The genius of our legends

Our sportsmen endure everything that sportsmen in other countries face but they do it all alone

With Younis Khan becoming the latest sportsman to embed his name in the annals of history by breaking Javed Miandad’s record of 8,832 Test runs, one is tempted to ask why aren’t such records being broken more often?

This statement in no way intends to discredit the achievements of legends such as Miandad by making it sound as if surpassing his tally of runs is an easy feat to achieve. It only attempts to highlight the fact that despite the abundance of talent we have in almost every sport, our sportsmen still fail to reach the heights expected of them.

Younis poised to pass 'legend' Miandad's Pakistan run record

Why does it have to be a case of one individual defying all odds to achieve something which many should be aspiring to achieve? In the past 10 years, only one batsman, and that too the legendary Inzamamul Haq, came close to breaking Miandad’s record. That is proof enough to show that when it comes to achieving unprecedented heights, it’s only individual brilliance and solo efforts that make such a thing possible.

All this time our boards, yes our ‘so-efficient’ sports boards, are just sitting idle and finding new ways to either demotivate the younger generation of sportsmen with internal politics, or create obstacles in their paths which divert their attention from the very thing that brought them recognition — the grooming of their talent. Either the youngsters find a way to be part of the corrupt system, hence leading to more Muhammad Amirs, or they just fizzle out and leave, happy to be doing a regular job to feed their families and not utilising the immense potential they have been blessed with.

Whenever a potential talent is identified in another country, a whole team is deployed to make sure the person receives all the right guidance to groom his/her talent. This in turn tests that person’s limits and if he/she is able to push himself/herself to a higher level, a legend is born.

Younis becomes Pakistan's highest run-scorer in Test cricket

Sadly, that is not the case in our country. The limited space in this corner doesn’t allow me to rant on, but I really want to salute and commend all the greats of our nation, of the past and present, because they have defied all odds to achieve greatness. One hopes in future we can produce such greats.

Our sportsmen endure everything that sportsmen in other countries face — the highs, the lows, the mental pressures, the physical limitations — but the thing that makes them just legendary and worthy of all the praise in the world is the fact that they do it all alone, something which sportsmen from the developed world can’t claim to have done.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2015.