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Follow a star (or maybe not)

I'm a big fan of Rob Steen's writing (and envious of his career as a writer and sports journalism lecturer ;-)) and his latest piece on Cricinfo illustrates the mix of cricketing insight and screenplay style writing that is his hallmark. This particular segment I identified with very much -


"There's something almost shamefully proprietorial about this sort of affection. Even if you aren't the first to discover the wonders of a musician, a band, an actor, writer or sportsman, catch them in the first flush of fruition and they have a stake in your heart - and you an emotional stake in their future. You urge them up the charts or bestseller lists, rejoice in every goal, run or ace, ache at every duck or double-fault, each success a dose of self-affirmation, every failure a gobful of humble pie."


I've found this to be true across sports for me, whether it was Carl Hooper, Steve Waugh, Frankie Fredericks, Roberto Donadoni and Richard Krajicek back in the late 80s/early 90s when I started to follow sports or (in more recent years) guys like Juan Martin Del Potro, Kaka, Irfan Pathan, and JP Duminy....

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