Andre Agassi, Tiger Woods: Ironic Icons; Tendulkar: Class Apart

It is a shocker how Tiger Woods got away with so much in his personal life, totally contrary to the image of a holier than thou individual. Andre Agassi’s confessions have drawn more ire than empathy and for good reason. However, Sachin Tendulkar’s blemish free iconic style gives hope.
Tennis ace Agassi’s confessions about drug abuse and perjury with the tennis officials, the ATP, over the failed drugs test failed to give him the credence of coming clean. If anything, it has opened a Pandora’s Box of what happens when an icon is raised so high that he forgets there is only so much he can get away with.

While one has only Agassi’s words to believe the time period of the drug abuse, whether he will return his medals is highly debatable. What he was opening was to get rid of the dark recesses of his guilty heart, and the money he makes from it will perhaps be an irony of the world we live in as he makes the candid confessions in his autobiography “Open”.

But what is startling is the repeated use of suggesting that early pressures in life as well as pushy parents, fathers in particular, are to be blamed for the sportspersons’ downfall has been frequent. Much like Michael Jackson, who gained a lot of sympathy over his troubled relationship with his father Joe Jackson, Agassi alleges his father pushed him to an extent where he began to hate the game so much.
Would he have continued to work so hard for a game he never loved? It is hard to imagine he was romancing a tennis player, Steffi Graf, and continues to raise money for charity through the game he hates so much.
The dichotomy of the timing of his release of his confessions appears more meticulously planned and it is unfortunate to say so of a man held up in the eyes of many as one of the truly great tennis icons of the century. Now his every trophy will be viewed by tinted eyes, and there will always be a doubt whether it was earned by Agassi or born out of hate, drug abuse, or a flamboyant player getting away with too much.

In that light, Tiger Woods will perhaps claim to have kept the game clean on the turf. It is true that a sportsperson’s life should not be anyone’s business. But when these role models are on our television, constantly portraying the common man as somehow not as hardworking or less sophisticated or far less rich and underachieving, they are subjecting their image to scrutiny. And if they can be hailed as heroes for certain aspects of their life, their imperfections in life in other areas also come into focus.

Once again, Woods extra marital affairs have tumbled out of the closet in a spirally scenario in a manner that has left the world aghast.

Whether Elin Nordegren throws a golf club at him or a mobile and disfigures his face, Woods will still have to hold himself accountable for tarnishing his own image.

The picture of the perfect man and his perfect family has gone down in the drain with just one flush. All it took was one wrong turn, literally in Woods’ case, for his privacy to become sleazy instead of protective, for the companies that paid him millions forced to cut back because of fear of having their own image diluted with his. (England footballer David Beckham has managed to salvage something post his supposed affair with a certain Rebecca Loos, although it would no doubt have come at a price with his sponsor and his wife, Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham. Not everyone is lucky to get this lusty and get away.)

As the women come out of the closet, Cori Rist (one of his mistresses) apologising on the NBC’s Today show to Woods’ wife, Tiger is supposed still pursuing New York socialite Rachel Uchitel despite of it all being made public, showing little for his own family image for whom he supposed has quit golf indefinitely and caring little for his own image that was earning him in the triple millions.

Amongst these mayhem could be a few cricketers whose left are perhaps left alone, which is why even the frenetic Indian media has left their private lives alone.
The brawl between Sulieman Benn of the West Indies and Mitchell Johnson and Brad Haddin are nothing compared to the mental turmoil of touring cricketers and left behind wives. Australia have had their fair share of drama apparently with Adam Gilchrist reduced to tears over supposed baseless allegations of Michael Slater and Mrs. Gilchrist having an affair. Simon Katich and Michael Clarke apparently got into a scuffle even as the latter chose to run fast into the arms of his fiancee, Lara Bingle, ignoring team building efforts.

Brett Lee’s much publicized divorce from Liz Kemp has seen enough views and counterviews with Kemp now reportedly enjoying the company of another man, Steve Moon, to put an end of speculation of a reconciliation.
Mitchell Johnson’s saga with his mother, Vicky Harber, over his choice of girlfriend, Jessica Bratich that dragged cricket and Ashes into it would make script writers of soap operas drool.

Closer to home, the seeming harmless indulgences have been blown up thanks to media intrusion of a well written love triangle between Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, who expressed his admiration for Bollywood actress, Deepika Padukone, only to have the latter seen sharing cozy dinners with Yuvraj Singh (who himself has had a public life, including a troubled relationship with another actress, Kim Sharma). The truth or otherwise is perhaps best left not deciphered in this or the lives of more turbulent personal lives of seemingly successful cricketers.

At such a time, it comes rather refreshing that Sachin Tendulkar has been such an icon whom controversy dithers to go near and his image of a family man and one faithful to the game without distraction is still something whose value only grows as the icons fall behind. After all, twenty years in the limelight could not have been easy.

In a world starved for heroes, it can be quite devastating to know that someone is too much of a mortal contrary to the image portrayed. At such times, it is the Tendulkars who convert non fans into neutral admirers.

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