When an Indian won British hearts

Sanjay Suri

You could be excused, if you are Indian anyway, of seeing more than tennis in the match Arvind Parmar lost at Wimbledon on Thursday.

Talking tennis for a moment, Parmar won the first set but lost the next three to Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, as he went down 7-6, 3-6, 3-6, 1-6.

Kafelnikov is the seventh seed while Parmar is ranked 197th. But that did not show until the very end of the last set in which Parmar wilted.

Parmar played two opponents -- Kafelnikov, and increasingly through the match, fatigue. That's always been a problem. Last year he collapsed during a game in Australia. Now, at Wimbledon, he had overcome fatigue in an earlier match on Tuesday to win in five sets against Brazilian Andre Sa. Against Kafelnikov, his game fell apart in the last set, and faced with the fatigued Parmar, the Russian looked better and better till he walked home past the net.

But it did not look like a contest between the 197th and the seventh seed in the first set that Parmar won 7-6. Or in the third set, where Parmar got three breaks points at 1-1. He was in a position to land winning shots, and then failed. It seemed to break Parmar that he could not break those serves. He gave away the fourth.

That Parmar, who had suffered severe cramps on court two days back, was up against himself was perhaps a part of tennis too. But there was a sort of beautiful relationship through the match between Parmar and the crowds that went beyond the game.

Parmar is British, of course, but of Gujarati parentage. British Asian as he would most likely be called in Britain. British fans filled the seats at Court 2 where Parmar played Kafelnikov. The Union Jack, the sign of St. George, the patron saint of England, were all over the stands as this Gujarati wore England’s colours.

Every point he scored was a point for England. In that third set a lot of England lived and died with him through those three break points where he could not break through. It seemed quite natural on Court 2 to see the English cheering Parmar with every point. It was great that it seemed so natural. Because when you think of it, it’s not every day that you see the English applauding an Indian hero.

Parmar, like a million others, is British by nationality but Indian by ethnicity. British they are, but it is usual to call them Indian, unless unusually, they are playing for England. But by his ethnicity, Parmar was playing yet another game: one of trying to win acceptability as people British in every sense.

That effort comes during difficult days. Race riots in Bradford, then Burnley in north England. Rising racial violence everywhere, rapidly rising reports of racial prejudice expressed in ways subtle and not so subtle. To see Parmar play for England and being cheered by the English was a point - and not a small one - for the kind of England its best want it to be.

Those cheers were cheers that went beyond tennis. If one day Parmar or someone like him, someone that looks like him that is, can win it for England, it would be so much more than a game won.