Winning at any cost?
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The aftermath of the Australian cricket scandal is the time to reintroduce to cricket, and all football codes, what we used to call ‘sportsmanship’.
The aftermath of the Australian cricket scandal is the time to reintroduce to cricket, and all football codes, what we used to call ‘sportsmanship’.To do so we need to reintroduce or reinforce the old fashioned view that winning is about being better at playing the game. Using sledging, intimidation, threats, regularly breaking rules and hoping not to be caught and penalised, using more force or contact than necessary to intimidate hurt or injure an opponent, diving, appealing on the off-chance that you can fool the umpire/referee etc all signal (we need to loudly proclaim) that you feel inferior to your opponents and that your only chance of winning is to step outside of the rules.
Unfortunately, the increasingly professional sports that we follow appear to have an entrenched mentality of winning at all costs. Consequently, because of the monetary incentives to win, any challenges to the win at all costs mentality need to come from those administering and controlling sports at the highest levels.
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