With fame and achievements comes a great pressure, to carry those forward, to maintain own form and to improvise. One needs talent to attain worldwide accreditation and as some say, also a little dose of luck. But some take this little dose so seriously that they land up with odd habits.
Let’s see a list of weird superstitions from superstars from various sports –
CRICKET :
In cricket, a lot of people seem superstitious regarding their jersey number. Be it MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh or Virender Sehwag. The Indian skipper, as well as the dashing all-rounder, wear jerseys numbered as their birthdates, as they think it to be lucky whereas, Virender Sehwag chose to wear a numberless jersey as advised by his numerologist. Numbers disappeared from his jersey and started appearing on the scoreboard henceforth.
Another tradition has been handkerchiefs. When Steve Waugh, Amarnath and Sehwag liked it red, Zaheer Khan was fond of a yellow one to maintain his pace. Once Marlon Samuels met Waugh and asked about his ‘hanky secret’, in return he got a piece of it for good luck.
Different to these regular ones is the one that South African cricketer Neil McKenzie used to follow. His routine included taping his bat and even checking if all the toilet seats in changing room are put down. Weird!
Chewing gum used to play a huge role in Mark Ramprakash’s innings as he used to chew the same gum throughout an innings and if he stayed not-out overnight, stick it to the top of the bat. God bless his jaws.
But the most remembered one has to be the ‘Nelson’s number’. The scores 111, 222 etc are considered unlucky, and to nullify the effect, the umpire has to hop on one leg until the scorecard changes. Umpires who used to follow this without fail included David Shepherd.
TENNIS :
To start with, it’s the legend Bjorn Borg himself. The former world number one won as much as 5 consecutive Wimbledons – credit goes to his talent and BEARD!
The Swedish tennis star grew a beard prior to each of the tournaments and they seem to work as well. This superstition set a trend in the list of superstitions in different sports all over and in the list of styles as well.
From one legend to another, from grass to clay, it seems like superstitions are infectitious. King of clay Rafael Nadal follows a collection of superstitions like –
Taking ice-cold shower
Jumping during coin toss
Arriving with one racket in his hand
Lineing up water bottles with all labels pointing in the same direction and many more…
Superstitions are there in women’s tennis as well. Current world number one, Serena Williams, always brings her shower sandals to the court. That’s not all, she bounces tennis balls in a specific count – 5 times before first serve and 2 times before the second. To add a cherry topping, she continues wearing the same socks in every game if on a winning streak – that too unwashed!
FOOTBALL :
Football sensation, the magician – Cristiano Ronaldo has a number of acts to be performed to say. If travelling by plane, he tries to be the first one to get off but while via bus, to be the last one. Again, he always puts his right foot forward while approaching the field. But the most unique one comes here – he changes his hairstyle in the half time so that he doesn’t have to play both the halves with same hair – do. He finds that lucky, we find that a treat watching – mutual benefit.
Here’s a video too –
Pepe Reina, the former Liverpool GK has a specific meal that he never misses the night before game – Ham and cheese toast and a couple of glasses of wine. He even makes sure his tank is full of petrol that night.
Another goal-keeper on the list, this time from England, David James had rituals like going into urinals, waiting till they were empty and then spitting on the wall. Yes, you read it right.
To end it all, it’s the David Beckham. He admitted of suffering from OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder of having everything either in a straight line or in pairs, specifically before the match.
The habits might be unhygienic, weird or even might have nothing to do with luck, but they sure boost up the mental of our beloved stars and that’s what matters. Weird habits+ nice games = happy fans.