Category Archives: Sport

Cheats? (July 19th)

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There has been a lot of talk in the press this week about fairness in sport and specifically about playing cricket in accordance with “the spirit of the game”. These days professional sport is big business and players are under unbelievable pressure to perform. Human nature being what it is, many players now break, bend or otherwise distort the rules, so much so that it is quite clear that nothing matters save for the result. Winning is everything.

Imagine a game of top flight football where on the last game of the season only a win will seal the league title for the title-chasing team. They are 1-0 up with five minutes to go, the opposing centre forward shoots at goal and though the goalkeeper “saves” the ball it is six inches over the line by the time he gets his hands on it. The goalkeeper knows that it is a goal but none of the officials had a clear view and the goal is not awarded. Does the keeper stand up and say “Actually, the ball crossed the line. It was a goal”. Of course he doesn’t. What would his team mates say? What would you, as a supporter say? Does that make him a cheat? Probably.
The reality is that the stakes are now too high for players to be trusted to police themselves and their honesty cannot be relied upon. However, there is now widespread technology available and it must be used – in every professional sport without exception. Forget about gentlemen and the spirit of the game. Sad though it may be, times have changed and changed forever.

Winner!

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Considering how much we British love our sport and how many games have their spiritual home in this land it’s a shame that we don’t win more than we do. I know our athletes had an outstanding year in 2012 and I know too that British cycling is in the midst of a golden era but in many other sports we tend to underachieve.

In cricket, England are not too far off the pace and in rugby union Wales were unlucky not to win the 2011 world cup though they may do so in 2015. In golf, there are signs of improvement and the Northern Irish, in particular have punched way above their weight in recent years. In rugby league Great Britain are still some way short of the pinnacle and as for football, well, considering we invented the game, we are pretty inept on the world stage. How on earth England are officially ranked as high as 15th in the world is beyond me!
That is why what happened on Sunday, July 7th, 2013 is so momentous. Wimbledon is without a doubt the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world and, when interviewed, nearly all players worldwide say that their aim is to win there. For the last 77 years we had grown used to seeing a procession of foreign players take the glory as British players floundered in their wake. Now, at last, a man from these Isles has won the trophy and has, at last, removed the monkey from the nation’s back. Andy Murray, a proud Scot, made history yesterday and the whole of Britain, not just Scotland, can rejoice in his success.
Though admiring his undoubted skill and tiger-like fighting ability, quite a few Britons found it hard to warm to the man, although I confess to the tears in my eyes when he was interviewed having lost last year’s final! Yesterday’s success was wonderful and his victory speech, referring to a win for “the British” rather than Scotland (which must have really irritated the watching Scottish Nationalist Party leader, Alex Salmond!) was, to me at least, a sign of Murray’s maturity and a realisation of the enormity of what he had done.
We must hope that Murray’s success is the start of a new era, not just for him, but for tennis and sport in the UK generally. There are not enough tennis courts in this country and there are not enough sports fields either. I’ve said before in this blog that sport in schools is vital and that all children must have the chance to participate in as many sports as possible. Politicians must stop the sale of school and community playing fields, they need to reverse the slide and create as many opportunities as possible for children to participate and compete.

Competition is a dirty word among the politically correct liberal elite who govern our land but if they want to know the effect sport can have on people’s lives they should purchase and retain a copy of every one of today’s national newspapers and frame them on the walls of their Westminster offices!

A Winning Smile

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Professional sport is big business these days and judging by the demeanour of most professional sportsmen and women it’s a pretty serious business too. Most seem totally focussed on the result to the exclusion of all else and what emotion there is tends to be of the negative variety, shouting at their opponents, the referee and even themselves.  Sport is all about winning and when there are literally hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of pounds riding on the result their behaviour is not surprising.

How wonderful it is therefore to witness the success of Sabine Lisicki, the previously obscure German tennis player who, radiating joy and with an almost permanent smile, has made it to the Wimbledon Ladies Final this Saturday. I’ve not watched a great deal of Wimbledon this year but the little that I have watched and enjoyed has been dominated by this young woman who defeated the mighty Serena Williams (reckoned by many to be the greatest female player of all time) earlier this week before winning twice more to gain her place in the final.

