Ali Greatest?

Any sports, all right, most sports including chess is 40 years starting perhaps in the teens. Great, greater, greatest is all of 40 years. Never saw Ali live on TV; seen videos. Heard and read of him. Reading Ali's death on Facebook, realised a butterfly has fallen off, a talking bee was no more. He titled himself the Greatest. And then the world latched on to call him the Greatest. A tiny doubt: Was he the greatest boxer or the greatest sportsman, politically inspired sportsman, refusing the Vietnam war?  Declining to take part in the Vietnam war needed conviction and courage. Ali had both. It is like refusing in today's India to dislike Pakistan, appreciating their artists, their music, their cricket and their men and women. For our Left, Ali is superlative being anti-American; he would not have been if he had condemned Chinese attack on Tibet or a Russia swallowing Hungary. Jonathan Selvaraj in today's The Indian Express adds a rare, much needed perspective: 'And yes, while Ali may have been more than the sum of his athletic gifts, his greatness nevertheless drew from his achievements in the ring itself. On the basis of pure numbers though, it seems hard claim to justify. Sugar Ray Robinson (173-19-6) had far more wins. Other fighters had perfect records. Heavyweight Rocky Marciano (49-0) never lost a fight. Yet Ali (56-5-0) can still legitimately be considered if not the greatest boxer of them all, arguably (Joe Louis being the other alternative), the greatest heavyweight.' He sure was a fine boxer and as every country in the world boxes, the world knows him. Perhaps, football, every country kicks a ball on greens, is an inch taller than boxing and in that game there is nothing better than Pele. The world does know him. He is non-white. Brazil born, his country never fought anyone; only gets ripped by US. Good friend, K. Bhaskaran, the football correspondent of The Times, taught me football and Pele. Yes, Pele, played a team game; boxing is a loner game; a Brazilian forward line made Pele; but that does not hold for Argentine Maradona; Argentina had one world class player, Maradona; and he did everything, dribble the ball to the post and score; in between he fiddled the ball with his hand; won the World Cup. Pele and Maradona could be on the same rack with Ali. Non-whites have been the greatest in most sports: Michael Jordan in basketball and frankly Usain Bolt in athletics. Take out the African-Americans, there is no sportsmen or sportswomen in US; slipped on Tiger Woods in golf, an all-white preserve. Superlative of great is greatest and great is top class. To be fair Ali, Pele, Maradona, Woods, Bolt ... greats. Greatest? None. That could be an end to all sports, all sports.