 Hello and let's talk about the pressures faced by sports persons. Yesterday in a shocking incident, tennis world number one Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the US Open after hitting a line umpire with a tennis ball. Djokovic was expressing frustration and missing three points in a row, but he ended up hitting the ball of the umpire and hurting her by mistake. Nonetheless, it was a violation of the rules and he was disqualified with the broad consensus of experts being that the punishment was justified. The tennis star has had a rough couple of months starting with the charity tour he promoted which saw COVID-19 outbreak and then debates over the starting of a new organization for male tennis players. And he's not alone. Across the world sports persons are facing a new phase of uncertainty. We saw reflections of the same in the IPL when Suresh Ryan had left the tournament saying that he wanted to be with his family, but soon faced allegations from his own team and then of course, and these are of course top-ranked players and what happens to those in the middle and bottom ranks? What are the kind of pressures they face? We talked to Leslie Xavier on these issues. Thank you Leslie for joining us. So we've seen what has happened yesterday at the US Open. Djokovic was asked he has been basically disqualified due to after hitting the ball and hurting an official and obviously he's apologized and everyone understands that this was definitely a mistake. But it does throw into question the larger issues that players are facing in various sports. We've had instances of Suresh Ryan recently also there's been a lot of discussion about other sports persons, how they're coping in terms of the pandemic, how say what does even sport mean at this point of time, how are they kind of facing these challenges? So could you sort of talk, what are your reflections on what happened yesterday of course, but also in general? Djokovic's reaction to losing a point of course, it's I mean by the rules of tennis or generally by the yardsticks or the guidelines that you have put across for sports persons, how the sports persons should behave on the playing field, it's wrong. And US Open officials have stuck by the rules to punish him to disqualify him from the match and forfeit basically that's the technical term that they use. And so, but there is a larger question at play that comes to mind when we look at the entire episode. So it's of course, the circumstances are extraordinary, the pandemic and there was shut down uncertainty around every sport. And then tennis is restarting, tennis is relatively new as far as we start is concerned because football and other sport have come out and I mean the balance matches that were supposed to be staged last year were finished and then the new season is starting as far as football is concerned, professional football cricket is started, IPL is gonna start across America, professional sport had started, but they stopped when the players refused to play, standing up for the Black Lives Matter movement, which is great in itself to see the players standing in solidarity against racial discrimination and saying that we won't play. So the entire world, sporting world, I mean the entire world is in turn, there's no doubt about it, but the sporting world is also going through a bit of a turmoil as far as existence and related insecurities of lockdowns and carriers and all are concerned. At the same time, they are also trying to figure out what exactly is the future for sport in a way, what exactly should be the set up, how the professional world should progress in the sporting realm. On that regard, Djokovic as a larger say in tennis because he is the head of the players union and before the start of the US Open, he convened and he formed a men's tennis players association, men's only. So which has attracted criticism as well, some of the top players including Roger Ferrer and Rafael Nader, doesn't want to be part of that group. And so there is some kind of politics happening over there. And as far as on the personal friend, Djokovic has come out of I mean he was tested COVID-19 positive after that ill-fated charity tour that he conducted in Serbia and Croatia and in June and that also attracted a lot of criticism whatever the intention of Djokovic and the group of and fellow tennis players were to conduct that tour. It all got lost in the eventual outcome that many got infected. So in all this, a lot of turning happening and you come into the biggest tournament post lockdown, US Open and he also is protecting his own personal unbeaten streak and he's world number one. He's expected to win all the matches at the same time. There is a lot of criticism around what he's trying to do in tennis outside of the court and you've got to give it to, I mean after all he's human. So that is where this, that is the biggest reflection that I have in this that we fail to understand that these professional athletes are also humans. We have professional sport has dehumanized athletes to such an extent that when this occasion like Djokovic bursting out then we talk about the rules and we talk about how correct it is and how players should behave on court. But at the same time we forget that there are many factors that could be at play and one of the factors that's least taken into account by any sporting organisers these days post COVID is the mind factor what the players go through when they are fighting many insecurities on many friends and at the same time they have to also soak in the pressures that is associated with performing at the IS level. So yeah in this context even talking about the IPL is pretty instructive because there's been a lot of uncertainty around it. We saw what happened to Suresh Raina, we saw Harbaz and Singh leaving and these are of course all top-run players, players who are you know very famous in the country and even there we have issues of say players facing that kind of pressure when they just don't necessarily want to play. So the whole, so it's actually the machine element of it is so prominent, the machine element of the system seems so prominent today in various aspects. Yeah so IPL is a classic, Suresh Raina's incident which was transcribed last week and unfortunately in trend again I would say it's a classic example of this and so and it also proves that I mean this this cuts across sport, across professional sport the dehumanization aspect. So when Raina expressed his concern and whatever be the personal reasons that he would want to not be part of the ongoing season and they would want to return to the country, what the team does, I mean I I mean so that's the whole idea that a team the word team in itself signifies that it's supposed to be a support structure, build a support structure around the individual players and then all these individual players will contribute towards the success of the team, that's the ideal model as I said. But in IPL, in CSK the most successful IPL team ever, they chose to target the player for deciding to be with this family in the time of crisis and how did they do that? They tried to twist the narrative around Raina being picky and choosy about the kind of room that you would prefer staying