With all due respect to her French opponent, Marion Bartoli, I really hope that Lisicki wins the trophy and demonstrates to the world, and youngsters in particular, that you can still win and reach the very top  not only with skill and determination but with grace, dignity and, most importantly of all, with a great big smile on your face. That said, if an Englishman or woman were ever to win Wimbledon I wouldn’t care how miserable, sullen and bad tempered he/she was. A bit like that bloke north of the border I suppose! I hope he wins too.

A State of Mind

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I didn’t see the England cricket team’s capitulation in the latter stages of the Champion’s Trophy  yesterday but the manner of the collapse, without taking anything away from India, who are obviously a top class side, was clearly pretty dire. I was reminded of something I once read about winners in sport.

It was an article by a leading American sportsman and sports psychologist who said, that at the highest levels of sport, (and this could apply to virtually any area of human endeavour) sportsmen, all bar a few exceptional athletes, are similar in their skill levels. He said that the skill factor accounts for approximately 90% of the performance but the vital part is the remaining 10% because that is what separates the great from the very good.
That 10% he said is all in the mind. You can call it self-belief, determination, lack of nerves, strength under pressure, positive thinking or an attitude of never say die. Whatever label you give it, it is an inner strength that for the most part cannot be taught. A psychologist may well be able to assist the athlete and add a few percent to the performance but without that steely inner core the athlete is doomed to be one of the also-rans. It is as true in life as it is in sport.

As for England, who have now lost their last five one day cricket finals, it’s a case of back to the drawing board. I hope somebody in the camp has got the telephone number of that sports psychologist!

The British Lions

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For rugby union fans there are few better sights than the British Lions taking on one of the southern hemisphere giants every four years. This week sees the start of the Lions’ tour of Australia, which they last toured twelve years ago. For the players this represents the pinnacle of their careers and the anticipation will reach a climax when the first team steps out to meet the Australian national team for the first of three tests later this month. Yes, this is rugby union at its finest. It’s such a pity that it’s tainted by political correctness.

You will have noticed how I made reference to the British Lions rather than the modern “British and Irish Lions”. This is no disrespect to Ireland, who consistently produce some of the finest players in the world despite their relatively small population. The British Lions were, and are still, chosen from the best rugby union players in the British Isles, a geographical term as opposed to political or nationalist. The British Isles comprise Great Britain, Ireland, the Hebrides, the Isle of Man, the Isle of Wight, the Channel Islands and many others. In total there are well over 6,000 individual  isles. 
However, it was decided in 2001 that this was unfair to the independent and sovereign Republic of Ireland and so the British Lions became the British and Irish Lions. This was nothing more than political correctness and an example of bored liberal bureaucrats sticking their oar in something that neither concerned them nor seemed to bother anyone else. Certainly, I personally have never met any Irishmen who objected to the name British Lions since they were fully aware that the word “British” was simply a geographical and factual reference to the islands which we all share rather than a slight on their own nation. It is for this reason that many people will continue to refer to the Lions as the British Lions.
Taking the politically correct argument further, shouldn’t the Lions’ title be extended to embrace the other nations who take part? Why should the term British be used to cover Wales, Scotland and England and nobody else? Shouldn’t they correctly be called the Welsh, Irish, Scots and English Lions (the W.I.S.E. Lions, now there’s a thought!). And what if the tour party includes players of Manx or Channel Islands extraction? Shouldn’t the title be extended to include them as well? Clearly this is ludicrous but no more so than the current name.
Rugby union like all sport should be a joyous celebration of skill, strength, athletic prowess and the exuberance of life itself. It has and never should have anything to do with politics and should certainly not be corrupted by political correctness. So come on you Irish, Welsh, Scots and English, come on you Lions, come on you British Lions! Have a great tour and make us all proud to be a part of the British Isles!

Sporting Politics

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I wonder, should we be surprised at the fuss caused by the appointment of Paolo di Canio as manager of Sunderland Football Club? His alleged political beliefs whether true or false have caused all sorts of outrage amongst the public and press and have led to Durham miners demanding the return from the club of a Trades Union banner (as though it were some sort of religious relic) and the resignation from the Sunderland board of the opportunistic ex-politician, David Miliband. It is all complete and utter nonsense but, no, we should not be surprised.

