Descartes, Hegel, Harbhajan
Ten of the most influential thinkers in the modern game. And Andrew Symonds
Andrew Hughes
May 6, 2009
"Care to step outside to discuss the eternal Manichean dichotomy? © Getty Images
Virender Sehwag
Teaches us that the external world is illusory and that pitches, bowlers and
cricket matches do not exist. The essence of Sehwagism is simple. If it moves,
hit it. If it doesn't move, hit it. If you can't quite see what it is, hit it.
Chris Gayle
Siddhartha Gautama once resolved to sit at the foot of the Bodhi tree and not
move until he had found Truth. Centuries later, the West Indies captain seeks
to emulate the Buddha's search for enlightenment by standing completely
motionless for hours at a time.
Kevin Pietersen
A devotee of Freud's theory of the Super Ego, he has added much to the school
of Existentialism, with his poignant writings on the loneliness of the
million-dollar sportsman and his habit of referring to himself in the third
person.
Kumar Sangakkara
This chatty Sri Lankan is a raconteur behind the stumps and regularly
wrong-foots opponents by quoting Oscar Wilde. "Consistency," he once
triumphantly declared to a bemused Jacques Kallis, "is the last refuge of the
unimaginative."
Sourav Ganguly
Like Machiavelli's ideal ruler, the Prince of Kolkata understands that
sometimes it is necessary to treat people badly for their own good and that it
is better to be feared than to be loved.
Andrew Symonds
When not lassoing sharks or strangling wild pigs with his bare hands, Roy can
often be found poring over the works of John Stuart Mill. A devotee of free
speech, his career thus far has been a refutation of the philosophy of Rene
Descartes: "I [don't] think, therefore I am."
Adam Gilchrist
Rejected Steve Waugh's "Spirit of Cricket" in favour of Aristotle's
Nichomachean Ethics. The Jimmy Stewart of the cricket world, this jug-eared
gloveman always walks when he nicks it. Unless it really matters, obviously.
Shane Warne
Believes that man should throw off the shackles of coachism and obtain
ownership of the means of selection. The acceptable face of Marxism, his stock
delivery pitches on the right before veering sharply to the left.
Daniel Vettori
A follower of Flemingism and The Way of The Straight Bat, this bespectacled
monk spent many years sitting silently on wooden benches, absorbing the
teaching of the master and contemplating the nature of defeat.
Harbhajan Singh
A true Nietchzsean, he believes we should not be bound by meekness. The
superior man does not let Australians, ethics or the ICC Playing Regulations
restrict him. And the weak and childlike are often deserving of a slap. Thus
spake Harbhajan.
Glenn McGrath
Practitioner of the philosophic arts, this latter-day Socrates is a master of
inductive reasoning: ("We're going to win five-nil") and a skilled rhetorician
("Hey, Eddo, why are you so f***in' fat?")
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