Credit where it's due

Great sportsmen can generally be classified in 2 categories – the first are those who make you revere them at the very first sight with their sheer genius and the other being those that you come to respect after a period of time for their consistency and continued excellence. I have always been a big fan of the earlier group that includes the likes of Sachin, Jonty Rhodes, Zidane, Federer, etc. But of late, there are a few from latter category that have earned my admiration.
A friend of mine correctly described this Mallorcan as world tennis’ Mahendra Singh Dhoni. And although this description might be a bit too crude, Rafael Nadal does lack the elegance and class of Roger Federer. Yet he more than makes up for it with incredible strength and indefatigable determination. His improvement from a red-clay specialist to an all-conquering champion has been truly remarkable. All throughout he has retained his humility, a quality which the Swiss master is fast running out of. Whether or not he would go on to scale the heights achieved by Sampras and Federer remains to be seen but after his 6th grand-slam title down under, he certainly receives a thumbs-up from me.
I had ardently supported Steven Gerrard in the popular debate about England’s central midfield pairing during the 2006 World cup. But that was before our Scouser hero came up with his hypocritical criticism of foreign ‘divers’ and then made it a habit to emulate them. The hatred of Steve g’s antics has played as much part in my admiration of Frank Lampard as has the inadvertent renunciation of his incredible prowess of scoring ‘multiple’ deflection goals. Having scored 20+ goals in each of the last 4 seasons, he has established himself as the most consistent midfielder in Europe. To add to it, he has managed to maintain an excellent demeanor on and off the court in spite of being in the company of bullies like John Terry and Michael Ballack (;)). Due to all this, he is one of the few sportsmen who have made me change my first impressions about them.
The 3rd player I would like to talk about here is the one who has taken South African cricket from the abysmal low of WC 2003 to pinnacle of world domination. In the early part of his career, smugness and cavalier statements like ‘I can be as great as Tendulkar’ didn’t endear Graeme Smith to most cricket fans. Many raised suspicious eyebrows when the SA cricket board handed over the captaincy to this young brat. But in the last 6 years he has developed into a bankable opening batsmen and mature leader, silencing most of his critics along the way. His match-winning hundred in the 400+ run chase at Brisbane followed by the brave innings in the Sydney in spite of a broken finger removed any lingering doubts I had about his abilities, both as a batsman and a captain.