I’m afraid that this is just another example of our liberal national press whipping up a section of the population (usually referred to as a mob) into a state of righteous indignation at the thought that anybody with right wing leanings should achieve any level of power or influence. Such hypocrisy; and I thought we lived in a democracy!
Even if Di Canio is a Fascist- sympathising-Mussolini-loving-Roman-saluting crackpot with tattoos to match how on earth does that affect his ability to manage a football team?  Is he going to dress his players in Nazi uniforms and parade them, goose-stepping, on the pitch before each match?
No, of course he’s not. He is a football manager and nothing else. If I were a supporter of that football club I wouldn’t give two hoots about his beliefs unless, of course, he were to use his position to incite criminal activity. So far as I am aware, it is not an offence to harbour and express unsavoury beliefs no matter how far they might gravitate to the right or the left, though I have a sneaking suspicion that if his views were the latter rather than the former the fuss might not be so great.
Di Canio may or may not be a nasty bit of work with some wacko beliefs but if those beliefs don’t get in the way of his job shouldn’t we just leave him alone and judge him solely on how well he does that job? As for the press, haven’t they got better things to do? I understand there’s a bit of a crisis in North Korea at the moment.

English Anthem

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I watched the Wales v England rugby massacre (sorry, match!) on television  last weekend. It was a momentous occasion and the sound of the passionate Welsh crowd singing their hearts out to their national anthem brought tears to my eyes and I’m not even Welsh – although by the end of the ensuing eighty minutes I almost wished I had been!

The English by contrast, dutifully sang, as they always do, the British national anthem, God Save The Queen and there’s the rub. They sang the British national anthem, the anthem of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland which, of course, comprises England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Now the non-English members of the Union (who for the purposes of simplicity I will henceforth refer to as the Celtic Nations) are members completely equal in every way to their English brothers in all but the physical size and population of their countries. As such they surely have a right, equal  to the English, to sing the British anthem, God Save The Queen, at sporting events in which they participate, but of course they do not.
However when the Celtic Nations join with England to represent the United Kingdom or just plain Great Britain (this must be so complicated for foreigners!) they all sing along heartily to God Save The Queen, the British national anthem. What therefore, I wish to know, gives the English the right to use the British national anthem as their own property?  In particular, how condescending and patronising  of the English to sing it when playing sport against the Celtic Nations. It is as though we English are saying, this is our anthem but we’ll gladly share it with you when we all represent the United Kingdom together. Is there any wonder so many Celts feel the way they do about us? Arrogant English? In this respect, probably so.
I am proud to be English and when I see an England team competing in any sporting event I want to hear the players and crowd sing an English anthem, an anthem peculiar to and exclusive to England. There are several candidates for an English anthem and any one of Land of Hope and Glory, I Vow to Thee My Country, Rule Britannia or Jerusalem would do. My own choice would be the former but whichever one we choose, it has to be ours and ours alone. Just think of the additional pride this would create and who knows, maybe it would even spur one of our sports teams to go on and actually win something!

Solving the Obesity Problem

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According to figures released on New Year’s Day our nation’s obesity crisis cost the NHS some £5 billion in 2012. That’s an astounding figure and one hardly welcome to our overstretched and overworked health service.

Obesity is undoubtedly one of the scourges of the modern age but why? It hasn’t always been like this and those of us over the age of 30 can clearly remember a time when obesity was a rarity rather than the norm. There may well have been one or two overweight kids in the classroom or a couple of fatties wobbling down the high street but now they seem to comprise the majority.
Obesity has no positive side and the NHS figures clearly illustrate the dreadful damage that the clinically obese are doing to themselves as well as the cost to the taxpayer. Obviously, there are those who cannot help their weight and they deserve our continuing sympathy and respect but those who owe their gross condition to a lack of willpower in the face of crisps, pasties, chips and an endless supply of Big Macs certainly do not.
The solution to the problem is relatively straightforward since much of it is clearly down to a lack of education as well as a lack of self discipline, willpower and personal pride. The state can play a big part in this and children, particularly in state schools, need to be taught, from a very early age, of the dangers of poor diet and a lack of exercise. They have to be taught, for example, that it is not a good thing to play on their computers all day and that fresh air and a run around the park is actually good fun as well as beneficial to their health.
Recent governments have much responsibility to shoulder in this crisis and the continuing disposal of sports fields by schools and local authorities is nothing short of scandalous. PE and Games should be compulsory for all schoolchildren, just as it used to be, and other than medical conditions there should be no excuses for non-compliance. Outside of school there should be exercise facilities available for the public at large and where necessary subsidized by the state so that even those reliant on state benefits, are able to participate. That’s all there is to it, education, opportunity and self-discipline. Simple really.

