Is There Anything Common between Tour de France, 1989 and India-England Cricket Series, 2025?

                                                                                   Is There Anything Common between 

Tour de France, 1989 and India-England Cricket Series, 2025?

Disclaimer: The team has no connection to India, the country. If BCCI had a banner at all, the match would have been played under that. Yet, in this post, I am going to refer to “Indian team”, by which I do not mean the team had anything to do with the government.

The few people who visit this space may not have even heard of the first of the two competitions−Tour de France. Bicycling is a huge sport in Europe. It is not an individual sport. That must shock you. What does it mean to say that cycling is not an individual sport? Is it a team sport? Yes, there is a team and it works to make and help its designated leader win an event. 

A designated rider of a team provides the slipstream in which that team leader rides, reducing the resistance he faces (now, tell me that this cannot be explained by fluid mechanics!). It is such a huge sport that even your Donald J. Trump was taken in by it, and designed a tour around his significant girth to rival the tour of France, and called it−upon a suggestion from someone, Tour de Trump, yes, he really did. This tour ran for two years, was then named after a business, and wound up a few years later. Trump or anything named after him cannot last beyond eight years!

Jumping to test cricket, the final cricket match of the India-England Cricket series, 2025would be quoted for a number of decades to come. You do not expect India to pull up their socks and fight when only the dirge remained to be played, but that was exactly what they did. India fought−indeed, took the fight to England− and how! The match remained a nail-biter for the entire period it was played on the fifth morning.

After scoring a total of 620 runs in their allotted two innings, they got England out twice for atotal of 614 runs in their two innings. India won by six runs. In percentage terms, the difference is 0.972% (you can get this number by dividing six by half the sum of the totals in two innings of both the teams); that is, 6 x 2 / (620+614) = 0.00972. 

Yes, over five days, that is a close shave. The only way to have a closer shave is for the match to have ended in a tie (no wickets remaining for the batting side) and the total runs even and all the balls allowed have been delivered.

Now, let me turn your attention to the 1989 edition of Tour de France. Laurent Fignon of France−the local hero−was pipped at the post by the American Greg LeMond. At the end of the penultimate day, the Frenchman led the American by 50 seconds which, folklore says, was an insurmountable lead. But, the Gods were with the American.

Bucking tradition, the last leg was an individual time trial, mano-a-mano. LeMond covered the distance in 26 minutes and 57 seconds (average speed – 54.4 kmph). LeMond used appropriate technology including an aerodynamic helmet, while Fignon went helmetless. The latter had saddle sore (an after-the-fact excuse? I do not know). Fignon used up 58 seconds more, eight seconds more than the lead he had going into the last stage. Hence, the victory by eight seconds for LeMond. Eight seconds for six runs, the exchange rate!

This makes the two events and results comparable, in that I had my fists turn red by clenching the arms of the chair I was sitting on in one, punching the couch cushions in the other. I did not have any skin, either in the Tour de France 1989 or the cricket match, India v. England that ended on August 4th, 2025.

The cricket tour was overly long, 46 days, and Tour de France 1989, must have been around half that. No comparison, though, except that the events, even if only on TV, were paisa vasool!

Raghuram Ekambaram