What makes sportsmen humble?

When I saw Federer and Tendulkar together at Wimbledon this year, what struck me was their mutual admiration. It has to be acknowledged that greatness transcends every sport and that both Federer and Tendulkar have played the game in a way which arguably nobody has ever played before. But their achievements on field often tend to divert our attention from the virtue that helped them to stay at the pinnacle of their respective crafts for so long – humility.

The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said that modesty was “a hypocrisy” when it was displayed by men of great talent. Luckily, in our times we have plenty of champions in sports who have time and again proved him wrong. Have a look at Tendulkar, Dravid, Federer, Nadal , Michael Jordan, Messi and we can easily conclude, “ Nice guys do finish first too”. Having started following sports in 80’s, I can easily see the shift in persona of sports champions; on tennis courts, tantrums of the likes of McEnroes and Connors has given way to serenity and humbleness of Federers and Nadals; Messi is carrying on the legacy of Maradona sans his volatile temperament and top cricketers like Sachin, Steyn and Kallis carry out their job day in and day out with the same precision as Miandad and Lillee and Botham but without getting embroiled in any controversy.

I was wondering why this shift has happened. Is it mere chance or is it a function of the times we live in. It may be a combination of both but it’s more the latter. Sportsmen today mature at a much earlier age than their predecessors, the media is at you all the time: success and failures are both magnified and any slip may derail your career forever. The slide is not confined to performance on the field; ask Tiger Woods. The earnings from endorsements easily surpass what one makes by simply playing and as a brand ambassador you are expected to do most things right, both on and off the field. So in a way, economics influences the behaviour of sportsmen. However, it can hardly explain the humbling nature of today’s champions.

Today’s sportsman is also a product of a society that has undergone rapid change; flow of information is seamless and endless, education and sports are no longer considered to be at loggerheads and there is much more exposure at the sub-junior and junior levels and the age at which kids have to sacrifice family life in favour of pursuing sports is coming down drastically; all this leads to a much broader vision among sportsmen. Take the case of Suresh Raina; he spent nearly a decade in a hostel in Uttar Pradesh to pursue cricket, was a star player in India Under-19 side, broke into the Indian team, was dropped, made a successful comeback and captained India in the recent ODI series in West Indies. And he’s just 24!

Any youngster who goes through such ebbs and flows in a sporting career in a short span of time does develop the ability to put things in perspective. Lastly, unjustifiable expectations from the fans have, ironically, worked in a positive way. Players today realise that nothing is permanent, more so in sporting arena where you are as good (or as bad) as your last performance. When likes of Lampard and Terry were part of despairing scenes after England’s World Cup exit within a month of euphoric celebrations marking Chelsea’s victory in English Premier League after a gap of three years, the fickle nature of their profession must have dawned on them. When people thronged Dhoni’s house in Ranchi to celebrate India’s World Cup win, it didn’t take long to remember the same house was vandalised when India were knocked out of the tournament in 2007. Ricky Ponting has captained a team that bullied all the opposition but one that has also been bullied back.

This dichotomy did exist in the past, but the scale of celebrations and anguish from fans have made sportsmen more humble. They realise that for every celebration lurks a backlash. Whatever be the reason, we are blessed to have many great role-models on and off the field. As Niccolo Machiavelli said, “It is not the titles that honour men but men that honour titles”. We are lucky to have so many champions today who fit in the bill perfectly.