Why this only-cricketers club?

If the International Tennis Hall of Fame can consider media persons for induction, so can ICC, who, by the way, does not have a journalist as a Media Representative in their high-powered Cricket Committee

The world of Indian tennis is witnessing a celebratory buzz with Vijay Amritraj and Leander Paes inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, USA, last week.

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Emotions ran high, thanks were given, and early mentors were remembered in speeches as the two Indian tennis stalwarts were formally placed in the Hall.  Amritraj’s son Prakash presented his father for induction in profound fashion. “Vijay crawled and walked so that we could run and fly,” he said.

Tennis’ living legend Martina Navratilova did the honours for Paes, her former mixed doubles partner.

“Leander plays tennis the way most of us would like to play,” she said in a tribute to India’s best doubles player. Paes was inducted in the Player category while Amritraj earned his honour in the Contributor section for his work as a global ambassador. Tennis writer Richard Evans, 85, too was honoured in the same category. This was good to see. After all, the players aren’t the only ones who make up a sporting rainbow.

Evans has been writing on tennis for the last 60 years. In his acceptance speech, he mentioned how he got into tennis writing by accident. He walked into the Evening Standard newspaper office in London a few days before the 1960 edition of Wimbledon, all set to take orders to cover rugby or rowing on his first day of work. But a staff crisis saw him being told to be former champion Althea Gibson’s collaborator for expert comments in the newspaper.

Evans was directed to be Gibson’s ‘ghost’ and sit with her at Wimbledon. That’s how he got entrenched in tennis writing. Two hundred Grand Slam tournaments later, he was decorated with the ultimate honour on the same stage as Amritraj, whose book Vijay Amritraj, An Autobiography, was produced in collaboration with Evans. Evans worked with American legend John McEnroe as well, for the book, McEnroe - A Rage for Perfection in 1982.

To some, McEnroe is as synonymous with his on-field outbursts as he is with sporting brilliance. Evans viewed things in perspective in the book. He wrote: “The All England Club may be understandably unhappy at the way McEnroe escaped punishment for his outbursts at Wimbledon in 1981, but let no one suggest that he has not suffered other forms of punishment that are just as damaging as a monetary fine. Not all of us could withstand the psychological blow of seeing our names joined to a screaming headline, ‘Go Home, Superbrat’ splashed all over the front page of a mass circulation tabloid just because we lost our temper. And it is not quite good enough to say that, as a highly paid public entertainer, McEnroe must put up with stuff like that. The punishment should fit the crime and, within the same sphere of reference, should be equally meted out.”

Evans compared the effect of McEnroe’s antics to that of the less condemnation fast bowling great Dennis Lillee received for his physical exchange with Pakistan’s Javed Miandad in 1981. “Lillee got a roasting in the cricket press for the incident last year in the Test Match at Perth, but he KICKED someone, for heaven’s sake. Not just someone either, but the captain of the Pakistan team. His fine? A few hundred dollars. Now, apart from being a great bowler, Lillee is a senior player and a star and, if not in McEnroe’s earning bracket, is well paid for his efforts. But although The Times and Telegraph huffed and puffed a bit, I didn’t see any high-powered feature writers, who couldn’t find Lord’s if you gave them a map, despatched to do in-depth studies on why Lillee should be drummed out of the game. For the sin he committed I reckon Dennis got off light,” Evans wrote.

Now that cricket has made its way into this piece, let’s take it forward. I wonder what stops the International Cricket Council (ICC) from including media persons in their Hall of Fame inductees. Is there a shortage of leading lights in the media sphere? Certainly not. If names are deliberated upon in a fair fashion by a core committee initially and then put to vote involving Hall of Famers, a journalist can be selected for the honour. The journalist category can also encompass former players who make a contribution to the literary and broadcasting side of the game. Let’s throw up a name—England’s Mike Atherton. Now, let me toss up another name who well and truly deserves to be recognised by cricket’s governing body—ace photographer Patrick Eagar. His contribution to cricket imagery transcended generations and there would be no better reward for the 80-year-old gentleman to be recognised by the body that runs his best-loved sport. And yes, nothing would please us more than to see men and women from our written word fraternity to be honoured in the near future. Sadly, broadcasting undermines the influence of print journalism even though both are related. Chandresh Narayanan, the razor-sharp writer, author and broadcaster pointed out to me on Tuesday that the ICC’s Cricket Committee has Shaun Pollock, a commentator as the Media Representative. Whether the ICC will consider a thoroughbred, widely-travelled, vastly-experienced cricket writer in the near future to be on the all-important committee, is to be seen. And probably more importantly, will members of the media be considered for an ICC Hall of Fame entry? As Navratilova said in Newport last Saturday while expressing her delight in seeing two Asians in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, “better than later.”

mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.

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