In Defence of the Indefensible

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On Sunday we saw all that is finest in English football when we were treated to a wonderful spectacle in a full blooded Manchester derby where no quarter was asked for or given and the excitement and passion was unrelenting from start to finish. As a neutral it didn’t particularly bother me who won but what a shame that such a splendid advertisement for the game was overshadowed by the behaviour of some so-called fans.

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As the game reached its climax the excitement was clearly too much for some feeble minded cretins amongst the Manchester City ranks who threw coins at the celebrating Manchester United players causing a nasty, bloody cut next to the eye of a United player. Another idiot invaded the pitch in an attempt to cause further mayhem only to be stopped by Manchester City’s goalkeeper.
Manchester City, as the host club, will probably be punished for these incidents and their fans, most of whom are as decent as any of us, will be vilified. Is this fair, because, make no mistake, these incidents could have occurred in almost any ground in the country. Every club has an unsavoury element amongst its following and what happened at Manchester City could just as easily have occurred at Chelsea, Liverpool, West Ham or Manchester United.
I’ve been a football fan for nearly 50 years and I have been witness, particularly in the 70s and 80s to some of the worst excesses of football fans’ behaviour. Of course, it’s not as bad now as it was then but violence and the threat of violence is never far away in many football stadiums. If you don’t believe me just watch a televised game when a player is taking a corner in front of a great phalanx of opposition fans. You will see the player, often as not, being subjected to a barrage of insults, general abuse and obscene hand gestures. Look at the faces of some of the fans and all you can see is anger, vitriol and bile. They are so contorted with rage that you can almost feel their hatred.
That, for some people is football and I don’t think we can ever eradicate such behaviour. Football is a tribal game, it is almost primeval in its intensity and at its best it is a great release of passion, pent-up frustration and at times an explosion of happiness – how do you feel when your team scores a goal? It is a shame that some “fans” behave the way they do but a thug is a thug no matter who he supports and no matter the colour of his shirt. All we can do is attempt to keep the lid firmly down by proper policing and control and hope that their behaviour doesn’t spoil the game for the rest of us. Don’t blame Manchester City for what occurred yesterday, it just happened to be their turn that’s all. Next week it will be somebody else’s.

Money Talks

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Is money the only thing that matters in sport these days? I don’t mean football, of course;  the Premier League sold its soul to the devil (aka Sky TV) years ago. No, I was thinking about other sports such as cricket and rugby union, specifically the latter.

On Saturday, England played rugby (a debatable term as you will know if you saw the game!) against Australia and unless you were fortunate enough to have a ticket for Twickenham you would have had to watch the game on Sky. Like many people, I don’t have Sky and so, to watch a game that I’ve loved for most of my life, I had to forsake the comfort of my own home and find a local pub. It wasn’t a great problem however and although I enjoyed a few beers and a good laugh with some friends that’s not the point.

I seem to remember reading some time ago, after the last rugby world cup probably, that the English RFU were trying to increase interest in the game and attract more followers. Well, allowing the sport to be removed from terrestrial television is not going to help that is it? Not everybody wants to watch rugby in the pub and what about those too young to drink, the future of the game? I guess raking in some extra income from Murdoch just proved a more enticing option to the guardians of the game.

Talking of money, presumably that is the only reason why England discarded their traditional white shirts to play in purple against the Aussies. It can’t have been to avoid a colour clash since white is hardly going to clash with green and gold. No, the reason quite obviously is that the RFU, once more, wanted to cash in on their asset and create some extra revenue from shirt sales. Just like football. There could be no sadder indictment.