The Warne-ing: Idle worship can destroy young careers

Unfortunately for sportsmen they are different from, well, other philanderers because they represent a nation. And an activity that has traditionally been looked upon as virtuous. Sport is the finest example of one person’s skill against another; at that precise moment nothing matters, not your income or your endorsements, not your caste or your colour; not if you are from the first world and support bombing other countries, not if you are from Nauru and wonder what the fuss is all about.

Sport is unscripted and what is unveiled before you is the result of drive and perseverance, of ambition and commitment. At most times anyway! And so sport draws its pilgrims, the faithfuls who in trying to emulate their stars get blinded to their shortcomings.

So we hope — worse, we assume — that Beckham and Warne will be the embodiment of the virtues that grandparents and sacred texts talk about. That need not be because all they are really good at is bowling a ball or kicking it around.

But stardom is such a blanket that few if any are willing to accept that; least of all sportsmen themselves. As they rise up the star ladder their world narrows, they attract followers, hangers-on of dubious quality and intent and move further and further away from reality. This hanger-on is a ubiquitous animal, present in hotel rooms and at airports, willing to wait long hours for the honour of being in a star’s shadow, the proximity lending him power.

In course of time, such people rise from being Man Fridays to confidants, they tell the stars what they want to hear and the more they tighten their grip, the more the star disappears into his make-believe world. These are parasites and they mushroom everywhere; they feed on a star’s vanity, they appeal to his weakness.

In most cases the appearance of such riff-raff is the first sign of descent. Mike Tyson could write a book on it if he could understand it. Some of India’s cricketers could too.

Cut off from the real world, increasingly strangled by the poverty of this company that only whispers nice things into their ears, sportsmen can easily lose focus. The great Michael Jordan thought he could play baseball, the Williams sisters got sucked into walking the ramp and designing jewellery. For every success story in Indian cricket, there is an example of someone who lost focus, who mistook the perks for the job.

That is the danger of emulating Warne and that is why administrators are right in demanding acceptable off-field behaviour from those that are meant to be ambassadors of their country. The next young kid will believe that everything a Warne does is acceptable.

It could ruin his cricket, it could stain a sport. Warne is an extra-ordinary sportsman, perfectly capable of setting aside the turmoil in his personal life and performing brilliantly on the cricket ground. Few others can do so.

There is a lesson there for young Indian cricketers. Sadly our sport is ridiculously over-hyped and that means young cricketers will be tugged at in all directions, temptations will be dangled, monetary and otherwise, and the very qualities that brought success can be forgotten.

It has happened and it is happening and, indeed, the greatest challenge before Indian cricket is not producing bowlers who can rattle the opposition or batsmen that can withstand rampaging bowlers but guiding young cricketers through the pitfalls of fame and money.

That is the problem with idolising Warne. If you can sift through what he has to offer, do so by all means. Copy his amazing work ethic, admire his commitment to a craft, his love for the game, the disarming manner with which he can greet people.

He is a lovely, simple person to chat with, very generous with sharing his knowledge. Copy all that but if you want to emulate his lifestyle, do so at your peril.