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The power of sport is that, on occasion, it redeems the messes we create around it. Cricket can be stronger than the forces changing it. Victories are fleeting, but the poems are what matters.
Wright Thompson, ‘In Tendulkar country’, ESPNcricinfo
Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That LastWright Thompso
Wright Thompson
"We must be intentional with our myths and stories, and we must live the lives we want our children to live."
Sachin’s rise mirrored India's early-90s rise, when foreign corporations arrived in India for the first time, accounts swelling with advertising dollars, looking around for a face. They found Sachin. He was India's first modern sports star, a combination of Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan, because his rise mirrored a nation's economic rise, and he forever changed sports celebrity and marketing in India. Once, when an American company executive contacted his agent and wanted to understand what place Sachin held in Indian culture, the agent didn't quote the number of Test wins, or international centuries. He said, simply, that Sachin endorsed Audemars Piguet watches, and that the company made a model just for him. The executive was sold.
Wright Thompson, ‘In Tendulkar country’, ESPNcricinfo
We drive into a wall of smog. Pollution is the price of progress. One of the prices, anyway. Some drivers pull over. Jets scream overhead. We cannot see them. The New Delhi airport is nearby. We cannot see it either. Soon we can't even see the car directly in front of us. Two disembodied red lights float in the chemical haze. The driver slows. He finds the turn at the last minute and screeches to the terminal. I'm dreading the usual chaos of an Indian airport. But once inside, I am transported. Is this the future? The place is new and serene. The floors are shiny. A fancy coffee kiosk teems with under-caffeinated commuters. The food court has a Subway, a Baskin-Robbins, a McDonald's, a Yo!China. There's a bookstore. A bronze elephant towers in the lobby. That's when I see it. There's a restaurant named Dilli Streat. It's a take on Delhi's famous street-food scene. It has slightly dressed-up versions of blue-collar classics. The concept is an ironic mixture of old and new, with a winking nod to a past seen as quaint yet valuable. Cynicism and irony, on back-to-back days. India is changing at lightning speed.
Wright Thompson, ‘In Tendulkar country’, ESPNcricinfo
Steve Kerr had nothing left to prove. But at a crossroads in his career, facing down the pains of his past convinced him he had everything l
Podcast Episode · Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast · 12/17/2024 · 51m
CW: Lynching
Commercialism is a new mistress in sports. The Indian Premier League, which plays 20-over cricket, started three years ago. The creation of the IPL is India's Dodgers-leave-Brooklyn moment. Money is changing the sport. The change is seen by most as good. Any achievement by an Indian is good, something to be admired in the light. For many Indians, especially those who speak English and are trying to navigate the brave new world of economic revolution, the issue of identity is an important one. Excellence is tied up in that search. Indian writers are judged by the size of the advance, not the magic of their words. Indian artists are judged by the price fetched at auction, not the feelings they create in someone who stands before their canvas. Open the paper any random day to find an example. When famous Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai met Dustin Hoffman at a Lakers game, the tabloids report, she talked to him about "new market-tapping agendas and global trends". Not acting. Not his construction of Benjamin Braddock or Ted Kramer. They didn't talk craft. They talked money.
Wright Thompson, ‘In Tendulkar country’, ESPNcricinfo
Before Sachin, typical Indian cricketers took few risks. For the first hour, shots were deflected, frustrating the bowler, tiring him out, forcing him into mistakes, a perfect sporting ethos in a country known for vein-popping passive-aggressiveness. Sachin changed that. His style was new. He swung a thick bat, heavier than Indians had used before. He wasn't passive-aggressive. He was simply aggressive. Before, because of a stagnant economy, nutrition was a problem. India couldn't outslug rivals. It needed spin bowlers and crafty batsmen. An inferiority complex developed. Sachin isn't from that India. His international debut came a year before India opened up its economy.
Wright Thompson, ‘In Tendulkar country’, ESPNcricinfo
