Sir Alex Ferguson & Sachin Tendulkar

2012 & 2013 saw the retirement of 2 very influential sports person from their respective fields. While for Sir Alex Ferguson I was able to see his last match as Manchester's manager live (in my friend's house on his large TV screen) but for Sachin Tendulkar I could manage only highlights and news clips. 

 

Two very contrasting personalities and two very different jobs yet so much influence on the game. Sir Alex, with his typical manners represented a man who would go wild at the shortest mistake of the players, never afraid to criticize officials, opponents--a totally arrogant image. Even within his team Alex used to have ego issues with rising superstars like David Beckham & Christiano Ronaldo. On the other hand Sachin, clear & humble image, never involved with any criticism, never any ego issues with his teammates. Alex is the most successful football team manager, Sachin the single most successful individual for a team game and a perfect team man.

Looking in a critical way the fact that these 2 men survived so long (more than 2 decades) speaks of their talent and impact. In a world which demands top performance all the time it takes something special. The motivation behind such prolonged career must have been special. People who had been or are in the same business for sometime can tell what really it means and why it is so special. Normally a very good cricketer will have 10-15 years, and a football manager can last few seasons, in some cases only few months for a club, forget 25+ years. For Alex the job was perhaps tougher (than Sachin's) as it is always difficult to motivate a bunch of players (which kept changing from season to season) with someone else's vision and specially for a club game where the players are from different cultures and the aims and ambitions are easy to vary. To form a single unit definitely is a tougher job. Impact of Sir Alex on English Premier League, more so Manchester United is same as Sachin to Indian cricket. In modern days two decades is a very long time for things to remain constant, and in sports dynamism is rapid. But Sir Alex & Sachin have fitted into these changes very comfortably and carried on with ease.

But here I don't want to compare, criticize or celebrate their achievements or discuss my opinion on them (though none of them feature in my list of favourite player or manager). Even their influence on the game needs no further discussion. What to me looked similar and special was in both cases the respect they earned from their team, the men who had been with them for years. For any individual calling it a day, in whatever profession he or she is, there can be no greater satisfaction or achievement than to see the true support, love & respect the colleagues have had over the years. Those moments are priceless and defines what the person has been over the years. These two men have been involved with so many colleagues from time to time yet the respect they commanded from all is outstanding. Magnanimous might be the correct term to describe the legacy that will be left over, good or bad this cannot be ignored in history. Media attention has definitely contributed to this but new standards have been set for times ahead and this time very stiff ones.