GIFT OF NATURAL TALENT

Continuing on with the sports page -
Sport is mostly about effort. More often than not it is about perseverance, hard work, hours of practice in search of elusive perfection, about stretching the limits of physical and mental possibilities to achieve set goals.
A Rahul Dravid, his face reflecting levels of concentration only Zen masters are capable of achieving, dodging bullets and standing tall amidts ruins. An Iranian weightlifter straining every sinew to hoist above his head the sort of weight six or seven of us will struggle to lift together. A Lleyton Hewitt digging deeper and deeper to fight his way past a more gifted opponent.
But thankfully there are times when you take effort away and sport becomes a thing of sheer beauty - outrageous, gorgeous, timeless beauty. And it is precisely on such occasions that the reason for playing sport and the reason for watching it seem to have been gloriously realised.
Each genius-propelled burst of inspiration has a stamp all its own. Like the glorious hour when Pete Sampras 'walked on water' in the 1999 Wimbledon final against Andre Agassi. Diego Maradona's impossible second goal against England in the 1986 World Cup.
At the end of the day, a Boycott might have a better batting average than a Richards and a Prost more titles than a Senna but this is not all about numbers.