What has sickened me over the past few years and particularly in the last month is the general degradation of professionalism and sportsmanship in many other sports and the continued attitude of taking the sports fan totally for granted.
It would appear that the majority of professional sports have lost sight of who pays the bills. This applies equally to sports governing bodies, leagues, teams and individual sportsmen and women. The farce that was Mayweather vs Pacquiao is a prime example of punters being fleeced, billed as the fight of the century, this was nothing more than an exercise in wallet filling and personal damage limitation by 2 'fighters' in collusion with each other to wring the maximum amount of cash from the public with the minimum of personal risk. In the press conference afterwards, Pacquiao looked fresh as a daisy and didn't have a mark on him. Re-match? Surely the boxing public cannot be duped for a second time. Everyone knew the result weeks before and this fight was held 5 years too late, whilst Mayweather avoided Pacquiao and the majority of any credible contenders, particularly in recent years.
I guess for me the final nail in the coffin has been the debacle of the Kevin Pietersen, Peter Moores, Andrew Strauss and ECB saga. Moores deserved to lose his job, that is an absolute certainty, his stifling of talent with statistics and lack of tactical knowledge at international level has been exposed and led to a decline in results and performance. However the ECB's shameful behaviour in the way he was sacked and told by the press, days before he was told by his employers was a disgrace.
To compound that, they then offer a number of conditions to Kevin Pietersen for a potential return to the England team. he duly obliges and is then told, thanks for that but you will never play for England again. As usual professional sport showing how consummately unprofessional it actually is.
Other than the named individuals, who actually loses out here? The paying sports fan, that's who. Every pay per viewer at £19.95 who was mugged off by Mayweather and Pacquiao, every England Cricket fan that wants to see the best talent representing our country and playing with pride and passion, every football season ticket holder who renews each year and sees less and less home grown talent and more overpaid average players flooding the leagues.
So with that in mind I have three upcoming sporting events that demonstrate what sport should be about. This Sunday I will be playing cricket in a team with an age range from 14 to 46 (yes I'm the old git) to a decent standard against a local side in idyllic surroundings. we will be watched by a small but appreciative crowd, the banter will flow between ourselves and the opposition and we will play the game in a hard but sporting manner, respectful of the match officials, opposition and most important, ourselves.
I am entering an amateur strongman competition on Bank Holiday Monday, I will be competing against 19 other hopefuls, all who have trained long hours in spite of full time jobs and all desperate to win. However, not at any cost, each competitor will encourage the others, we will do battle over the course of the day and great rivalries and friendships will be made. Above all we will all share a mutual respect for each others efforts and achievements.
Finally, an ex colleague of mine is boxing in 'white collar' bout in early June. He will be fighting a genuine opponent who has trained as hard (maybe harder) and will be trying to knock him out. It will be a genuine contest, with no quarter asked for or given, but a fair result and again respect between the competitors and genuine excitement for those that will be paying good money to watch.
High level professional sport should learn a thing or two from the 'grass roots' level.
- Stop alienating the fans by pricing them out of the market and taking them for granted.
- Respect your opponents, they have the same goals, fears and ambitions as you.
- Respect the match officials.
- Lose with dignity
- Win with grace
- Above all honour the history and predecessors of your chosen sport.
I guess the overused word here is respect. I make no excuses for repeating it.
Respect your sport, your teammates, your opponents, your supporters and then you will earn yours.
