Man has always been a strange creature-too prone to influence, his naivety knowing no bounds. And, nowhere has this been more apparent than in sports. From the days of the Romans and their Colosseum to the day of the last footie riot, Man, more importantly men, have been known to be transformed into beasts by sports. Lecteristic cannibalism, latent since the Age of the Revolutions, is suddenly (and violently) brought to the fore by one mistake committed by the demi-gods, generally known as sportspersons.

So, what is it that prompts perfectly sane Homo sapiens to morph into neandarthalish brutes lusting for blood? Maybe, it’s influence-that of the media. Yeah, that very media which lifts sports persons from the ordinary to the extra ordinary. From Man to demi-gods. That very media which celebrates their success and fuels Zeus’ ire at their failures. Which, for a quick buck, can sensationalize something as mundane as a man brushing his teeth. Or maybe, it IS our herd mentality, fuelled by the ignorant media, which can (at the best/worst of times) rouse that dormant Mr Hyde in all of us.

Or maybe, it’s a law given by a certain Mr Charles Darwin which gives us that golden sentence-survival of the fittest. Maybe, Society itself has been programmed to have zero tolerance towards losers. So, a defeat suffered by eleven gentlemen is a defeat suffered by all the other men waiting back at home. It’s a sign that maybe you ALL (and not just those eleven gentlemen) JUST AREN’T GOOD ENOUGH. What happened at WC’007 (on AND off the field) is disgraceful to say the least. Winning and losing are both a part of life and should be accepted gracefully. For, the greatest lessons of life, and hence the greatest victories of life, lie in our losses.

(I know it’s a tad too long!!)