The Hindu : Sport : Drastic action need of the hour

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Sunday, Apr 01, 2007
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Sport

Drastic action need of the hour

Sport has been seized by the unscrupulous and shallow

PETERROEBUCK

Let me tell you why I am angry. Its not that India's ageing cricket team failed to advance to the second round. Rahul Dravid and his comrades tried their hardest but too many important players are sliding down the greasy pole. A clear out is needed. Such matters provoke sorrow not rage. It is never easy to say goodbye. Fury is reserved for the lamentable state of the game itself. Far from displaying its finest plumage on its greatest stage, cricket has appeared acrimonious, hysterical, greedy, self-centred and frankly worthless.

Last week a distinguished school coach wrote to say that he was in despair. For twenty years he had been devoting himself to the game, instilling courage, commitment and sportsmanship. Had he been wasting his time? Match-fixing had been bad enough. But murder? What was the point? For the first time in forty years I was unable to provide a satisfactory answer.

A terrible mistake

Let none of us pretend that our spirits have escaped unharmed from the shock, the downright nakedness of Bob Woolmer's murder. None of us imagined sport to be populated solely by saints. Indeed our own periodic knavery must be admitted. But it did not seem possible to sink so low. True cricketers despise beamers because they break the code. Whatever happened to it? A terrible mistake has been made. It happened on the day the laughter stopped.

Cricket is no better than any other game. Indeed it is worse than most. The time has come to see things in their true light. Sport has destroyed itself. Drastic action is needed.

Pakistan must be banned form international cricket for five years. If Bob Woolmer was murdered by corrupt players they should be ousted for a decade. What has been their contribution since Imran Khan retired? Ball-tampering, match-fixing, zealotry, chucking, steroid taking and tantrum throwing.

Zimbabwe should be banned until the current evil has been ended. As a country it is rotten to the core and the same applies to the cricket. It's not going to happen. India needs the votes. And India rules the roost. But Indian cricket itself is a mess. Adulation is the problem. Gifted players emerge, flourish and are feted, a process few survive. There is no maturing.

Irfan Pathan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are fine young men caught up in a frenzy.

Not an isolated case

Nor is cricket the only game to provoke despair. Fights are fixed. Referees accept bribes; cyclists, athletes and swimmers take drugs. Soccer players dive, spectators berate referees, parents' fight. And this is the stuff of our dreams? Alas it is too late to stop agents, entrepreneurs and the rest throwing money around, giving it to immature youths and then feigning surprise when drugs take hold. Sport is supposed to be an expression of talent and a test of character. But it has been seized by the unscrupulous and shallow. Cheating is rife.

Can any hope be found? Sportsmen might take note of remarks addressed to the 1959 Indian team by a spiritual leader, Meher Baba. "In sport you have the unique opportunity of practising, and conveying the great spiritual lessons of concentration and love. When you take the field, if you play with one heart, enjoying excellence in another player as in yourself, whether that player is a colleague or an opponent, and so eliminating feelings of jealousy, anger and pride which often mars sport, you will not only be entertaining spectators but demonstrating the real spirit of sportsmanship. In that case both players and spectators receive spiritual upliftment as well as good entertainment."

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