‘What’s in a name ?’ is a like a worn-out cliché – actually it’s everything if you’re rich and famous and a poster boy/girl to boot, like our glamorous, blue eyed stars of Bollywood or much-hyped and over-valued ( some would say !) cricketers, whose gladiator-like heroics are flashed on the IPL giant screens across the cities and cheered by millions every night for 45 days this time of the year !
Toddlers still learning their ABC are familiar with AB D (De Villiers, the ace batsman for RCB), and ‘Hitman’ (Rohit Sharma of MI) is more popular than Spiderman ! Mumbai boys, ‘Pandya brothers’ are special in terms of hair-styles and cool-quotient (being often spotted with stars both on and off the field !). Gabbar (Shikhar), Ash, Jaddu, Jasprit, Bhuvi, Chahal are household names. Dhoni and Virat have acquired demi-God status.
While the IPL 2018, was on in full swing, other sporting history was being created in Gold Coast beyond the world of cricket – India stood third in the medals tally in the Commonwealth Games including 26 Golds ! With iconic greats Mary Kom, Sushil Kumar and Saina Nehwal striking gold, what has also emerged are new young stars in diverse disciplines like pistol shooting, wrestling, weight lifting, boxing, table tennis and predictably in badminton where India now reigns supreme.
Names like Manu Bhaker, Heena Sidhu, Manika Batra, Mirabai Chanu and the teen pistol sensation Anish Bhanwala and many others have covered themselves with glory but have a long way to go in acquiring a cult status unless the authorities ensure that some of the spotlight shifts to them !
Cricket, however much damned by many critics for its flamboyant domination over other sports and absurd amounts of earnings involved in the game, continues to be the big draw and IPL often sidelines even new Hindi film releases in terms of being a crowd puller ! Add to this, are a host of exciting new cricketers forming a formidable bench-strength and causing selection headaches. Leading are young guns like Sanju Samson, Rishabh Pant, Rahul Tripathi, Kuldeep Yadav,Washington Sunder, Prithvi Shaw and Shubham Gill, many being products of the IPL brand of fast T20 cricket !
With all this, let a thousand champion sports-persons bloom everyday
and make every Indian proud that we’re a nation of a billion sporties !
Working on Living 