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Bruce Ndlovu
Science says identical twins come from a single fertilised egg that splits into two and therefore they share the same genetic code, meaning at the moment of birth twins are virtually the same in character and ability.
While the above scientific finding is long established, what some of the worlda��s brightest brains have had trouble explaining is how twinsa�� attributes differ over time.
This perhaps explains the different characters and fortunes of two Zimbabwean soccer twins, Tendai and Takudzwa Ndoro.
While Tendai is a larger than life character that has never been shy to flash his life on social media, Takudzwa is the proverbial wallflower, a laid back character that loves to keep a low profile.
When it was announced that Warriors striker Tendai would be trading the black and white of Orlando Pirates for the unknown colours of cash flush Saudi Arabian side, Al Faisaly, the news sent shockwaves in both South African and Zimbabwean soccer.
While he had somewhat fizzled out at the end of the last campaign, Tendai had set the South African top flight ablaze at the beginning of the season as he led from the front, banging goal after goal for a struggling Orlando Pirates.
With 13 goals in 34 appearances in a league not known for the proficiency of its goal poachers, many expected Tendai to spearhead Irvin Khozaa��s attempts to exorcise last seasona��s demons and raise The Ghost, as Pirates is popularly known, from the dead.
The ink is yet to dry on the deal that the Nketa-bred goal poacher penned with the Saudi side, and hence how much he or Pirates made from his surprise sale is still the subject of much gossip.
However, South African PSL chairman Khoza is reputed to be one of the shrewdest soccer bosses on either side of the Limpopo, and speculation is rife that only big bucks could have lured one of the most loved Buccaneers to the oil rich but blazing hot Middle Eastern nation.
Tendai, who took off headed to Saudi Arabia with dollar signs in his eyes this week, shared the same womb 29 years ago with Takudzwa, a man whose soccer fortunes have not been as rosy.
Like his spitting image, Takudzwa is also a soccer player. Unlike the goal hunting Tendai however, Takudzwa was born with the ability to stop attacks rather than initiate them. The goalkeeper in the Ndoro family also had news to announce this week.
While all eyes were on his twin brother, he announced that he had agreed a one-year deal with Gilport Lions from Witbank Spurs in South Africa. The goalkeeper joins Gilport after playing in the South African National First Division for Witbank Spurs.
It will be his second stint in Botswana after failing to secure a team in the PSL. Last year Golden Arrows appeared to be keen on the goal stopper. However, no move materialised despite a prolonged training spell with the KwaZulu Natal side.
This will not be his first spell in Botswana, as Takudzwa has played for Extension Gunners and Botswana Defence Force XI in Botswana.
The South African second tier or the Botswana top flight are a far cry from the glamour of Orlando Stadium where Ndoro made his name last year and the big money of Saudi Arabia where he has landed this season.
So why have the Ndoro have turned out so differently?
a�?In twin studies it had been clear that even though the twins are identical (monozygotic), there are still some differences between them that emerge over time,a�? said Gerd Kempermann, a behavioural geneticist at the Dresden University of Technology and the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Disease in Germany.
a�?Identical twins raised in the same household a�� the same a�?outera�? environment a�� still develop personality differences over time. Behavioural geneticists have long pegged these differences to influences by the a�?non-shared environment,a�? he said.
In twin studies, he said, these non-shared environmental influences essentially boil down to the individual experiences siblings have, and their own personal interactions with their environment, be it at school or normal everyday life. .
Online Reporter