North America - Sport

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Sport, like politics, is about daring to win.

Two Texas high school basketball teams met last week. The girls from The Covenant School scored 100 points, the girls from Dallas Academy scored zero.

The score is a disgrace. For the members of the losing team, you might put a bit of positive spin on the experience by saying it took courage to finish the game and, little compensation though it may sound right now, you made some people proud by hanging in there.

There is little to offer the members of the winning team except a promise to find out what sort of nincompoop allowed such a mismatch to occur. The organisers need to be thoroughly scolded and then made to write out 100 times, "I can do better".

And there, with an enquiry into how such a mess came to be, the matter should be left.

Unfortunately, The Covenant School, a private Christian organisation, disagrees. They have decided to apply for the result to be annulled and to apologise for their margin of victory.

According to Kyle Queal, head coach at The Covenant School, a forfeit had been requested because "a victory without honour is a great loss".

"It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened," he added. The game "does not reflect a Christ-like and honorable approach to competition."

What sort of murky-minded, substance-starved, brainless gibberish is this? A victory without honour is a great loss indeed, but it depends on your definition of honour. Did the winners spike the drinks of the losers? Did they seduce their boyfriends en masse the night before the game? Of course not. All they did was show up for a poorly organised basketball competition.

Forfeit the game and pretend it never happened? Is that going to make the losers feel better? Is it going to reinforce their resolve to try harder next time?

Is it going to make the winners better people? Is it going to help them mature as sports women?

The people behind this decision are confused. Sport is not some game of lucky dip where every child is guaranteed a prize. Sport is about daring to put your body and your mind on the line.

The coaches have got it wrong. They are setting a bad example. Worst of all, they don't know how to win.

image: www.umass.edu

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: North America, US, Sport, Basketball

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The All-Star game - a cricketer's perspective

July 16th 2008 12:31

Oh my, the Americans do it well, don't they? It was a celebration of baseball, and it was a celebration of sport. It was a privilege to see the living Hall of Famers, it was moving to see the tribute to Yankee Stadium, and it was fascinating to watch and witness the history and lore and love for this game of baseball of Americans.

It's a global game, and many other countries were represented in the All-Star game, but it's an essentially American day, a window to its culture.

As a boy growing up in southern Australia, my winters were all about Australian football and my summers were about cricket. I played four seasons of baseball in the years after retiring from the rigours of football, but I never learned the rules thoroughly enough to be able to join in the arguments which are enjoyed by everyone from bush league players to major league managers.

It is a deceptively complicated game, it is rich in tradition and lore, and it is dominated by statistics. These are attractions which any cricket aficionado will understand.

In my younger days I went to a party in San Francisco. There were only two men at the party because there were only two heterosexual couples present. I was approached fairly early in the evening by a woman who stood before me and locked her eyes to mine. I imagined she looked less then friendly, and I timidly wondered if it was my maleness or my Australianess which was about to be called into question.

"What is the difference," she asked, "between baseball and cricket?"

What a delightful question. The answer, I suggested after a little consideration, might best start with a rephrasing of the question: "What are the similarities between the two games?" I mentioned the obvious division of games into innings and the similar roles of bowlers and pitchers, batsmen and batters, wicketkeepers and catchers.

But then things started to go awry. She looked disbelieving when I said a cricket game can last five days and her eyes glazed when I mentioned the LBW law. Which was a shame because she'd tuned out before I got to the best bit - the love of both sets of fans of the numbers which are the fabric of their game.

We have nothing in cricket that compares to the All-Star game. We have nothing that brings together, on one big stage, every year, a massive and merry spectacle which places before the viewer everything that was and is good about the game.

They do it well, the Americans.

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: North America, US, Sport

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