Superstitions in Sports
Most of us in this day and age still believe in our own handful of superstitions, no matter how many times you deny the assertion. It is us who subconsciously utter "You'll live a long life!" to a person who shows up right when we were discussing about them and believe that spending the first day of New Year well will make the rest of the year a little less sad. Lacking of any logical explanations, superstitions are nothing but mere remains of clichéd habits.
Whether you are a believer or not, chances are that you hold at least one superstition close to your heart. Once in a while, I give second thoughts about stepping over someone or get ecstatic when I spot butterflies in my house. Even though I know it won't bring anything significant, I still feel inclined to believe the old wives' tale because it feels like an unrealistically interesting part of our lives.
Being a sports lover, there are a few superstitions in sports that I can't help but consider. If you have ever scrutinized cricket players, you will notice that numbers make an important part of the game. Many sportsmen like to have lucky numbers on their jerseys, and admit it, the presence of a lucky number does feel really soothing. Don't call me superstitious – seven is truly the most significant number. There are seven days in a week, seven continents and seven colours of the rainbow. Snow White lived with seven dwarfs and Ginny Weasley is the seventh child of the Weasley family.
Many cricketers are also known to believe that padding a particular leg before the other brings good luck, such as Sachin Tendulkar, who always padded his left leg before the right one. Carrying things like a favorite bat and lucky objects are also widespread. Steve Waugh always carried a red handkerchief. As of footballers, I have never seen Cristiano Ronaldo step onto the pitch with his left foot first. Believing in superstitions is considered fine unless you are shoving it down anyone else's throat or making it a completely preposterous issue. Barry Fry, former Birmingham City, would urinate on four corners of the pitch to "ward off evil spirits".
Pele once sent a friend to retrieve a shirt he gave to a fan because he thought the new shirt was causing him to perform badly and the friend found it and gave it back to him. His form instantly recovered. However, there is a devilish twist at the end—the friend had lied about finding the shirt and instead had handed him the same shirt he was playing badly in. The fact that Pele believed he had gotten back his lucky shirt caused him to perform better! Some superstitions give us confidence, and we tend to stick to them in the long run. Only if we believe more in ourselves, we can achieve greater success in life.
Zarin Rayhana is a self-aggrandizing ambivert who ponders over philosophical epiphanies during rainy evenings and waits for her crush to jump straight out of her favorite novel. Treat her with novel suggestions at ericaavianazarin@gmail.com
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