...this has been the story of my life...
I am not sure why, but especially on matters sporting, i have always been a die-hard fan of the second best (or second most visible...)
When the second-best one, through dint of hard work ends up becoming numero uno as well, as Rahul Dravid has done now and Stefan Edberg has done in the past, my cup runneth over...
Otherwise, even when I have been an aficionado of the undisputed numero uno (eg Michael Jordan) my loyalty has always been with the second gun (Scottie Pippen with the Bulls, VVS Laxman throughout his illustrious career that has delivered but only 10 splendid centuries, Leander Paes,...)
The sole exception I can think of is Steffi Graf...she came out of the gates strong, something about her hard-working no-nonsense clean and crew-cut style appealed to me and she remained a favorite till she called it a day several years later...for once, Gabriela Sabatini and Monica Seles never supplanted her in my eyes....
...perhaps this is the reason why I am rooting for the Portuguese soccer (or should we say real football?) team, Michael Schumacher, Vijay Singh and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (over his more heralded fellow-south-paw skipper)...
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2 comments:
Except for Laxman and Edberg, the common trait with all your favourites is that they lacked the talent the alpha-dogs of their sport did, but that did not deter them from carving a niche for themselves. If Laxman had been treated better by the selectors and management, he would have more than his 10 centuries. Though to be fair, many of his splendid innings have been 50's, proving to be the difference between victory and defeat, like Dravid's twins in the Kingston Test.
why was Schumacher pushed to an underdog Status ? He never was and will never be so
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