In sport there are multiple types of sportspersons and teams who Play the sport, some of them will not be up to the mark but they are doing the best they can with the limited amount of resources they have. Some will be better than those teams and will be good athletes and they will do well on occasions. And then there are the best , those who are great in their sport and they stand out from the others and all the others look up to them.
There are things that separate the great from the good but first the meaning of this term needs to be understood and so let’s talk about this in detail below
The Great and the Good in sport
The good in sport means an athlete who is good enough to play at the top level but someone who is not able to perform at all times and therefore he is not able to become a great. For example Vinod Kambli was a very good batter in the domestic circuit but he was not able to become a great batsman due to reasons. The good sportspersons will always do well on occasions because they have the skills but they will not be able to do it on a regular basis. In Football not everyone is at the level of Messi and Ronaldo and they are the greatest and there are reasons for that.
The great in sport is something that is rare to come by and only those who have the determination and the perseverance to do well for years become great. The fans see the result in the field but they do not see the hard work that goes behind the scenes to make them great. Countless hours of practice, discipline and determination takes them to this level. For example, Sachin Tendulkar in cricket is considered the greatest of all time and he played cricket for 24 years. He was disciplined from a young age and he wanted to win the World Cup for India and in the process he became the best batter of all time.
In the present generation it is Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Rohit Sharma in cricket that they have achieved greatness. Similarly MS Dhoni has also become one of the greatest of all time and he was the hardest worker. In Tennis the great are separated from the good as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic became all time greats whereas the likes of Andy Roddick, Stan Wawrinka, Carlos Alcaraz etc are good players who will have their moments. Consistency is such a big factor when it comes to separating the good from the great and practice and not having an ego that you are the best and everyone else is nothing. Becoming great from good takes effort and not everybody is ready to put in that effort.
