There was one thing certain about yesterday’s United States presidential election long before the citizens cast their votes. That was that the next president of the USA would be left handed. In fact three of the last four presidents of the USA have been left handed.

Ronald Regan (1981 to 1989) passed the baton (with his left hand of course) to George Bush senior (1989 to 1993). He was also a lefty. It should be noted however, that neither of these two gentlemen left their physical disposition interfere with their political ideals. When George Bush lost control in 1993 he was succeeded by a true lefty, Bill Clinton. We all know that both the power and politics moved back to the right when George W Bush took control in 2001.

Left-handers make up roughly 10% of the world’s population. There has been folklore and superstition about left-handed people for thousands of years. For example, evil spirits were thought to lurk over the left shoulder – throw salt over this shoulder to ward them off.

The custom of driving on the left developed because most people are right handed. It dates back to how people travelled in violent feudal societies. With most people being right handed, it made sense to carry any protective weapon in this hand. When passing a stranger on the road, it would be safer to walk on the left, so ensuring that your weapon was between yourself and a possible opponent. Jousting knights would hold their lances in their right hand, therefore passing on each others’ right.

You would expect that left handed people would hold much the same ratio in the sporting population, as they do in the general population. Oddly enough in some sports, especially stick and racket sports, where one-on-one opposition is the norm, left-handers hold a much larger proportion of the top players. Tennis, golf, cricket, boxing and baseball are the main opposition games. The confrontation in these games is one-on-one, even if sometimes this takes place in a team setting as in cricket or baseball.

Take tennis, all-time legend John McEnroe was a left hander, so too was his great American rival, Jimmy Connor. Ivan Lendl, who could keep a rally going forever, played off the left, as did his Czech mate, Martina Navratilova. A generation before these, Rod Laver was the best tennis player in the world; he served off the left. Back in the 1950s, tennis’ first female superstar Maureen ‘Little Mo’ Connolly was also a lefty.

Rafael Nadal who is currently the world’s top tennis player also plays left handed. This is not natural for him however. When he was taught to play as a four year-old, his parents decided to teach him to play as a left-hander because they felt it would be an advantage to him.

Baseball and cricket are loaded with famous lefthanders. ‘Babe’ Ruth, Ted Williams, Darryl Strawberry (who was made famous in this part of the world by appearing in the Simpsons) and ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson were all leftys and are among the most famous baseball players of all time.

In cricket, some of the most classical and stylish batsmen have been ciotógs. David Gower may not have been England’s best captain, but his left-handed strokes were considered to be “things of beauty” by the cricket writers and the public alike. The former Australian captains Alan Border and Mark Taylor both rank near the top of the all-time runs scoring list; both batted left handed. Brian Lara on the other hand was like Nadal in tennis. He batted left handed but is a natural right sided person.

Boxing is a sport where the left hander, or southpaw as they are called, is dreaded. There may not have been as many world champion southpaws as there has been in other opponent sports, but any orthodox fighters will tell you that ‘they are awkward hoors to box against’. ‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler, Oscar De La Hoya, and ‘Gentleman’ Jim Corbett all won world championship belts as southpaws. They won their titles when having the world champion belt meant that you were the best in the world in your weight division.

In team games that are played on a field or court, it appears that the influence of the one-sided player, particularly left-sided players is noticeably lessened.

Soccer is the exception to that rule. It has an immense list of great left-leggers. If you start at the top you have Pele, Maradonna, Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, Ferenc Puskas, Bobby Charlton Ruud Gullitt and Romario. Outside of George Best and Fraz Beckenbaur, (who like most of the above were Pedi dextrous) it is hard to think of six more right-sided players that were better than the eight left leggers listed here.

Neither of the GAA field games or rugby have a substantial amount of outstanding left sided stars. These games tend to have a higher regard for the player who is comfortable kicking with either leg or striking off either hand more than the one sided player.

Rugby scrum halves by the nature of the job they perform have to be able to pass the ball from the right and left with equal efficiency. While out halves and full backs will have an advantage if they can kick with either leg, but the off-side laws generally afford them enough time to use their stronger leg; this usually seems to be the right leg.

Maurice Fitzgerald of Kerry and Colin Corkery of Cork are two gaelic footballers of recent times who were deadly when kicking off either leg. Hurling too, favours the two-sided player with all the best players being able to strike left and right. I conducted a straw poll among a number of seasoned watchers of hurling. They all claimed that Jimmy Doyle of Tipperary was the “most natural” ciotóg hurler they saw. (It goes without saying that all those who used the term “most natural” were righted handed).

Even science is divided about the left sided player phenomenon. One line of research suggests that left sided players succeed in opposition games because the left and right sides of their brain operate as one. This means that the process of the player in seeing the ball coming and actually hitting it are both dealt with by the same side of the brain. In a right-hander, this visual information has to transfer to the opposite side of the brain to direct the player’s movement. The change from one side to the other only takes milliseconds, but in top class sport that is all that is needed to gain an advantage.

Most scientists (presumably right-handed ones) take a more pragmatic view. They have concluded that the main advantage for left sided players is that they are used to playing right-handers; and that right-hander as less used to facing leftys.

Whatever about the rights (and lefts) of sport, lets hope that the new president of the United States gets it right when it comes to dealing with the credit crunch and that he stays away from the red button on the rightwing side of the desk.