Sport is not all about physical prowess and natural talent, there are other key ingredients that are required to reach the pinnacle; mental strength and intuition. Indeed it is this final trait which often sets apart the great from the good. However supremely talented and physically fit you are, if you’re lacking in the mental department and are mentally weak, then you’re destined to fail.
I’m not saying you need to be a straight A’s student to become a top sportsman, far from it, but dealing with the pressure of situations and coming up with the right solution for a problem is key to attaining success in the cut throat world of sport. Take football for example; if Lionel Messi choked when he received the ball he wouldn’t be the star he is, instead he sees passes and gaps which few of us can ever invisage. In the world of tennis people often claimed that it was Andy Murray’s mental frailty which prevented him from winning a Grand Slam, and to some extent the past twelve months have proved that theory right.
Ivan Lendl has transformed Murray’s mental attitude and improved the talented Scotsman as a player, helping him to finally clinch his first Grand Slam title at this year’s US Open. Yet it’d be unfair to brand the Murray of old as mentally frail; bearing the burden of a nation’s expectation on young shoulders must have been a metamorphic challenge for one young man. Now Murray’s mental strength can not be questioned, his ability to construct points and carve out winners is pure genius. But this article isn’t supposed to be about Andy Murray, but another sporting genius, one of the greatest sportsmen of all time, Shane Warne.
The Big Bash, Australia’s version of our domestic T20 competition and the IPL, may have passed largely under the sporting radar here in England, but today’s match between the Melbourne Stars and the Sydney Sixers proved truly captivating. Why you may say; the Stars eventually strolled to a comfortable 21 run victory, that doesn’t sound “captivating”.
Playing for the Melbourne Stars was a 43 year old Shane Warne; a man who is carrying more weight, and is less fit than in his prime and is now far from the bowler who used to strike fear into even the stoutest of batsmen. Yet the leg spinner still remains a cricketing genius; the body may have grown older but the mind is still as sharp as ever.
Warne was wired up on the microphone so he could talk to commentators Damien Fleming and Mark Waugh, and it was fascinating to listen to Warne talking through his bowling plans to his two former international teammates as he stood on his mark preparing to spin his web. Warne finished with figures of 2-32 from his four overs, nothing outstandingly special you may say, but both of his wickets on a relatively flat pitch came from him thinking out the batsman along with no little measure of skill.
His first victim opener Daniel Smith had just hit Warne for one boundary, and was well set on 32 with his side going well. The safe option would have been to dart a quicker ball in at the stumps as Warne had earlier done when bowling defensively during the powerplay overs, but instead he opted to offer more flight and tempt the batsman into another aggressive shot. Smith duly delivered and unleashed a powerful swing aimed at clearing the ropes, but as Warne had planned the ball gripped and turned slightly resulting in Smith miscuing his shot to David Hussey running in from deep mid wicket.
The wicket broke a key partnership and the Sixers never really recovered, Warne’s dismissal of the dangerous Moises Henriques pretty much sealing the contest. Again Warne set his plan, he knew the batsman favoured the slog sweep which he had already attempted once. So once more he flighted a leg break this time outside off stump which Henriques aimed a menacing swing at. But the ball gripped and turned finding the edge of the bat leading to the ball slicing up in the air for a simple catch.
No doubt Warne has bowled a better four overs in the past, and the critics will argue they were poor shots not cunning bowling which led to the dismissals, but it was a joy to watch a cricketing great outthink his opponents. He’d tell Waugh and Fleming what ball he was going to bowl, and then do exactly that. Of course not all of his plans came off, but it was clear that the genius still remains inside his mind. As I said the body may be aging, but the mind is still as sharp as ever. It’s that mental ability which made him the greatest leg spinner to ever grace the game.
Only in recent decades has the importance of the mental side of sport being realised and focused upon, with psychologists employed by the majority of top sporting institutions. These psychologists can help sportsmen become mentally strong, but they can’t teach someone to become a sporting genius; that is a natural talent which very few such as Warne possess.