‘Even though we may not play a sport professionally, all of us understand this feeling.
If we pay attention, certain people, cultures, work, and situations bring out the best in us too.’
VVS Laxman has an everlasting love affair with the Eden Gardens in Kolkata because he played one of the best ever knocks in test cricket history on that ground. In his playing days, playing against Australia got the best out of him and he seemed to reserve his best knocks against them.
Rohit Sharma is another player who loves playing at the Eden Gardens. He scored the world’s highest ever score in ODIs, his first ever test century and led the Mumbai Indians to two IPL titles — all on that ground.
Anil Kumble loved the Feroz Shah Kotla at Delhi. Apart from his history-making 10 wicket haul in a single innings against Pakistan, he took a total of 58 wickets in 7 tests on that ground.
Sachin Tendulkar played some of his most memorable innings at the Chepauk in Chennai and at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia.
Shikhar Dhawan loves playing at the Oval in England where he has scored three centuries.
The legendary Ayrton Senna won the Monaco Grand Prix six times in seven years and Michael Schumacher won 8 times at the Circuit Nevers Magny Cours in France
Rafael Nadal absolutely loves playing at the Roland Garros. He has won the French Open a record 12 times. His arch-rival Roger Federer relishes playing at Wimbledon, where he has won the title 8 times.
A sportsperson doesn’t get to choose where they will play. They can’t say ‘the conditions here suit me the best and the crowd is always behind me so I will only play here’. They must play everywhere. At the same time, a few oppositions, players, tracks and grounds bring out the best in them.
Even though we may not play a sport professionally, all of us understand this feeling.
If we pay attention, certain people, cultures, work, and situations bring out the best in us too. We up our ante, go the extra mile, raise our game, double our efforts and don’t have to feign enthusiasm. It’s as if there is an invisible force that is behind us, pushing us forward to do our best work and present our best selves.
This means we need to make an effort to find these places, people and cultures that bring out the best in us and do work we believe in. It doesn’t mean we run away from a challenge. Even sportsmen put in a lot of effort when they played in their favourite grounds and raced in their favourite tracks. Their opponents didn’t say to them ‘this is your favourite place, we will make life easy for you.’
A lot of this happens through trial and error. We work with different people and cultures and realize what sets a fire in us and which ones douse our passion and enthusiasm.
The more you play in favorite hunting grounds that bring out the best in you, the greater the chances of you experiencing happiness and success on your own terms.
