Published: Mar 25, 2015, 04:33 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 26, 2015, 03:03 PM (IST)
To remain humble and rooted in one’s moment of glory is not easy as senses often go for a toss in the resultant ecstasy. And in the game of cricket where even a routine hundred is celebrated with aggressive emotions, humility is endangered commodity. Which is why Grant Elliot’s act, post his six that gave New Zealand a fairytale win over South Africa in the 2015 World Cup semis, will remain as one of the greatest humanitarian moments in cricket history.
The win came like a bolt from the blue. It sent New Zealand into delirium, not just because of the suddenness and unexpectedness with which it came but also because it was the first time the Kiwis broke a 40-year-old mental barrier of entering the final, after six semi-final exits. Elliot, an unsung man among the McCullums, Guptills and Vettori’s in the New Zealand side, emerged a hero. It was the high point of his cricket career. Yet the man forgot his and his team’s pleasure to feel the pain of his opponent.
Steyn, the man who has caused terror worldwide with his fearsome pace, lay sprawled on the wicket, stunned by the shock and disappointment of the six that ended his team’s journey in the tournament. As a sportsperson, Elliot would have undergone such moments. But to show empathy at that moment was truly heroic. He walked up to the man he had ‘slayed’ and gave his hand to help him get up. It was a moment that took one back to the 2005 Ashes Test at Birmingham when Andrew Flintoff comforted a crestfallen Brett Lee.
Elliott summed it up beautifully at the post-match press conference: “I think you have to feel compassion, humble in victory, humble in defeat. It is part of what I am. I felt quite sorry for him, I felt quite sorry for a lot of the South African guys for losing the game. It could have been us, it could have been me sitting there having missed the last two balls and I would have been pretty gutted, as well, along with 40,000 people in the stadium, I just felt a little bit of compassion towards him. It means a lot to them. Obviously they’ve never made a final, and we wanted to just as bad as they did.”
Cricket has long ceased to be a gentleman’s game. The influx of money and the changing values of a modern world have ensured the transformation. Which is why the likes of Flintoff and Elliot have touched our hearts?
Grant Elliot’s place among the great sporting acts in sports history is secure. What an advertisement to the game!
(Abhishek Kumar is a cricket devotee currently interning at Criclife.com. He can be followed at abhicricket.kumar)
