Back from the Dead

Even as the Boston Red Sox go 2-0 up in the World Series against the St Louis Cardinals despite four errors in each of the games, my mind keeps going back to the ALCS against the Yankees. So much so that I seem to have lost interest in the World Series. Suddenly, it's as if the curse has been broken - far from it. But somehow, the magnitude of that win just seems to have injected a huge shot of complacency in Red Sox fans - hey, I'm just a convert after all, from a land where cricket is king - think of the 'real' Sox fans! Speaking of cricket and comebacks, the thing that immediately spring to mind is the monumental Indian victory over Australia in 2001 against all odds - a series that could only be described as epic. It would be interesting to look at similar acts of resurrection - in cricket and elsewhere. Jimmy Connors' win over Mikael Pernfors at Wimbledon in 1986; Steve Waugh almost single-handedly taking on South Africa at Headingley in the 1999 World Cup; the Botham test at the same venue in 1981; India's improbable run chase at Lord's in 2002 where two young men challenged destiny; Goran Ivanisevic's fairy tale run at Wimbledon in 2001, when he was all but done. Back-from-the-dead acts that inspire a generation - or two. For all the awe that a sublime act of genius inspires, it is when the utter underdog, the absolute no-hoper, defies all punditry and conquers self-doubt to come up trumps that sport is at its absolute best. - NK