Edmund Hillary summitted Mount Everest and Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile within a year of each other on May 29 1953 and May 6 1954, respectively. Their feats remain two of the most iconic landmarks of personal sporting achievement in history.
They are also proof that the majority of us ask only “how high, how fast, how many or how far” rather than “why”. If our greatest concern is the price of admission, the reasons for our entertainment can be left to those providing it. But even the most relaxed among us should be able to understand the thrill of doing something no other human has done before.
There has long been a theory that Hillary’s Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, may actually have been the first man to set foot on the roof of the world, and that he may have done so several years before New Zealand’s most famous mountaineer, but news needs to be reported for it to become “breaking news”.
Since Hillary’s famous ascent three men, Kami Rita Sherpa, Ngima Nuru Sherpa and Apa Sherpa have all made it to the top on more than 20 occasions while thousands have dipped below four minutes for a mile. It was all about breaking the glass ceiling. If those who had tried and failed before were greats in their field, so much the better.
The inner drive that separates very good sportspeople from the great ones is a curious thing to the majority of us. What makes Lewis Hamilton and Cristiano Ronaldo push themselves so hard when they already have more goals, wins and mansions in Monaco than anyone else? (Not sure about the mansions in Monaco...)
Perhaps it is the adulation received from millions of adoring fans. But that doesn’t explain what drives England’s Neil Rutter, who followed his maiden world title in 2018 with another, in a world record time, in the 2019 championships staged at Llanwrtyd Wells in the county of Brecknockshire, famous for its peatlands. Enough of a clue?
Rutter is the world bog-snorkelling champion, having completed two lengths of the 60-yard trench cut into the soggy peat using only flippers, mask and snorkel in an astonishing time of just 1hr 18.81min. The grand final was attended by a crowd of “several hundred” according to local reports and, though there was no official prize money, the men’s and women’s (Betsy Creak 1:42.22) champions were offered sponsorship by the local pub.
No matter the motivation, it’s the competition we want to see — and we are grateful to those who have the ambition to succeed and entertain. Sadly, Covid-19 has forced the cancellation of the annual bog-snorkelling championships for the past two years. Rutter and Creak are still reigning champions.
Like a handful of other millionaire sports stars, Virat Kohli has more wealth than he can spend reasonably in his lifetime. Yet he remains as driven as at any time in his career and, by pushing for the tour of SA to go ahead, he has the opportunity to achieve something no other India captain has managed. To win a Test series in SA.
In fact, until that extraordinary series win by Sri Lanka almost three years ago teams from the Asian subcontinent had failed to win in SA in 19 attempts. Pakistan have drawn one and lost five of their series, Sri Lanka have lost six out of seven while India have drawn just one of their seven series.
Kohli came perilously close four years ago when SA rolled the pitch dice at Newlands and Centurion and were fortunate to go 2-0 up before losing on the most seamer-friendly pitch of all three at the Wanderers.
The team which drew 1-1 in 2010/2011 contained some of India’s greatest players — Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan. Kohli’s sense of destiny is pushing him to overcome all of them and victory on these shores will surely elevate his team to the status he craves — greatest Indian team of all.
A handful of his squad remained in SA after the A team tour in Bloemfontein while the others gathered for a “quarantine camp” in Mumbai on Monday where they will undergo Covid-19 testing for three days before flying to Johannesburg on a chartered plane on Thursday. Most of them have spent no more than a few weeks outside biosecure environments and bubbles in the past 18 months.
Time is running out for Kohli, and he knows it. Having voluntarily relinquished the T20 captaincy he was also recently “persuaded” to hand the ODI reins to Rohit Sharma, who was also named as Kohli’s Test vice-captain. This tour will be his last chance to join Hillary, Bannister and, yes, even Rutter.
Ours is not to question why. Ours is simply to enjoy the intensity of his purpose. Should he succeed, like the Sherpas, there may be many more Indian teams to follow.
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