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OLYMPIC
SPECIAL
Class
Reunion
Eight
months after parting ways, Bhupathi and Paes patch up their partnership
and seek a Miracle in Sydney
By Rohit
Brijnath
Miracle: An event that appears unexplainable by the laws of nature
and so is held to be supernatural in origin or act of God.
-Reader's
Digest Great Illustrated Dictionary
It's
uncomplicated, straightforward and simple. They can't win an Olympic medal.
No way, not a chance, not this time. So fellows, don't pack, cancel those
Sydney tickets, stay at home, watch the Games on television, weep.
 |
| Bhupati
and Paes have their backs to the wall in pursuit of Olympic glory
|
It's uncomplicated,
straightforward and simple. For four years teams learn to communicate
till talking becomes superfluous, they are joined into a brotherhood by
some invisible umbilical cord, they refine their art till like dancers
they find that elusive synchronicity, they practise till their bodies
gleam magnificently as if sculpted by Michelangelo. And still there's
no guarantee of an Olympic medal.
Now look
at them.
The doubles
ranking list doesn't even have their names on it for they haven't played
a tournament together this year, haven't hit a ball with each other in
eight months. Which is roughly about the time since they last exchanged
a civil word. They tried other partners but have yet to ascend a podium.
One man's had surgery on a shoulder that possibly still creaks like an
oiled door on bad days, the other man's wrist has just emerged from a
five-week cast, the healed tears on his tendon tested with every volley.
Their trust has evaporated, their mutual respect has dwindled and they've
stopped just short of wearing ruffled silk shirts and walking 10 paces.
An Olympic
medal? Even the act of a smiling, good humoured God may not be quite enough.
But you
know what they say, this Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. Oh it's not
that these good God-fearing, genuflecting-on-Sundays-boys don't believe
in miracles. They just feel they don't need one.
Leander:
"No, we can do it. We're not going to Sydney to make up the numbers."
Mahesh:
"No, we're not going there to compete, we're going to win."
You can
call it brash, cocky, arrogant. Or you can call it an unwavering faith,
an unshakeable confidence.
Whatever,
they still haven't forgotten the first rule of competitive sport. If you
don't believe you can win, don't go.
To ask Leander
Paes what the Olympics mean to him is to be prepared for an unconventional
answer: "I was born to be at the Games." He says that with some
authority, for despite a lack of documentary evidence, it is an accepted
fact that he was conceived at the 1972 Munich Olympics. He says flatly,
"If the choice was between No.1 singles player in the world and Olympic
gold, then gold it is." Miles away from Leander's home in Orlando,
ensconced in his Cincinnati hotel room, Mahesh is almost an echo: "The
medal has always been a dream, and yes I'd give up at least my doubles
No. 1 for gold."
The
Olympics is the athlete's call to greatness and even they, deafened by
their own obstinate rhetoric, heard it clearly. It was the reason, and
the right time, they both say, to put down their duelling pistols.
For 10 weeks
since late May Leander had been off the circuit. His blood, once hot with
the passion that both inspires him to acts of greatness but also provokes
him towards stubbornness, had cooled. Now he had time and he pondered:
"We're banging our heads against the wall and not coming up with
any answers. We're fighting and letting the Woodies win, we're not earning
money, not earning Grand Slams. We're cutting our noses to spite our faces."
He said
that he didn't want to be 50 years old and regret the opportunity they
had let go. So he picked up the phone finally and a continent away in
Europe, as India faced off against Sweden in July's Davis Cup, a message
appeared on Mahesh's cell phone: Let's play.
And so they
are, not just for Sydney or for the World Championships, but for the rest
of the year and maybe 2001 too, but hold that applause, for like an old
cantankerous couple, every day brings a fresh crease in their relationship
that needs ironing.
But it is
a relationship irrevocably altered. The boys who ate each other's pizza
are now men who sit on separate tables. Friendship has been replaced by
professionalism, boyishness with maturity. Says Mahesh: "Refinding
that friendship is not one of our goals, we're being pros." Concurs
Leander: "The business of playing comes first, let's see what happens
to friendship."
There are
no demands, no promises, their expectations of each other limited to the
court and not beyond. "If he wants to hang with Rico (coach Enrico
Piperno) that's not my problem," says Leander. Now Mahesh concurs,
saying, "Off the court I don't care what I hear, I know him, and
as long as he's giving 100 per cent on court that's what matters."
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