Champions – Game Changers

This blog is a sequel to the previous one.

In the last one we read about Roger Federer, his successful and illustrious career and how difficult it is to decipher the functionality of a champion’s brain. In this blog let’s look at individual superstars from a team game and how they have changed the game on its head, both from a fanaticism and a financial stand point.

Ideally like any Indian am starting from cricket and certainly my favourite Sachin Tendulkar. All of you reading this blog know, how cricket in an undefined religion and one religion that unites this glorious country. Till the beginning of the nineties, crickets was just a game and only if you had the real talent were you allowed to play the game against education in India. The majority of the cricketers came from north India and the big towns and majorly dominated by, then Bombay. Education was always first to the middle class Indian, than cricket till a little wonder, a genius called Tendulkar arrived onto the big stage from the same cricketing city – Bombay.

He then really turned the rules of the game and is certainly, one big game changer not only for cricket in India but for Cricket and cricketers across the globe. His genius and his game, not only got him fame but financials the sport never imagined. If my memory serves me right, transworld international a sports consultancy headed by the lat Mark Mascarehnas signed him up for a record 960 crores, for a 5 year deal in the mid nineties. He pulled in crowds to the stadiums, TV viewership sky rocketed (Thanks to Cable TV) and the BCCI were raking in the moolah. Not that India was winning every major tournament, infact they won hardly a handful, but he re-christened a sport once called the gentleman’s game – more a pass time sport created by the royal English, to one where you had to compete to be the best, which helped to cash in for sure. The prize money of matches grew significantly and what, the victorious world cup winning Indian team made, was now being paid for Ranji trophy matches. Middle class families in India looked at an opportunity to push their boys into the sport and spend on them, and education, was now not the real front runner it used to be, at least when compared to the eighties. Boys just wanted to be a Tendulkar, parents wanted the moolah and viewers now want entertainment, thanks to T20 rather than cricket. Even if you hate him, you must salute this genius for changing the game to what it is today.

He certainly is a champion in my book.

In the next blog you will have a feel into international Club Football and what champions are made of.