All the talk about Argentine striker (club: Barcelona) Lionel Messi being the 'Messiah' after last week's Champions League final led me to think more on 'geniuses in sports' -
List A: Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Ryan Giggs, Vishwanathan Anand
List B: John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Shane Warne, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Gary Kasparov
What's your perception after going through the above two lists? (which are certainly not exhaustive)
Genius has two sides to it. And both are equally marvellous. There is the refined genius which follows rules, adheres to systems and is the ideal role model. Then there is the maverick who in some ways is unpredictable, bohemian and brash but is an equally good master as his saner counterpart.
The root cause of how a genius turns out is probably a function of genetics and social conditioning both. Disturbed childhoods, traumatic experiences and a host of other factors might move a conventional genius into being a maverick.
PS: For all my money's worth, I couldn't figure out where to place Sourav Ganguly. Where would you add him?
Sourav Ganguly probably falls into a category of immensely talented people who were victims of circumstance - be it imposed-upon or self-imposed. Immense talent, with the good companionship of sanity, but unusual behavior when confronted with challenging circumstance off-field. On field, mind you, he is still one of the best players and captains ever.
ReplyDeleteSo if you ask me, I will put him in the first list. Definitely.
Ricky Ponting, on the other hand, is definitely a part of List B.Superstar there.