The philosophers and their infl uencesClive Woodward
Paddi Lund was an Australian dentist who turned his life around
after contemplating suicide. In a 2002 speech Woodward explained the infl uence that Lund’s Building the Happiness-centred Business had had on his own style of management
Adrian Boothroyd
Has said that Michael Lewis’s book about base-
ball, Moneyball, taught him that ‘everyone is in the matrix of what a footballer looks like, but when you get down to it – the stats of it – the question is what does he actually do’
John Buchanan
The Australian cricket coach left a 10-page memo fi lled out with
the fi fth-century BC Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu’s aphorisms and their signifi cance for Test cricket under the hotel doors of his players during the 2001 Ashes tour
Eric Cantona
The Manchester United striker said the poet Rimbaud was
his hero: ‘[He] wanted to seek fl ashes of inspiration, to enjoy different ideas and live with different philosophies. I believe in that’
Jonny Wilkinson has been influenced by the work of Robin Sharma, above right: ‘It makes me happy enough to be proud of who I am’
What do JonnyWilkin-son, Brian O’Dris-coll and JustinLanger have in
common? Come to think of it,what do they also share withIan Holloway, Steve Borthwick,Mikael Forssell and New YorkMets star Carlos Delgado? Thenot-so-obvious answer is acommon taste in literature. Orrather, one book in particular.That book is The Monk Who
Sold His Ferrari, by RobinSharma. During the rugby unionWorld Cup, Wilkinson admittedthat he had become intrigued byBuddhism: “[Its] principles havebeen fascinating and there wereshared principles from writerssuch as Robin Sharma andDeepak Chopra. How does allthat impact on a game of rugby?I can’t answer that. All I know isit’s enough to help me toproceed in a way that makes mehappy enough to go out thereand be proud of who I am andwhat I hope I can bring to thisteam.” Last week, in an inter-view with The Times, he con-firmed that The Monk Who . . .had been on his reading list.He wasn’t the only fan in the
England squad. Bath lockBorthwick has also enthusedabout its “lessons in life, lessonsin development”.Naturally, the book has, on the
surface, nothing to do with sport.Subtitled “A Fable About Fulfill-ing Your Dreams & ReachingYour Destiny”, however, itsappeal to the more philosophicalsportsman looking for a mentaledge and spiritual enlighten-ment is not so hard to under-stand.The novel, if it can be called
that, tells the story of JulianMantle, a lawyer with little morein his life than his career and theenormous wealth it brings. But aheart attack forces Mantle toreappraise his life. Cue the rejec-tion of worldly possessions and atrek through the Himalayas,where gurus are helpfully onhand to offer such pearls ofwisdom as: “What lies behindyou and what lies before you isnothing compared to what lieswithin you,” and: “We are nothuman beings having a spiritual
experience. We are spiritualbeings having a human experi-ence.” In short, it slots neatly intoa burgeoning sector of the 21st-century books trade: self-help,therapy, new-age mysticism —call it what you will. It also caters
to sportsmen who fancy addinga cerebral side to their profile(remember Tony Adams’s post-retirement “renaissance man”phase?). Unsurprisingly, Ama-zon’s “customers who viewedthis item also viewed” list shows
up Paolo Coelho’s novel TheAlchemist, which proved a bighit a few years back (it is Evertonmidfielder Lee Carsley’s favour-ite book).Delgado described The Monk
Who . . . as the one of the most
inspirational books he has read— although we’re not sure if hewas choosing from a particularlylong list. Langer was no lesseffusive, telling this newspaper:“My wife and I were staying atMatty Hayden’s beach house on
Stradbroke Island about four orfive years ago and she went intoa local bookshop and found itand bought it for me. I read it in aweekend. It was a life-changingexperience. It made me re-assesshow I approached life and my
cricket. I’m sure my gameimproved as a result. I passed iton to Matty too. I have readRobin Sharma’s subsequent twobooks. In fact I gave a speech to abusiness conference just theother week and found myself
quoting a lot of what he haswritten. Is Jonny Wilkinson a fanas well? That’s interesting.”Langer is a martial arts black
belt and has often spoken abouthis penchant for meditation;while Wilkinson, not being adrinker, has to have somethingto keep himself occupied outsiderugby. So their interest isperhaps not surprising. Morecurious is that of Mikael Forssell.The former Chelsea striker saidof it: “Books like that keep yourmood up. You have to have yourpriorities in life.” He added withan honesty one doesn’t usuallyassociate with a footballer: “Ifyour motive for playing footballis getting a fast car, then I don’tthink that’s right.”Does Forssell’s endorsement
signify that footballers are becom-ingmore discerning in their read-ing habits? Or, perhaps morelikely, are they simply develop-ing reading habits? The annualReading Stars survey asking oneplayer from each PremierLeague club to name his favour-ite book threw up some interest-ing nominations this year.There were the usual suspects
from the sporting world — peren-nial favourite It’s Not About TheBike, by Lance Armstrong, wasin there courtesy of ManchesterCity’s Nedum Onuoha, and TimCahill was a fan of ShaneWarne’s autobiography. Lesspredictably, Jens Lehmann wentfor The Kite Runner, KhaledHosseini’s 2003 novel set inAfghanistan, and Watford’sMalky Mackay nominated TheTipping Point, by Malcolm Glad-well. Mackay may well havebeen tipped off by his manager,Adrian Boothroyd, who, alongwith Alan Pardew, is a fan ofGladwell.Then came the news this
month that Wayne Rooney hashired a tutor to help him studyfor his English and mathsGCSEs. Rooney hopes to passhis exams next year. So we lookforward to his entry on the sur-vey next spring. The ManchesterUnited player has said he likesnothing more than to sing alongto the film Oliver! Maybe some-one will tell him there is also abook based on the musical.
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n Nick Greenslade
BedtimeBedtimereadingreading
Russell Cheyne
1I read it in aweekend andit changed mylife. It mademe reassesscricket too2
An unlikely sourceof inspiration isdriving the likes ofJonny Wilkinsonand Justin Langer
2 .28 SPORTING INFLUENCES DECEMBER 2, 2007 THE SUNDAY TIMES