in. Also they tried to build a narrative saying that he had a problem with MS Dhoni. Many and also a court, I mean a sources based report came out and we know how these things work, they're all I mean so saying that Raina jumped protocol, I mean broke protocol and that created a problem so the club decided to send him back. So they tried, they made the picture murky much like any of the things that happen across political realms or any other where making things murky actually helps people get away with it. But the larger picture was that you are conducting a tournament in the times of pandemic, you have uprooted a lot of players across the cricket playing world to the UAE and you are putting them in an eco bubble in the middle of the desert and then you're expecting that they would come out and play cricket but then you are not taking it to the aspect that you have to also nurture these players and ensure that they are all happy in their own own ways. And it's as simple as that when we say that we have 15 member squad or 11 member playing 11, I mean playing team, we can't take care of each and everyone know you have to because that's how team sport works. That's why it's called a squad. So you may have the psychologists in the team but when a player needs that psychologist or when the player needs the management to support him for making a certain personal decision, you just fail the player and then you further try to criminalize him or demonize him for being himself or being true to his calling or true to being, I mean we always say that psychological issues we should come out be open about it and all that when someone was open about it about his insecurity about feeling unsafe, you will start criticizing him. And so that's the IPL's case. So IPL, I mean it's a very tricky situation now because Harbhajan Singh for instance, again a former India player, he has decided, he has not yet traveled and he's part of CSK again and he is is pretty, I mean he's going to a bit of a turmoil, that's what reports suggest that whether he should go because he has in safety concern is primary. And so that narrative is completely subdued and the organizers are hoping that once the matches start and all these fireworks and all the glitz and glamour comes in all the centuries, sixes and all that, then people will forget that aspect that there is something that playing around on the side. I just hope that the players remain safe, all the people involved in the IPL remain safe but at the same time, I also hope that the truth comes out whatever because eco bubble shouldn't be the case that they are using the quarantine to actually completely quarantine news and reality and truth that is happening within that system. And like you just talked about the interesting aspect here is that these are all prominent players, these are powerful players who actually have a lot of money, who have a lot of influence. So you can imagine the situation in the, say even the less prominent players in these teams or even in other rungs of the sports, the junior levels or what do you call, sub national levels, where players probably who are far more dependent on the sport and the system for their earning, for their career basically would have absolutely no same in any of these matches. Yeah, so in our times the biggest sports person is, I mean there's no arguably to it, I mean it's Lionel Messi. So I mean we know in the last 10 days what has transpired in Barcelona between Lionel Messi and the Barcelona team management. So he expressed his desire to leave the club because he had problems with the management, he also, I mean whatever the x, y, z reason was initially when he expressed with the facts and then everything was turned around the factor that the discussion points varies, contract the validity of his exit clause, the money involved, who would buy, where would he want to go, why is he leaving, will he join Pep Guardiola in Man City. Many aspects of the incidents that are that was that was transpiring except the aspect that Lionel Messi is a man, he's a father, he has a family and he is also someone who is intrinsically connected with Barcelona, the city as well as the club because he grew up there, the club made him what he is and when Lionel Messi finally decided that he would stay in Barcelona, the first interview that he gave clarifying his stance why he decided so he openly, I mean he was, he presented the other side, he said that my son was, he came to know about it, he tried to protect his son from whatever that was happening in the media around and it was crazy, we can imagine what was happening in the speculations, the criticism, the supporting articles and someone will be trying you, someone supporting you, things like that happening around and then suddenly his family realizes it, his young son realizes it and he said that don't leave Barcelona. So again, will a professional let his son decide what his future should be in the game, well that's a personal choice, I mean there are many choices that we make in life and of course family matters of course because if Lionel Messi shifts to England as a theoretical situation, will he be able to play properly if he knowing that his family and the immediate friends and circle are not there or are unhappy about it, it may not work for him, so all these factors are important so but those are not taken into consideration, when he came out and said that these are my factors, again there was criticism saying that you are doubting whether that's actually the case or whether he was just throwing a tantrum and then he's staying put and things like that, so that is Lionel Messi for you, the biggest footballer, biggest sportsperson of the era and then the others, the lower ranked sportspersons, they don't have a choice so for instance when getting back to IPL now in that CSK rank, apart from Dhoni and Raina and the big stars even Arvijan, there are many players who are up and coming who would not, I mean even if they are insecure they will hide it, they wouldn't even probably, I mean the sporting setup works, how is that, you are as a sportsperson you are expected to display a lot of alpha qualities and showing a weaker mental side is not exactly considered an alpha quality and so even if the team as a psychologist would have tremendous amount of trouble to break into the psyche of the player to make him reveal what is exactly bothering you and it could be many factors and the smaller players, the younger players would be the least inclined to open up about it and they would suffer obviously and so long term what would be the implications on the psyche on their careers, it's, I mean we'll have to wait and watch about it but immediately, I mean things that would happen is deep in performances and which would at a larger level affect their careers beyond, I mean it could affect their careers beyond repair and on a general sense the well-being of that player of that individual and his immediate circle of family and all will also be jeopardized by such approach. Thank you so much Desi for talking to us on these issues. That's all we have time for today, we'll be back tomorrow with more news developments from the country and the world, until then keep watching NewsClick.