As I yelled out from the courtside at a recent tennis event, “superb service! Give me an Ace!” a Rafa sports fan sitting next to me commented, “So... you like Rafael Nadal. I’m not surprised. I suppose most women would go for his looks. I personally prefer Federer’s game”.
I rattled off, “Rafa has won 14 Grand Slams, has changed the way that tennis is played by bringing in speed and fitness levels as a prerequisite for tennis – and of course, has won the Career Golden Slam besides starting his own tennis academies”.
I watched as his shoulders visibly staggered under this information, his demeanour towards me perceptibly undergoing an almost chameleon-like change. Managing to mumble – “So you do know your tennis”, I saw something that looked suspiciously like respect in his eyes.
Except that I needed none of it.
Why a Sports Fan is the Same Worldwide
Sports is usually seen as the man’s domain, with girls and women thought to be relegated to accompanying their boyfriends to a game of cricket or football – whether with the promise of dinner or a shopping spree later or just as arm candy value. Hey! I can’t deny I’m great as arm candy but does that automatically eliminate the brain gene associated with my knowledge of sports? I know my sports as effortlessly as Messi’s legwork against CR7.
A sports fan or a fanatic is the same worldwide – we are in it for the love of the sport. We girls are just a little more observant and loquacious by nature, so if I notice Rafa’s Adonis-like body and his fashionable shorts, don’t tell me the boys aren’t secretly observing Maria Sharapova’s perfect limbs or a giving thumbs up to Shakira as a great partner for Gerard Pique.
The common passion of sports actually unites people across all genders, race and countries. Think about the India-Pak cricket matches which still whip up two nations into a frenzy like no other! The love and longing across the borders is spiked with rabble rousing, mostly restricted to the game. Cricket is of course a religion in both countries and cricketers are the gods that adorn our temple and heart, so if we feel the passion rising in us if we are losing or Pakistan is winning it’s just the natural reaction of a sports buff.
(I must admit that I was a little more passionate when I used to watch Imran Khan bat, but now that he’s two marriages down he’s out of all the boundary lines.)
A Potpourri of Emotions
When I think of sports I think of a potboiler of cultures: The Maoris in New Zealand who I’d never heard of till I started watching cricket, names like Novak Djokovic variously known as Djoko or Djoker in sports that I wouldn’t have been able to pronounce, countries across the globe that I know of because I watched the Football World Cup, the near magical footwork of Messi that I would’ve missed out on had I not loved sports...
And yes, of course, a whole spectrum of emotions that various sportsmen at various points in my life have made me experience – the pain when Javed Miandad hit that sixer, snatching away the Australasia Cup in Sharjah from us. That joy when I hear the purrfect engine of a Ferrari crooning under Vettel, challenged by a smooth Lewis Hamilton. There has been no end to that gamut of emotions.
So join me on this rollercoaster ride through the world of sports with sass and spice (I wish Chris Gayle had known about this column, it would’ve saved him from the maelstrom he has kicked off) as 2016 unfolds a bouquet of sporting encounters for all our sensory perceptions.
Till next time sportingly, sassily and spicily yours...
(Vandana is a lawyer by education, an author by passion and a sports buff by reflex. You can read more about her on her website www.vandanashah.com)
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