At the lowest point of his life, professional and personal, a diminutive Argentine was found in a tub of cocaine in a Madrid hotel room shouting, Fidel will save me
At the lowest point of his life, professional and personal, a diminutive Argentine was found in a tub of cocaine in a Madrid hotel room shouting, "Fidel will save me".u00a0That man, had once accused Pele of being gay, started his own TV religion, which insisted a worship of travel agents, had modelled for a South American condom, had disappeared in the Andes for a year, tried to enter a cafe in Madrid naked and had two people jump to their death in joy when he waved to a million people in Calcutta. He's been called a genius by many, a lunatic by all, a tax evader by Argentine tax authorities and "pointless to listen to" by Pele.
He's wanted by 4 different countries' police for crimes ranging from hiding narcotics while disguised as a nun to trying to run with race horses at a Derby. He's the object of gushing praise by people as diverse as Mandela, the Pope, the novelist Martin Amis and Osama Bin Laden.u00a0 And if you're as old as some of us are to watch it, in 1986, he created the greatest 29 seconds of football the world had even seen when he dribbled past the entire English defense alone to score a goal. Even Prince Charles remarked, "no one had torn through our defenses like that since the German blitzkrieg in 1941".u00a0That man was Diego Maradona.
Today, many pounds heavier post rehab in a suit, looking like a grey cake, he hugged his supposed protege, Lionel Messi, a published poet, songwriter and Argentine striker as 32 countries went to battle for the World Cup, possibly, the only time in sport where the word "world" can be safely used. The Baseball "World" Series, for example, this year had a team from New York playing a team from Boston. Surely, a world anything should cover areas that can't be connected by a 20-minute flight.
The two economic powerhouses China and India, were absent and many arguments are presented. Chief for the Chinese says that they are too rigorous, which is an asset when you're fielding nine-year-old gymnasts at the Olympics, but not so much in a sport where individual artists blossom and weave to make a team. Case in point being when China lost its South Africa qualifier, the Beijing elders wanted the Serbian coach executed and all the players arrested. That becomes a small disincentive for the next generation.
With us, the argument has always been cricket. Its popularity and mass appeal. And the sentence "We can't find 11 people in a country of a billion to play football?" is often heard. Baichung Bhutia is our football's Sachin Tendulkar though which sport fits where is clear when Mr Tendulkar is the brand ambassador for the biggest global companies whereas Mr Bhutia sells us car lubricants. Now I'm a big fan of cricket and few things mean perfect happiness than a Tendulkar first ball clipped off the leg side to the boundary. I'd argue the larger problem is not so much the thrill of a great sporting moment, which both cricket and football have, but that we take the raw energy of sport and manipulate it into something far more gossip-worthy and with far less fitness required, politics.
Whether it's athletics, cricket (private and public), tennis, hockey or football, what we're brilliant at, is not creating very fit international sports-people who have the stamina to win, but boards, committees and sub-committees and sub sub-committees with chair persons for each and everyone politicking for these positions.
And in due time, everyone accusing everyone else of being thieves and bribe-takers. When the sport becomes not about winning a match but starts resembling winning a Lok Sabha seat, sport is stifled.
And only when you let a sport breathe do you have a story. And more than any other sport, football is all about characters telling a story. North Korea, a country that has this week run out of food, has players not just trying to win, but maybe looking to defect and spy. Didier Drogba built the Ivory Coast parliament with his club earnings, Christiano Ronaldo is rumoured to have pleasured 35 women on a single night, it is rumoured every Brazil game, someone gives birth, and Pele and Maradona keep fighting. This is why it is the World Cup, because it is world telling each stories, together.u00a0u00a0
Anuvab Pal is a Mumbai-based playwright and screenwriter. His plays in Mumbai include Chaos Theory and screenplays for Loins of Punjab Presents (co-written) and The President is Coming. He is currently working on a book on the Bollywood film Disco Dancer for Harper Collins, out later this year.u00a0 Reach him at www.anuvabpal.com
