The nature of sport is to find the best but sometimes this isn’t enough for a sportsman, they feel a need or an obligation to entertain. Now we could ponder over whether this is out of self interest in an attempt to promote themselves rather than a genuine desire to please the crowd, but it must be said that these two often come hand in hand.
The likes of Ayrton Senna, Sir Vivian Richards and Muhammed Ali are known for their flair and entertainment value but they all had very successful careers. This has continued in modern times with Roy Jones Jr, Prince Naseem and Usain Bolt, but once again these sportsmen have all had success. Whereas these sportsmen undoubtedly have entertained they have not compromised their careers in a huge way.
This brings me on to Emmanuel Augustus. An American born Australian with an absolute desire for boxing…and dancing. He has great reflexes and a decent technique and although he could be a better boxer by being more sensible this never stops him from giving the fans what they want. He has lost to the likes of Jesus Chavez, David Diaz, Floyd Mayweather Jr, and Micky Ward. A man you can call on when in need as he proved in 2002 by taking on a fight just 2 days in advance. It is boxers like him who keep boxing going at the lower levels, he is the middle man who sorts the champions from the pretenders. He is more than that though, he has done it in the same crowd-pleasing manner and has refused to change his style and long may he continue.
Another example of a man who could have gone further in his sport if weren’t for his need to show the crowd something extraordinary is Iranian tennis player Mansour Bahrami. Now walking the globe as a tennis exhibition player showing off his unique array of skills on a tennis court he never realised his true potential as a singles player.
The two men mentioned above are entertainers certainly, but I feel that you’d have to be more than that to be the most expensive ticket in town. That is why the modern day superstars who play with high-intensity and the intention to entertain will excite a whole lot more. From that point it is all subjection, but I would pay good money to see the speed and flair of Cristiano Ronaldo, the genuine ease at which Usain Bolt dominates and the powerful craft of Lebron James in full flow.
Perhaps it is because I’ve never been very fast, or good enough at football or tall enough for basketball but for me personally, there is one man who stands out amongst them all as the most electrifying man in sport at this moment and that is the Indian opener Virender Sehwag. He holds three of the four fastest double centuries in Test history, he recently hit over 200 runs in boundaries in one innings against Sri Lanka, and he has a Test strike rate over 80%. He has the second highest strike rate in ODI cricket (min 1000 runs) only behind, another man who has often compromised results for entertainment, Shahid Afridi. He has hit 5 of the 50 fastest ODI centuries of all time, and he has hit the most fours per innings of any ODI batsman (min 1000 runs).
But these are just numbers, when you open the batting for India and come out into the middle with the nation’s hope resting on your shoulders and still have the nerve and talent to knock any bowler out of the park and to single-handedly destroy an entire team it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. He has now reached that stage in a career, just as Usain Bolt, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lebron James have, where the public expect something to happen every time he steps out into the middle.
Ayrton Senna?
I don’t think F1 drivers, purely by the nature of the sport, can be electrifying.
Of course Senna was electrifying, just think of Montoya but with talent. As a spectator sport it is perhaps the most electrifying, the noise is incredible.
Gff
F1 has suspense and drama but electrifying is when you have frequent bursts of something incredible i.e. sehwag hitting six after six.
There’s no real opportunity for this in F1.
Overtaking was a more common event in 15-25 years ago, manual gear shifts meant more room for driver error and more opportunities. Aggresive lines had an element of true danger.
Being electrifying can come from clutch moments too, fast lap after fast lap before a pitstop as Schumacher did. The nature of qualifying lends itself to these clutch moments aswell.
When the weather turns and it starts to rain there are more opportunities created. It is a matter of style and Senna had an aggresive, exciting driving style.