Woods, Federer, Sachin stride like colossus

Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Sachin Tendulkar are the three sportsmen in the world who stride their sport like a colossus having sent many a record tumbling and reset many benchmarks in their respective fields. They have dominated the sporting world and continue to be the cynosure of all followers' eyes whenever they play and wherever they go. They have had challengers to their throne and there are some truly outstanding players in sport today many of whom have taken up to sport, thanks to the inspirational deeds of these players. Federer recently went past Pete Sampras' record of winning the most majors in tennis and Tendulkar virtually owns all batting records in the game apart from the highest individual innings in Test and one-day cricket and Woods is just 4 wins away from joining Jack Nicklaus as the winner of most majors in golf.

Last week, Woods came within inches of winning his 15th major. He was leading on the three days of the tournament and when Woods goes leading into the last day he wins. At least he did till last week. He had a most horrendous round by his standards and that allowed a less known Korean Ye Yang to take the championship and deprive Woods of his 15th major. So badly did Woods play on the last day and so exasperated he was with his own golf that he ended up using the 'f' word and shocked not just those following him on the golf course, but all those TV viewers who were avidly waiting for him to win his first major of the year.

Woods had missed most of last year with a knee injury that was thought at one stage to be serious enough to keep him out of the game for a long time. Some of his contemporaries may have nursed hopes that it would be permanent damage but that was not to be. He worked hard and came back and was thus desperate to make up for lost time.

Roger Federer who is also uber cool when he is playing and even more with his looks was pictured smashing his racquet in an ATP tournament earlier in the year. He had cried after losing narrowly to Nadal in the Australian open and after that he was being beaten by players who would have never dreamt of taking a set off him even one year back. Federer was also looking to win the French Open and another major to go past Sampras and suddenly he was losing to some unknown players. Thus the pressure started to build up and when he could not cope with it, the racquet got smashed.

That brings us to Tendulkar. Like Woods and Federer he has set standards that are hard to match. Like Woods and Federer are expected to win every tournament they play in, the little champion is expected to score a century and more in every innings that he bats. The difference is in the numbers of those expectations. While both Woods and Federer have millions of fans all over the world, it in no way compares with the millions in India alone who worship the ground Tendulkar walks on and believe that their man can do no wrong. Unlike Woods and Federer whose houses and cars are safe even if they lose in the first round that is not the case for Indian cricketers who have found homes and properties destroyed by an angry crowd after they have not performed upto expectations.

It is under these pressures of expectations that Indian cricketers have to play and Sachin Tendulkar has more of these pressures than anyone else. Yet tell me if in all these years of playing for India if there has been even one instance of Tendulkar losing his cool and swearing or behaving in a manner that has further aggravated the situation. There may have been the odd grimace when he has got a bad decision but nothing beyond that.

- Professional Management Group