Posted by Quite often we hear this phrase-“To achieve success, one needs to have 50% pain, 5% pleasure, 15% concentration, 20% skill and 10% of luck.” In this fast paced and competitive world, the statement holds true, especially the factor of luck. To get hold of this factor, people need to be confident and to achieve this they rely on superstitions. It doesn’t really matter if they provide the desired result, but it does appease the mind.
This is predominantly followed in India. Some of them include praying to god before an important occasion, wearing the same shirt on the day of exam (I used to do this during my college days), using your favorite pen, not cutting your nails or hair on Tuesdays and so on.
When it comes to a game like cricket, the situation is no different. Remember the days, when you were watching cricket with your friends. Each time when one of them changes his seating position, you would have witnessed a fall of wicket. If your favorite team is batting, you wouldn’t allow him to do that.
Not just the audience but the players too follow them. After giving their 100% on the field, they do rely on the factor called “luck”. Let’s look at some of the weird superstition incidents which turned the game in cricketer’s favor:
Sachin Tendulkar didn’t watch the 2011 World Cup final
Yes! You read that right. But he did play the final isn’t it? After nicking the ball to the keeper, a disappointed Sachin went back to the pavilion and isolated himself from the rest of the players except Sehwag. Instead of watching the game from the pavilion, he kept on getting updates from Sehwag. He joined his other teammates only after that match winning six. In an earlier game, Sachin did the same thing by keeping his head down and listening to scores from Sehwag and it worked out. Because of this luck, Sachin tried it again in the finals and it worked out.
Sorry Boost but Malaysian Food is the secret of Sachin’s energy
An other interesting incident related to Sachin. It was during India’s tour of Australia back in 2004, where Sachin was scoring 20-30 odd runs but was not able to score big ones. One evening at Sydney, Sachin along with Ajit Agarkar went to a Malaysian restaurant. The next day Sachin scored some 60 odd runs. Since he saw an improvement in his batting, he persuaded Agarkar to join with him for dinner in the same restaurant by ordering the same dish and at the same spot. He went on to score a double hundred on the next day of play (Remember his 241* against Australia). He didn’t want to break that routine. So he went to the same restaurant again along with Agarkar by sitting in the same spot and ordered the same dish. The hotel waiter was like “Nice! You seem to like our restaurant and food.”
Gautam Gambhir’s love for his pads in the Indian Premier League
After winning the title for Kolkata Knight Riders in the 5th edition of the tournament, Gambhir confessed that he used to wear his pads till the end of the game, even after he gets out. This was a superstition followed by him. During a match, he once removed his pads after getting out and his side lost the game. If you had watched him closely in the IPL, we would have seen Gambhir with a tensed look on his face in the dug out with his pads on.
Steve Smith hiding his shoe laces
Currently, Steve Smith is rated as one of the top batsmen. During an interview, he credited his performance to his superstition. It all started in the Indian Premier league while playing for Pune Supergiants. Due to shorter pants of Pune jersey, he had issues with looking at his shoe laces while batting. During a match, he hid his shoe laces in his socks and came to bat and went on to score a hundred. The Aussie skipper started to use this technique in international matches as well. Now look where he is?
Also many players have their date of birth as their jersey numbers like Yuvraj and Dhoni. The list goes on. Whether superstitions really work or not; or how talented a person is, they do need a factor of luck.
Are these mere coincidences? Does following superstition provide a good result? Do leave your comments below.
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