by Moe » Sun Jan 10, 2010 12:50 pm
The topic of this debate, The Spirit of the game will never be the same, basically because genuine sportsmanship is dead. Why?
1. The media. Sure the media love to show lasting visions of goodwill to other players ( the photo of Flintoff consoling Brett Lee in 2005 comes to mind), yet the media contributes to the problem by continually condemning players & umpires who make mistakes. Todays Sunday Mail tells of Umpire Phil Harper being slammed by the English press for a bad decision. Will he (if he reads the paper, and we all do) doubt himself in future?
2. The current generation. When i was 14-25 years old District cricket was full of hard & tough players who sometimes stretched the boundaries of fair play a little,(Les Stillman comes to mind, as do the Phillips brothers) but NEVER crossed the line. Umpires such as Steve Daff, Max O,Connell, Tony Crafter etc. were respected, as were their decisions.
At the same time i would watch U/21 matches and see cricketers behaviour changing, to what i see now regularly 15 years later in ASCA as young players constantly abusing & sometimes manhandling umpires, some even their own team mates. I might sound old fashioned, but the way society is going astray, the same is happening on our sporting fields.
3 Pressure to succeed. Really self explanatory. From International level to bloody Aus-kick we see demands from fans, promotors, sponsors to parents pushing players to always win, win, win at any costs.
I want to see my kids play any sport they wish, and hopefully help out in anyway possible, but will always stress that sport is always for fun.
Remember. Play hard, have fun & always have a beer after, but winning is not everything!
