The quality of mediocrity is not strained, but it has it’s uses

The United States of America is probably the greatest sporting nation on the planet. Yes, China did win more medals at the last Olympics, but over the years, across various sports America has won more than any other country in the world. This incredible sporting success is worthy of the envy with which India eyes it from time to time. Indeed, so many lament so often (including me every other day) that we would gladly trade all that cricketing bluster for a couple of Olympic gold medals.

But whatever we may say as a nation about being pathetic underachievers on the world stage - which undoubtedly we are – living in America for nearly a year has convinced me that we have something that America does not. But we are in terrible danger of selling out on that one quality that really should be the envy of the universe.

I think of the movie ‘Invictus’, which concludes with scenes of jubilation across South Africa following their rugby team’s world cup triumph. There is a certain amount of overkill, but the message of unity in celebration across the nation is nailed home.

The feelings and emotions portrayed are deeper and more meaningful than any ordinary sporting triumph. They can in a sense be described by a vicious cycle but in precisely the opposite sense of what that phrase conventionally means. At the core is the joy of the victory, but what fuels it is the euphoria of absolute unity, the feeling that everyone for miles and miles around is thrilled by the same thing as you. This accentuates the exhilaration manifold. People spill onto the streets, the unifying effects are significant.

Think of all the times you’ve heard the fireworks going off after we’ve won a match, all the times u’ve asked a random person on the street the score, the times when that feeling of outrage at seeing Agarkar in the team again were mixed with the thrill of knowing that pretty much everyone in the country is thinking the same thing.

Well, here’s the simple truth. America has nothing of the sort. There is no single unifying force here. There is nothing, literally nothing that can unite America’s millions like cricket can unify our 1 billion. When Michael Phelps wins some 85 gold medals, some people will read about it somewhere and go hmmm, when the saints win the superbowl New Orleans will celebrate and Indiana will mourn. When the US soccer team reaches the quarterfinal of the world cup nobody even knows the US has a soccer team.

So answer me this, should the sporting pride and wealth of a nation not at least partly be based on the ability of sport to unify, strengthen and gladden?

You may well argue that America is an exception, and that this feeling of universal joy following a triumph is the norm across Europe and Africa. This is quite true, yet the reason we can be prouder of it than any other country is that we overcome the very factors which inhibit the USA in this regard, which is scale. America is a vast land with a widely disparate demographic. So are we. This puts a firm stopper on the influence of a universal unifier in the USA. For us, it does not.

Yet, yet, we are in grave danger of losing it all. Tell me of a memorable Indian triumph in the last few years that has stuck in your memory. Nothing ? Then tell me individually, people of Bangalore, Chennai, Mohali or Kolkata of your biggest cricketing memory of the past few years.

Ouch.