It’s been a long time since I have written a blog and I had almost given up on blogging. The recent series of events and a number of articles that have gone through have led to an interesting question within me about which I am going to write in this blog. It’s quite an intriguing title that I have started to write on, a little puzzling too. Let me explain first about the title. The Grand Master in the title is ‘Grand Master’ Vishwanathan Anand. The Little Master in the title is none other than Sachin Tendulkar. How can they be competing against each other given that they are from two different sporting disciplines? Well, it so happens that they are actually competing against each other in one particular race.
Indian Premier League (IPL) 2010 has just concluded. My favorite team Chennai Super Kings (CSK) led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni defeated the Mumbai Indians (MI) led by Sachin Tendulkar. Though MI lost the cup, Sachin ended up with the most number of runs in this edition and was the deserving winner of the ‘Orange Cap’ – a memento for the leading run scorer in each edition of IPL. Tendulkar played the finals despite having stitches in his hand. He batted valiantly but unfortunately could not prevent his team from losing. Earlier this year he achieved the feat of scoring the highest individual innings score in ODI – He scored a massive 200 runs in the match against South Africa in February 2010 at Gwalior. His list of records in cricket is endless. Despite being a very successful cricketer and an icon/ demigod for millions of his fans he is pretty down to earth. For a little bit of history about Tendulkar and a list of his records please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachin_Tendulkar
That still leaves us far from how/ why I zeroed in on this title. So how on earth did this thought occur to me? Well, I was reading commentary in Tamil about the matches between Anand and Topalov written by Lalitha Ram (http://cricketthavira.wordpress.com/) on the Tamil blog that I regularly follow (http://idlyvadai.blogspot.com/). After I finished reading the blog, I went to check out about Anand on Wikipedia. Then suddenly out of nowhere I decided to check out about Sachin on Wikipedia. As I was going through one particular section, something struck me; I opened Anand’s profile on Wikipedia in another window and compared it with Sachin. It so happened that Anand and Sachin are racing against each other and my blog is about this race and who might win in this race.
Before we see what this race is all about, a few nuggets of information that would serve as disclaimer or help to provide a level playing field. Anand (born 1969) is four years elder to Sachin (1973). Anand came into public attention in 1984 (when he became youngest Indian to win ‘International Master’ title) five years ahead of Sachin’s historical tour to Pakistan. On the flip side Sachin is an international icon in a very popular/ viewer friendly form of sport which is also India’s National Sporting Passion. Therefore the amount of visibility and adulation that he receives is far higher than Anand. With this disclaimer let me start elaborating about what this race is all about.
1. Anand won the Arjuna award (an award to Indian sportsmen from government of India) in 1985. Sachin won the Arjuna award in 1994.
2. Anand won the Padma Shri award (India’s fourth highest civilian honor) in 1987. Sachin won the Padma Shri award in 1999.
3. Anand won the inaugural Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award (India's highest sporting honor) in 1991- 1992. Sachin won the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1997 – 1998.
4. Anand became the first sportsperson to win Padma Vibhushan (India's second highest civilian award) in 2007. Sachin won the Padma Vibhushan in 2008.
But my bet would be that one of these men would win the Bharat Ratna ahead of any other sportsmen. In fact I don’t see any one sportsperson in the current generation except for Leander Paes, who come anywhere close to Anand and Sachin (Tenure of successful career, being a very good ambassador for their respective sporting disciplines, importance of the milestones achieved, consistency of performance and keeping the nation’s flag fluttering proudly in the international sporting arena).
That still does not answer who will win the Bharat Ratna first. At this point in time Sachin is a little ahead in the race with his state government thinking about recommending his name. But wait till Anand wins the duel against Topalov; Tamil Nadu government might recommend Anand’s name. Then the race would be on even footing. If the Tamil Nadu government does not Anand’s name then Sachin would definitely have the edge.