Why this only-cricketers club?

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 weekEmotions ran high thanks were given and early mentors were remembered in speeches as the two Indian tennis stalwarts were formally placed in the Hall Amritrajrsquos son Prakash presented his father for induction in profound fashion ldquoVijay crawled and walked so that we could run and flyrdquo he saidTennisrsquo living legend Martina Navratilova did the honours for Paes her former mixed doubles partnerldquoLeander plays tennis the way most of us would like to playrdquo she said in a tribute to Indiarsquos 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 arenrsquot the only ones who make up a sporting rainbowEvans 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 Gibsonrsquos collaborator for expert comments in the newspaperEvans was directed to be Gibsonrsquos lsquoghostrsquo and sit with her at Wimbledon Thatrsquos 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 1982To some McEnroe is as synonymous with his onfield outbursts as he is with sporting brilliance Evans viewed things in perspective in the book He wrote ldquoThe 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 lsquoGo Home Superbratrsquo 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 outrdquoEvans compared the effect of McEnroersquos antics to that of the less condemnation fast bowling great Dennis Lillee received for his physical exchange with Pakistanrsquos Javed Miandad in 1981 ldquoLillee got a roasting in the cricket press for the incident last year in the Test Match at Perth but he KICKED someone for heavenrsquos 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 McEnroersquos earning bracket is well paid for his efforts But although The Times and Telegraph huffed and puffed a bit I didnrsquot see any highpowered feature writers who couldnrsquot find Lordrsquos if you gave them a map despatched to do indepth studies on why Lillee should be drummed out of the game For the sin he committed I reckon Dennis got off lightrdquo Evans wroteNow that cricket has made its way into this piece letrsquos 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 Letrsquos throw up a namemdashEnglandrsquos Mike Atherton Now let me toss up another name who well and truly deserves to be recognised by cricketrsquos governing bodymdashace photographer Patrick Eagar His contribution to cricket imagery transcended generations and there would be no better reward for the 80yearold gentleman to be recognised by the body that runs his bestloved 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 razorsharp writer author and broadcaster pointed out to me on Tuesday that the ICCrsquos Cricket Committee has Shaun Pollock a commentator as the Media Representative Whether the ICC will consider a thoroughbred widelytravelled vastlyexperienced cricket writer in the near future to be on the allimportant 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 ldquobetter than laterrdquomiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper