Inspirational stories that make sports lively
It is agreed that sports is all about ups and downs, tight competitions, wins and losses but added to all that has to be the boundless excitement that it can generate stemming from inspiring performances. Indian sports, it must be said had the benefit of such moments not once but twice in recent times and certainly nothing would have gladdened a sports fan more. First it was our women power in cricket! Yes, the Under-19 squad came up with a sterling display in Malaysia to lift the T20 world championship crown for the second time in a row. Then came news from distant Wijk aan Zee, in Netherlands that the 19-year-old chess grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa had become the second Indian to win the prestigious Tata Steel Masters tournament amidst a galaxy of chess wizards from all over the world. The legendary Viswanathan Anand was the first Indian to win this event.
It is amazing how Indians have begun to increasingly demand attention on the sports arena with performances that matter. With the senior women having struggled and lost their way in a similar T20 world championship last year, not even reaching the final for the first time in eight years, it was the turn of the juniors to do the redeeming act and how! Winning is one thing but the way the Blue girls went about their task was a stunning display of thoroughness and complete dominance that can be an enviable sight. Six matches and six wins set the pattern as India made its intentions bold and clear. A sensational show in this phase was this Telengana girl Trisha Gongadi, who made history by becoming the first player to hit a century across the tournament’s brief existence. Her 59 ball 110 was the cornerstone of India’s massive win over Scotland.
Trisha again was the pick of the bunch in the final where she had grabbed three wickets before coming good with the bat to help her team to chalk out a nine-wicket win over South Africa. It was a kind of show that Indian fans were so used to seeing from a male player. Here she was matching the best in this kind of cricket. Two half centuries and two 40 plus scores aside from the sensational century made her an easy candidate for the player of the tournament and the final. A father could not have asked more from his daughter. In an interview to a leading English daily, her father Rami Reddy, a gym instructor had said, he had begun to work on his daughter when she was two years old. A plastic bat and the sweeps began then only to become, for the rival teams, telling blows later!
If this grabbed the eyeballs in a big way as it should with even the Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi moved to send in a prompt congratulatory message, then what the young grandmaster from Chennai, Pragg (as he is popularly referred to) was no less. In the midst of leading Grandmasters of the world, this young lad cornered glory and what was significant was that the win came at the expense of none other than his friend, colleague and rival, the present world champion D. Gukesh! For a sport in which India had become a world power, thanks to all the initiative that Anand had done, this latest triumph is one more manifestation of its current status. If it was the unique double in the Chess Olympiad that set the good times rolling, then Gukesh added to it with his World championship success in Singapore. Konery Humpy followed it up with the world rapid title and now comes Pragg with his offering.
Such is the depth of talent on the male side that Indian chess today has Pragg, Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi, three super talents who could exchange places as the world’s best based on the day’s play! And it happened at this seacoast village in Netherlands in the Tata event, Arjun knocked out Gukesh in the final round and in the process meting out the latter’s first defeat as a world champion. A few hours later Pragg too lost his final round and thus it became a tie-break between him and Gukesh. The contest went to sudden death and the rest now is history! Some of the top stars, all world champions who had won this prestigious event include Magnus Carlsen ( a record eight times), Anand, Gary Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Anatoly Karpov, Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky, Tigran Petrosian, among others. Poor Gukesh could not make it to this list thanks to Pragg.
Perhaps the world of chess is bound to see more of this trio, together as a team spearheading India’s challenge or matching wits against each other. Unbelievable that this kind of change would come about but for this Anand has to take the major credit. He was a self-inspired player who grew in strength to take on the world one day. In the process he triggered this revolution. Today so many are close to his deeds. Arjun, the current top ranked Indian, is the second player after Anand to cross the Elo rating of 2800. To think that he is only the 15th player in history to achieve this mark!
The story could go on but what is to be underlined is the growing inspirational accounts in Indian sports. Nothing can reflect the encouraging progress in the sports field.