Five Moments in Time - Part II

Putting down the remaining three moments posed a bit of a challenge. Why not expand it to six or seven, I asked myself, if it's so difficult to choose. But five will be five, no more, no less. As I've been spending late nights on germany 2006 over the last week or so, it seems appropriate to resume with one of my earlier football memories.

3. Stoichkov breaking the German Wall - USA 94

Now this is an odd one. Since USA '94 was my first taste of football on TV, I guess I'll always recall it with more fondness than usual. Again for reasons possibly similar to new Zealand 92, Bulgaria was the team which captured my imagination. Allied to this was an inexplicable desire to see the Germans (then the defending champions) knocked out. And so it happened. After the Germans took the lead early in the second half through a Matthaus penalty, the Bulgarians earn a vital free kick. That entire legion of German stars, Bremhe Moller Kohler Hassler Voller et al, make up a pretty formidable wall. In a few haunting seconds, that lethal left foot of Hristo Stoichkov sends the ball curling above the great wall, and beats Bodo Illgner for the equaliser. The balding Letchkov heads Bulgaria home later in the match. However at the time, the free kick equaliser to me seemed about as earth shattering as the breaking down of the Berlin Wall would have been.

Bulgaria's dream ended in the semis when Roberto Baggio and a French referee snuffed them out. Since then, it's been pretty hard being a Bulgarian fan. Whom do i support now? Not the Germans certainly, but the Italians perhaps? My loyalties for Germany 2006 were with the Dutch, who were eliminated last night in a bar-room brawl of a game against Portugal. Sometimes I think it would be a lot simpler supporting a heavyweight. Not being one myself, that would actually take some effort.

4. Ayrton Senna's death - San Marino 1994

Clarifications: a) I'm not an F1 freak. Of late, I've been watching about one race per season.
b) I did not see this race.

I saw the highlights (or lowlights, rather) much later, when Senna's death was all over the news. Around that time, I knew only five drivers existed. Senna, Prost, Damon Hill, Nigel Mansell (with the David Boon moustache; legends, them both), and a pretender I knew as Michael 'Shoemaker'. Beyond driving several many miles in a loop at lightning speed, i couldn't care less what the sport was about. But hearing about the death this guy sure as hell shocked me. Seeing the Brazillian football team dedicate their title to him later in the year just added to this chapter. There's not much else I can say about it; no major details to recall. It just hit me hard at the time, that's all.

5. A tie between a) Tendulkar's Perth century in 1992
b) Hearing West Indies' one run victory over Aus, Adelaide 1993 , on radio

These two occasions really fuelled my interest in test cricket. Obviously I began following cricket with the notion that ODIs were the more attractive form of the game. Along the way, I found out I was wrong quite often. I would still maintain the best ever Sachin century, even better than the losing cause against Pakistan at calcutta '99, was his Perth effort in '92. He had already scored a century earlier in the series at Sydney; that one paled in comparison to this effort on a bouncy WACA strip, putting the likes of Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes, Mike whitney and Paul Reiffel to the sword. Like Calcutta, and several other times, it was a losing cause. Attacking sport at its best; a short eighteen year old with the blue-and-red power labelled bat belting the quicks all around the wicket. At the end of it, i can vividly recall, big Merv comes up to Sachin, the newbie about half his size and half his age, and congratulates him. He says something along the lines of, 'I tried all I could to get you out, but I just couldn't.' Let's just say Australia would, in the years to come, see a lot more ofSachin than they'd bargain for.

The Adelaide test mentioned above was the first of the few matches I've heard on radio. Archaic as it may seem, there was of course no TV coverage of the games down under, so dad and I tuned in to ABC radio for the final day which saw Australia needing 186 to win. A totally different world, listening to the voices of McGilvray, Jim Maxwell and others on the radio, giving us the ball by ball description. Of course, it was thrilling test cricket all the way: Australia, up against Ambrose and Walsh, collapse to 7-75. Then a debutant called Justin Langer leads a brave fightback, making 54 and in the process being felled by an Ian bishop bouncer. Langer is the ninth out at 144 and things look wrapped up. McDermott and May then defy the Windies, inching their way closer to the target. As the runs required is reduced to ten, we sit in the balcony, holding our breaths, chewing our nails and all that blah which is otherwise associated with the artificial excitement of a one day game. Two runs to win. Have the Aussies engineered a great escape? 184 for 9. Walsh to McDermott.... he finds the edge....Murray holds the catch...it's all over...west Indies have won by a whisker....

A thrilling experience, hearing this one live on radio. Whoever likened oneday cricket to junkfood and test cricket to a full-on, four course genuine meal (I think it was Tony Greig) was dead right.

There are several others which could've made my list. Greg Louganis claiming the diving gold at the 1988 Olympics after hitting the springboard was, well, inspirational (In spite of which, I never learnt to swim). Jana Novotna weeping after her loss to Graf at Wimbledon '93, and even Hakeem Olajuwon taking the Houston Rockets to the NBA championship in 1995 (that was the start of my brief tryst with the NBA, which I stopped following after the Spurs won in 1999). And, if only I had been around to see Muhammad Ali reclaim the world heavyweight title in the Rumble in the Jungle clash....

That was another time. That was another moment.