Asides

Rahul Verghese: Basic principles

​”… you may find these basic principles can be applied to your work and to managing your workload: 

■ Never try and do the same thing repeatedly if you are trying to improve. 

■ Look at a holistic build- up and focus on different weak links. 

■ Do not work to exhaustion but work towards a build-up scientifically and sensibly, so that come the big day, you are ready to be firing on all cylinders.

 ■ Rest adequately. 

■ And . . . you can write in your very own set of learnings.”

—Rahul Verghese. 

Paul Scholes: Compliments and criticism

Frank Bruno: Mental illness

​”Mental illness can happen to anybody. You can be a dustman, a politician, a Tesco worker… anyone. It could be your dad, your brother or your aunt. 

— Frank Bruno. 

Dileep Premachandran: Glass ceilings

“Those that shatter glass ceilings have to put up with multiple indignities along the way, and any softness or weakness will be pounced upon.” 

—Dileep Premachandran. 

CLR James: Cricket, an art

“Cricket is an art, not a poor relation , but a full member of the community. It belongs with theatre, ballet , opera and the dance. ”

—CLR James.

Rio Ferdinand: Hangover

​”If any player has a bad game it’s there in the back of your mind in the next game. There’s always a hangover. It is like a wounded animal in a way, as you want to get out there as quick as possible and rectify it.”

—Rio Ferdinand.

Ana Ivanovic: Character

​”Fame and success and titles stay with you, but they wear out eventually. In the end, all that you are left with is your character.”

—Ana Ivanovic. 

Virat Kohli: Confidence versus rudeness

​”A fit body gives you confidence. And there’s nothing more impressive than a great attitude, which you can wear on your sleeve. But you’ll have to remember the difference between being rude and being confident.”

—Virat Kohli. 

Milind Soman: Running lights me up

“Something triggers internally the moment when my bare feet touch the earth. To put it simply, running lights me up. The light that burns within me reaches my soul when I run – it alerts my mind, and my body simply loves it. Nothing compares to the light within me when I run.”
—Milind Soman. 

Bishan Singh Bedi: Majority of one

“I derive a lot of my mental and my physical strength from my spiritual strength. If spirituality doesn’t teach you to speak up, what price are you paying? Speak up not for the heck of it but when desired. I’ve often been told that I’m a crusader kind of person. They say ‘you are in a absolute minority’ but I say, ‘No, I am, by the grace of God, in a majority of one’. ”

—Bishan Singh Bedi.