The greatest fallacy ~ Malinda Words

During the third session of the first day of a test match in Melbourne between Australia and the West Indies, history was made. It was the 6th Test (which Australia would go on to win and complete a satisfying 5-1 series win).

The historic moment unfolded in this way. Lance Richard Gibbs, right arm off break bowler, playing in his 79th and final test, had Ian Redpath caught by Michael Holding, then just 18 years old and playing in his maiden test series, for 101. It was Gibbs’ 308th test wicket. With it he surpassed the record set by Frederick Sewards Trueman more than ten years earlier.

I haven’t dug into the newspaper archives of that time, but I am sure there would have been talk of him being the greatest spinner if not the greatest bowler ever. After all, Derek Underwood (slow left-arm orthodox), who ended with 297 test wickets (in 1982) would have been far behind when Gibbs reached 309. Richie Benaud, who retired in 1964 had just 248 test wickets to his name.

Richard Hadlee (431), Imran Khan (362), Dennis Lillee (355) and Bob Willis (325), all fast bowlers were in the early stages of their respective careers and would probably have had quite a ways to go to get to 309.

Morne Morkel did get to 309 but that was in 2018. Thirty other bowlers have surpassed Gibbs since. Of them, only seven are spinners: Daniel Vettori (362), Harbhajan Singh (417), Rangana Herath (433), Ravichandra Ashwin (474), Anil Kumble (619), Shane Warne (708) and Muttiah Muralitharan (800).

Warne and Murali approached the (then) magical number 500 at a time Sri Lanka hosted the Australians in a three-test series. I remember Warne saying something along the following lines: ‘if someone reaches 500 in this series, his team would probably win the series.’ Warne did and Australia took the series. No one talked about Gibbs at the time. No one talks about Gibbs today either.

This is the fate of all those who have had ‘The Greatest’ tag pinned on them or, as in the case of the young Muhammed Ali, pinned it on themselves. Time passes. Records are broken. Others approach, reach and surpass.

Ten years ago who would have thought that three tennis players would win twenty plus grand slam tennis titles and, moreover, would be playing at the same time? Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer: all of them have been talked of as the ‘Greatest of All Time’ or as The GOAT. John McEnroe had that tag as did Bjorn Borg. Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras won a spate of titles in the 1990s. In the women’s circuit we’e had Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Venus Williams (in the early days of her career) and of course Serena Williams in GOAT talk. Margaret Court too. Different eras though. Different rules. Different technology. Different pressures.

My friend, the late Sampath Agalawatta never got drawn into such debates although Royal College, under him, won all the rugby trophies on offer, a feat as yet unmatched. He simply said, ‘different rules, it’s now a different game.’

A few days ago, Novak Djokovic won the French Open and thereby broke a tie with Nadal for the most Grand Slam victories. He’s on 23 and counting, Roger Federer (20) having retired and an ageing Nadal (22) plagued by injuries. The GOAT question was laid to rest, most people said. It’s Novak, they said. And he was asked to comment.

 ‘I don't want to say that I am the greatest, because I feel, I've said it before, it is disrespectful towards all the great champions in different eras of our sport that was played in a completely different way than it is played today. So I feel like each great champion of his own generation has left a huge mark, a legacy, and paved the way for us to be able to play this sport [on] such a great stage worldwide.’

Garry Kasparov, World Chess Champion from 1985 to 2000 would have been considered ‘The Greatest Ever’ at some point. Bobby Fischer, Alexander Alekhein, J R Capablanca and even Anatoly Karpov have been likewise labeled. That tag has since been transferred to Magnus Carlson, World Champ from 2013 to 2023. Kasparov wrote a series of books, analysing the games of previous world champions. He titled them ‘My Great Predecessors.’ He was basically saying what Novak said. In a different language.

Novak said it straight. I can’t help but agree. Some may say it is misplaced modesty, but I think Novak was being honest. He, moreover, would know, since he played with two men also thought of as the greatest of all time. They were of his own generation.

Someone, one day, will surpass Novak Djokovic. For now he has laid to rest the GOAT debate in tennis, and not because he holds the record for the most number of grand slam titles.

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is a new series. Links to previous articles in this new series are given below]

15 June 2023

The greatest fallacy

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