The Copy Cats

This morning I read the interview of Ishant Sharma in cricinfo. He said “I was trying to copy Zaheer Khan's action. No doubt he is a great bowler, but I guess I shouldn't have tried to copy his action”. Ishanth realized his mistake and fixed it. Now he is back at his best for India.

Ironically Sanjay Manjrekar tweeted his followers to name few look-a-likes with similar batting or bowling style like that of Brian Lara and Darren Bravo. He must have received tons of replies including yours truly of which he filtered to re-tweet some.

Curtly Ambrose & Cameroon Cuffy, Saqlain Mushtaq & Shoaib Malik, Waqar Younis & Pushpakumara, Azhar & VVS Laxman, Mcgrath & Salvi are to name the few. For the benefit of this article let’s call them Original and Duplicates. I know Duplicate is a poor choice of word that defames the successor’s effort to emulate his idol not just to play the sport but to impersonate in style as well.

How often the Duplicates succeed?

Now you know where I’m leading you to. It is a true honor for the idol considering the amount of impact and influence he had on his follower. Does the duplicate benefit? I’m not entirely sure about it. In the above examples except for VVS Laxman don’t really remember the others really making an impact as big as the original.

Basically seeking inspiration and turning copy cats are two different subjects. I bet most of the current generation cricketers who lifted bat sought inspiration after Sachin Tendulkar. However all those who succeeded after Tendulkar kept their identity intact but let the inspiration part still continue.

The moment somebody start mimicking their idol, they quickly catch the imagination of public. After all, they easily remind our beloved heroes and force us to develop a special affinity on them. After a time the love and expectation turn huge burden on their shoulders and in the end many succumb to it only to fade away in no time. Finally they let themselves down on falling for the legend.

Thankfully Laxman prevailed and I wish Bravo too for the amount of talent he is blessed with.

Bottom line: Become what you want for what you are. Chances are good that you will succeed more often than not.

Dinesh

Cricket Lover