ALMOST A WINNER

I tried so hard and came so far

But in the end it doesn’t even matter

Pakistan needs only 6 runs to win the honors of maiden T20 world champions. After a middle order collapse the hard hitting Misbah-Ul-Haq plays a gallant innings to bring his team inches away from one of the greatest victories of all times. But then it happens. To a wide ball of Joginder Sharma ,the brave Misbah plays a predetermined shot as a results the ball scoops up and into the waiting hands of Sreesant. ‘India crawl out of a hole’ and become world champions.

A quick jump to the present and the IPL has taken the cricketing world by storm. Player auctions have made cricketers millionaires overnight. Over 80 players were auctioned. But our brave Misbah was no where in the reckoning. Why was it so?

Ishant Sharma bowled one magnificent 9 over spell to the best batsmen in the world and earned an extremely fat paycheck from one of the ICL bidders. But then what about Misbah?

The answer is simple. Misbah was almost a winner. He almost brought home the trophy, but in this world almost is not good enough.

In contrast Ishant’s spell actually resulted in India winning the Sydney test. He went all the way. He ended up actually winning.

Cut to motor sports and we get a similar picture. Throughout last year’s season Lewis Hamilton was the talk of the town. But when it was all said and done the seven words which summed it all up were ‘The Flying Fin is the World Champion’.

This theory is applicable to each and every field and discipline. We associate fame, wealth, glory and success based on the end result only and not based on the effort. For in the end the summit is wide enough for only one person.

We value the winners. Coming second earns no points. But then in this highly competitive world were the difference between first and second (read looser) in many times is decided by fortune or by fortunate/unfortunate twists of fate, is such treatment justified?

It simply reiterates what I have always believed, LIFE ISN’T FAIR.