NEW DELHI: Pep Guardiola’s era in Barcelona is widely documented. One of the revelations he made before joining Bayern Munich was on the lines of, “I left Barca because I could not motivate the players and myself anymore. 14 trophies in four years, it was the best period in the club’s history. I progressively encountered difficulties in motivating myself and the team.
I had won everything with Barca, both as a player and as a coach. And I realised that it was getting more and more difficult for the team.”
Of course one doesn’t end up being an athlete if there is no motivation. It comes at different levels. Playing for the country, watching the national flag hoisted, singing the national anthem are important in lifting motivation levels.
But when success chases you, pundits sing your praise and an athlete gets into that “I don’t need to prove anything” mode, it can be hard to find motivation.
This is why many marvel at some of the legends across sports, the way they keep the motivation going to lift themselves to another level. It is a never-ending pursuit, where one is focussed only on raising his game. We have seen it with Sachin Tendulkar, who pushed himself day in and day out throughout his 24-year career, but never felt he had done enough.
To call Virat Kohli a legend might and should sound stupid. He is definitely on the way to greatness — may be already there in ODIs – but in Test cricket, probably he has just taken the first few steps towards becoming a great. Seventeen months, 22 matches and six double centuries to go with three centuries is a superlative effort, forget the opposition and conditions.
And his latest — 243 at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium — puts him in an elite club of batsmen with two successive double hundreds. He also became the only skipper to score six 200-plus scores. To put things in perspective, no India captain has managed more than two in that capacity and the list includes the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Until Dhoni arrived, pressure often got the better of India captains, leading to dip in form. Though Dhoni was unique, Kohli has taken it forward by emerging as one who is always ready to take challenges head on. The desire to keep getting better is hard to sustain and Kohli seems to have a special liking for that. He bettered his personal best for the 14th time on Sunday. A triple was on the cards, before disruptions caused a break in concentration.
When he took guard on another typical winter morning at his home ground, Kohli looked ready to reach the landmark, touched previously by only two Indians. Despite signs of back strain, he stay put without going for anything extraordinary. During his stay of 430 minutes and 286 deliveries, not a single ball troubled him and he was beaten once, when he failed to connect Suranga Lakmal soon after reaching 200. But the 287th delivery, which came in the middle of the pollution saga that probably disturbed his rhythm, got him. Maybe there is motivation for him in that as well, to overtake his highest score in whites at least once more.
venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com