother.
· How much Ganguly, Tendulkar and entire India is hurt even today for that loss in 2003 World Cup Final to Australia.
· Nadal who has always held the plate in Wimbledon until 2008 when he held the cup.
· Likewise Federer on how much he wants to hold that elusive cup in French open.
· Have you ever finished as a Runner up.
· Second rank holder in any class, school, entrance exam;
· Any IT services vendor who lost a multi-million deal as second best.
· How Michael Phelps was in 2004 Olympics in comparison to Ian Thorpe.
The list is endless about those who were almost there but not there.

Federer and Nadal are the only No.1 and 2 pair who have won at least 11 consecutive Grand Slam singles tournaments between them, starting from the 2005 French Open through the 2007 US Open. In this period, Federer has won 3 consecutive titles at both Wimbledon and the US Open and 2 consecutive titles at the Australian Open, while Nadal has won 3 consecutive French Open titles. Federer has also won 5 consecutive Wimbledon Singles Finals (2003-2007) with this year being his first loss. Federer played the longest singles final in Wimbledon history against Rafael Nadal on July 6th, 2008 against

Regardless of all the above, for the time being, future of Tennis looks bright as the new champion south paw heads north and undoubtedly the deserving champion of nearly the last 5 years isn’t going away as he appears to have hit the lowest low now by losing Olympic quarters to James Blake and can only bounce back stronger in US Open. History will be made on August 18th 2008 and it will be Federer who is number 2 and it will take a monumental effort for Nadal to stay atop Mount Federer as long as the latter did. In the meantime though its time for celebration for all Tennis fans as we can get ready for an epic few years in the upcoming battle for supremacy b/w Nadal and Federer. The level playing field is set now by either Federer on a downhill slide versus Nadal on a uphill launch, only time will tell.

Madhu Rao (Madhusudhana.Rao@gmail.com)

Is Dravid the modern day robinhood of Cricket?

I am a big fan of Dravid and have followed most -if not all of his innings with great interest, his recent "stale tomato" picks or euphemistically as they say cherry picking of a test side with full of his "yes ministers" have caused great pain if not led me to develop a hatred towards this icon player. An icon becomes an icon not by chance but by a sincere, hard-working and consistent dedication towards the goal that he is pursuing working tirelessly and not letting a single opportunity to slip or switch off and definitely not committing an act of encouraging nepotism in competitive world. Any nepotism in a competitive world is nothing else but a sure sign of suicide waiting to happen. Awareness and avoidance to these traps after establishing yourself as an icon is what differentiates the "also rans" and the icons over a period of time and Dravid has all along been an icon in the international arena of cricket but somehow lost his way ever since self doubts about captaincy crept into his mind and coupled with his built-in conservative "play safe" , defend, "the wall" attitude has killed the great cricketer in him and reduced him to an also ran in a span of couple of years.

On another note an act of ensuring that his sycophants have a guaranteed salary from Vijay Mallya for 3 years is nothing short of complete ignominy directed towards Mallya .Perhaps this is a modern day case of Dravid being the robinhood to rob the rich Mallya and feed himself and his sycophants. Except the difference being that the sycophants he got into his team are neither poor nor do they need his favor to survive. It is not rocket science to figure out who his sycophants are and leave it to the reader's imagination which will be right in a single attempt. Destiny in this world is good enough for all to find their place and they have found theirs in RCB.


Now to be clear I m not looking for my moment of glory by bashing Dravid in this article but I ve been pained by a icon player doing such a poor job for a person who trusted his millions on this one man without even interfering, this is biggest dupe in this modern era especially with all decisions by anyone in public domain being scrutinized by ever so powerful fourth estate in the Right To Information RTI era.


Spare a thought for the match winners (Zaheer Khan, Mark Boucher, Virat Kohli, Praven Kumar, Dale Steyn, and Cameroon White) who in any other team even under mediocre leadership and reasonable guidance would have been fighters to a wining cause but have been reduced to mere individual flashes here and there without any result for the team to show until now. As they say you are only as strong as your weakest link in a team sport, this team seems to have too many senile and weak links all around and most are uni-skilled players who once failed in their domain have no chance to contribute in rest of the match. This sport is about 3 domains(bat, bowl & field) and future belongs to players who are good in at least 2 domains if not all 3.
Myself coming from the corporate world and a true Banglorean at heart, it's not difficult for me to see the pain of Mallya and I believe the people who follow cricket and IPL based city loyalties must understand that there is corporate side to these cricket matches being played. Mallya is not a loser and we all know him for some of the reputed brands he has built globally like Kingfisher and he has a nation backing him in Formula One sport in ForceIndia, which he has promised to put on podium by 2010 in addition to bringing a F1 race to India. Mallya went wrong and has taken the first step to resurrecting his brand along with the pride of Bangalore fans; we are with you Mallya and sorry Dravid its better you go on your own before you are shown the door by media, your fellow fans and decisively by your boss. Dravid is best for Test Cricket and he should concentrate there and let the better players perform in the 20-20 arena just like he opted out of the 20-20 world cup.



Madhu Rao (Madhusudhana.Rao@gmail.com)