|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Andy Murray’s victory in the Wimbledon final last Sunday reminded me a lot of the Indian victory in the Mumbai World Cup final.
Both Andy and the Indian team carried a the heavy burden of expectations on their shoulders, albeit Andy had it more in person one would have to say.
Both the home nations were waiting for a long, long time for this win, and quite desperately, though one would have to say that 77 years is a lot more than 28 years.
In both the games, the final scores of India 277-4 in 48.2 beat Sri Lanka 274-6 in 50 overs, and Andy beat Novak 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 suggested that it was an easy win, but did not quite reveal the extremely high quality of the game and the intensity of the competition.
In both the cases, the losing opponent threw everything at the winner but just was not enough on that day.
I guess in both the situations, the semi-finals were even more followed – in cricket, the India vs Pakistan one, whereas at Wimbledon, Novak’s semi-final with Del Potro was a true epic.
Both the wins were preceded by earlier losses in the finals – Andy last year and India in 2003 – that really hurt.
And when the win finally happened, the crowds of both the countries truly went berserk.
Even the politicians followed in both the cases – what with demands of Bharat Ratna for Sachin being matched by Knighthood recommendation for Andy.
And finally, both the wins were a result of tremendous self belief.
Both of them reminded me of the Iftikhar-Amitabh dialogue from Deewaar, where Iftikhhar asks Amitabh: “क्या तुम सोचते हो कि ये काम तुम अकेले कर सकते हो?” And Amitabh replies: “मैं जानता हूँ मैं ये काम अकेले कर सकता हूँ”.
MSD in Mumbai and Andy in Wimbledon seemed to have that kind of self belief. That perhaps was the difference between winning and losing.