06 September, 2000

Hello again, guys AND girls...

By way of aside, a subscriber to this mail wrote in and told me that it wasn't fair to assume the mail is read only by guys. Which prompted the above greeting -- though the fact is that honestly, I use 'guys' as a unisex term, even here within the office.

Anyways....

Being part of Rediff's Olympic coverage has come as a sobering experience, after four years of covering cricket and nothing but.

I mean, the Olympians, and their stories, can be AWESOME.

Like a Lance Armstrong -- battling death, yet having enough in hand to go out and win the Tour de France twice. Or like Clarence Vinson the American bantamweight, whose brother was shot dead in a daytime robbery, whose life in the ghettos has been fraught with danger and with death, who can look on boxing as a lifesaver and say, "When I return from practise I learn that some friend has been arrested or shot, and I am glad I was in the gym...". Or like Marion Jones, who once said in an interview that for the coloured American, athletic excellence was a passport out of hell. 'You know that you have a choice -- rot for the rest of your life, or excel in sports; and that fear helps put wings on your feet.' Or the athletes from East Timor, who train today without knowing if they will be alive tomorrow, who cherish their dreams and ambitions knowing full well that if they win, they have no flag to wave overhead, no national anthem to blare out over the stadium as they receive their medal, no country to dedicate their victory to.

Magnificient athletes, incredible achievers, stunning personalities, these and so many others like them.

Compared to which, cricket provides such a colourless collection of performers -- the characters in the game are fading out, to be replaced by machines who can bat and bowl, but who seem so limited off the field of play.

It's not that I am changing loyalities, or going with the flavour of the month. Cricket -- along with soccer -- remains my best loved game, but that does not blind me to the fact that it is increasingly being shorn of the sort of personalities that enrich any sporting discipline.

What say you?

Before signing off for the weekend, a quick note: You know that cricket chat-cum-commentary format we use for when India gets active? We plan to open a similar chatroom, and keep it running for the duration of the Olympics. A place where the commentator (me, and a couple of others) can talk you through the events as they happen, bring you fact and fun and trivia, and where you can indulge in a dialogue with other sports fans, or with the commentator, or both.

We thought long and hard about this one -- doing this for 15 days on the run can be killing -- but then decided that the fun of doing it outweighs the associated hardships.

So, beginning the 15th, it is Rediff Olympics Live. Hope to see you guys there.

Meanwhile, wish you all a wonderful weekend -- and hey, don't forget to check out Rediff's Olympic coverage, and Harsha Bhogle's take on the squad selected for the Kenya knock-out tournament on Rediff Cricket.

Adios....

Prem

Mail Cricket Editor