Book review - What Sport Tells Us About Life by Ed Smith

So a while ago while I was waiting for the Bro, I started reading this book in a bookshop (natch) after noticing it's eye-catching cover featuring that iconic image of Zinedine Zidane headbutting Materazzi in the WC final 06. What I found was an entertaining analysis of sport-related topics such as why there will never be another Bradman or whether free market principles are ruining sport. I found it interesting enough to purchase it a few months later.

Reading the book, I felt like I was witnessing the discussion of really stupid topics conducted in a highly intelligent manner. That's a good thing! The chapters are prefaced by some sport-related question and author Ed Smith (who apprently played cricket for England although I don't remember him) lays out the argument featuring snippets from things as varied as neurosurgery and religion to back it up. My favourite chapter was on the Beauty Queen Effect or how talent is a curse, using the examples of Steve Waugh being dropped in the Test squad for his twin and Michael Jordon being crushed on the childhood basketball court by his older brother to demonstrate how losing can drive on to being a champion later!

My main criticism would be that sometimes the argument is a bit too simple or one-sided. Case in point would be the free market chapter where he argues it has improved the pay for baseballers and created the ODI/2020 revolution in cricket. However, I would argue that if you look at the free market at work in European Football (soccer) and the EPL in particular, the difference in the funding of teams has created such an uneven playing field that there literally are only four clubs that ever challenge for the crown and a *slave* market in terms of player trading. Can you really argue that this is better for the game? *shrug*

Anyway, I recommend this to anyone who's interested in sport or life, not necessarily both at the same time! It is that accessible. But for people who are wondering why did Zizou did it - it was because he was a superstar! And superstars, just like Senna, Ali, and The Special One, capable of doing feats that others believe impossible, feted and treated like gods, eventually believe that they can always do these things and hence behave in ways normal people wouldn't. Like headbutting someone in the final of the World Cup in front of millions of people.