Amateur sport reveals all sorts of characters

When in need of wisdom or a quick proverb to lean on, we often reach for Greek philosophers.

- Rohit Brijnath

If not Aristotle, then Plato. Or perhaps Socrates, with whom I have a minor and humble quibble. "The more I know," he said, "the more I realise I know nothing." Yes, indeed, there is always so much to learn and yet I do know something.

Which is that weekend hackers who don't fix their ball marks on the golf green deserve a triple-bogey. And those who loudly celebrate a rival's netted backhand on Sunday deserve some divine punishment. Cheer yourself, dude, not an error by others.

Heraclitus, another Greek, wrote about character and that it was man's guardian spirit. There is no evidence if he played weekend sport, but certainly the courts and fields on which amateurs prance on Sundays is where so much is revealed. Camaraderie, courtesy, charlatans and character.

In my youth there was a middle-aged tennis player at my Kolkata club for whom every ball hit close to a line was "just out." He'd stand there, fingers apologetically spread two inches apart, to tell you how sadly close you were to a terrific shot. We just thought the only errors concerned his eyes, judgment and moral stature.