Why winning isn’t everything
20 Feb 2013
MARK KEOHANE, in his Business Day Sport Monthly column, says we live in a miracle country and it’s time we started appreciating the miracle of sport.
Sport is entertainment and it is also about effort. A fixation with just the result is going to lead to a lot of heartache.
It wasn’t that long ago when South Africa wasn’t allowed to compete internationally. Familiarity breeds contempt and irrationally so.
Feel good about the joy of indulging in the performance of South Africans, who are among the best ever produced in their respective codes.
We put huge pressure on our performers to produce every time, but the fans and the media have as much of a responsibility in their performance post match.
We also need to grow up and show some perspective to the effort of the individual or team and give credit to the quality of the opposition. There are times when they just are better and they actually win and we actually lose.
For those who are inspired to live in this country only when South Africa wins, take some responsibility for your own emotions. Similarly, don’t blame a poor SA performance for your depression. No player is losing deliberately and no national player should be subjected to the hate and vitriol published on Twitter.
It sickens me that people can actually feel a justification in the abuse and believe they are owed something by the player and that the player has a responsibility to ensure their happiness. The abuse is disgusting and can never be justified. There is so much to applaud and there is a generation of South African performer that is the best ever produced in this country. What a privilege it is to watch them at their peak.
Look beyond the need for a winning result and imagine South Africa being in sporting isolation. It is pathetic how fans think players are there to instil nationalism. Go do that yourself and start enjoying the sport and keep perspective.
There is life the next day and sport always gives your team or the individual a chance to get it right or to flop.
It is an honour to play for one’s country, but it is not a crime to lose and supporters need to take their insecurity and deal with it.
In the days of isolation we never played anyone and never lost. So we allowed ourselves to believe we were the best in everything. The reality is we are not the best in all things sport and that does not deserve the crassness I read on Twitter.
I get irritated with a lot of our sports media coverage, especially in newsprint. It is always all or nothing, as if every win defines the miracle of this country and defeat brings the possibility of doom. Inspire me with a solution instead of repeating what I saw on television 24 hours earlier and what I have read on the Internet a day earlier.
The media is more guilty than the fans in the buzz and the blowout. I have been as guilty as anyone at times of my career so I certainly don’t preach from a pedestal of purity, but rather from a place of apology.
The daily sports media though need to get a grip and invest in some perspective.
An example was the Proteas ODI series defeat against New Zealand. The Proteas did not play well but the game was apparently in crisis after the series defeat and the euphoria of being the best Test team in the world a few days earlier was an afterthought.
The hysteria was excessive, just like the condemnation and ridicule of New Zealand’s tour only a few days earlier. Appreciate the players and the fact that it’s not you out there on days when all is failing save the potency of the opponent.
There’s an added spice when you know you are watching a performer unrivalled in their field and at the peak of their performance.
The South African bowling attack gives me that sense of awe. Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis evoke a similar emotion and Graeme Smith is just never going to get the reward for his effort. No other Test captain in the history of the game has achieved as much.
Smith, having gone past 100 Test matches as captain, still has his doubters. Give him a break. There is a serious projection of insecurity and delusion among many of the South African fans in the way they react to the players.
A guy like Smith must be judged on how he plays and not for how his gum chewing may irk you. It is massive what he has achieved yet there are so many who burden him with not wearing enough flags on his T-shirt and not being proudly South African.
This is sport. Nationalism looks after itself and it can’t be all taken from the player’s performance. We owe the player the simple courtesy of a dignified interaction that does not start with an attack on his mother’s hair colour and outright abuse.
Grow up you trolls or inspire with your cleverness.
Oh, and one last thing, why the obsession with having to feel the need to retire great players at the start of a season because they are supposedly blocking the path of a 21-year-old?
Give the more mature form players the necessary respect. They’ve earned the right through performance to a bit of loyalty. Our rugby players offer the promise of silverware in Super Rugby but the enjoyment must also be in the performance.
Bafana, in African soccer’s big bi-annual one, were brave and belligerent in a tournament I hoped they could win but never quite had the conviction to believe it was possible. They lost in the quarter-finals on penalties, which was a cruel yet also a dignified exit for the hosts. Dignified in it allowed us to dream of what could have been without confronting the reality of what would most likely have been had they advanced to the semi-final or final.
Bafana played with passion and the support of a nation was a boost, but there are limitations to the current side and the desire to associate with success should also not be confused with the expectation that if they don’t win a tournament they have failed.
Equally our Super Rugby teams.
– This article first appeared in the March issue of Business Day Sport Monthly, which is distributed FREE with the newspaper on the second last Friday of every month.
1,128 Comments
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20 Feb 2013, 17:17 pm
@Transformation-596:
Sharif has hair like that.
20 Feb 2013, 17:18 pm
@Transformation-596:
Are you gonna ask her hand in marriage?
20 Feb 2013, 17:19 pm
@gunther-601:
T knows what I look like
Dawn as well…
20 Feb 2013, 17:22 pm
@Sheriff-599: quick google dawg
20 Feb 2013, 17:27 pm
Sometimes I feel bad about the questions I ask people.
Just yesterday I asked Mark Keohane if he was a Cape Kullid – based on his own description that he was what can only be described as ‘of mixed descent’ and no answer.
Invariably I then have sleepless nights wondering: did I offend the bloke?
20 Feb 2013, 17:27 pm
@Sheriff-600: since the s.ex, drugs & groping co-workers debacle keo resigned as COO of HSM and now he has taken his website back & HSM lanched Sarugbmag.co.za where ryan, jc, simon, gareth are.
20 Feb 2013, 17:33 pm
@Transformation-606:
Never a dull moment.
20 Feb 2013, 18:13 pm
When KEO sells KEO for the fifth time he’s going to work at the circus as a canon ball.
20 Feb 2013, 18:20 pm
Sport is about entertainment and showing something to excite the fans. Only really concerned about the Boks later this year under Meyer and his team. Hopefully we dont see a fear-based, conservative approach and grim arm wrestles against all comers.
20 Feb 2013, 18:22 pm
@Spiesisworthless1-609:
You don’t watch Bokke rugby for entertainment.
20 Feb 2013, 18:24 pm
You’re South African you have to watch the Bokke, 99.98% of neutrals watch the men in black.
20 Feb 2013, 18:25 pm
@Spiesisworthless1-609: Indeed. Ideally win + entertainment, however if winning takes boring oppo to death, so be it. Professional sport, we like it or not.
20 Feb 2013, 18:25 pm
Anybody seen my old pal Mr Stegman,aka Agile Tik Tycoon lately??
20 Feb 2013, 18:27 pm
@NZINCHINA-611: What if they ain’t playing, turn telly off?
As for my 2 cents, despite being an ABs supporter, I readily watch Bokke play, too. The beauty of rugby is in diversity.
20 Feb 2013, 18:30 pm
@NZINCHINA-611: The Boks have been known to be entertaining. They’ve certainly got the talent to entertain. The fans dont demand much from the Boks aesthetically unlike NZ and particularly Australia but even the die hards are being tested by Meyer’s extremely dull approach.
20 Feb 2013, 18:30 pm
@polaris-614:
If you were a neutral (which you aren’t) you have a choice between Steyn hoofing misdirected Gary Owens or the great DC carving them up, most people choose black, I still respect Bokke rugby but it farking boring to watch.
20 Feb 2013, 18:31 pm
@NZINCHINA-616: The question was what if ABs ain’t playing.
20 Feb 2013, 18:33 pm
@Spiesisworthless1-615:
We like a ball in hand run the ball from anywhere ( read poach islander approach) you guys prefer Morne to kick from anywhere to everywhere.
20 Feb 2013, 18:33 pm
@Spiesisworthless1-615: Laugh at PDV or not, in his time Bokke did entertain a lot. Even in JW times, I recall them thrilling well in 04, 05.
20 Feb 2013, 18:34 pm
@polaris-617:
We still watch.
20 Feb 2013, 18:34 pm
the bokke play rugby? well fark me
I thought it was 8 grown men, dressed in green, trying to run over the top of the opposition while 7 stand around out the back swapping timotei and hair stylings?
20 Feb 2013, 18:34 pm
@NZINCHINA-618: “We like a ball in hand run the ball from anywhere”
In 3N 2009 2 SA Tests it was painful to watch, to be honest.
20 Feb 2013, 18:34 pm
@Rage-613:
Why, hello there.
You’re speaking to the Tyrant.
20 Feb 2013, 18:35 pm
@NZINCHINA-620: Yessir we do.
@the curse-621: ag, cmon man.
20 Feb 2013, 18:35 pm
@polaris-619:
PDV won nothing 08/10 or 11.
20 Feb 2013, 18:36 pm
@polaris-622:
It was can’t win all the time
20 Feb 2013, 18:38 pm
I see they’ve done away with displaying nicknames again, just like when they confiscated my hard-earned keo dollars.
20 Feb 2013, 18:39 pm
@NZINCHINA-626: no, it was lets have wingers who couldnt catch a garry owen to save themselves, even though we knew after this would be their approach..
20 Feb 2013, 18:39 pm
@Anairetes agilis-627:
KEO spent all your hard earned rand on cheap hookers and Charlie.
20 Feb 2013, 18:40 pm
@NZINCHINA-618: Well, it’s a coaching issue. I personally dont enjoy watching that. We’ve had a lot of very conservative and lets face it, sub-par coaches who continue to drill that prehistoric game-plan into our players. Sadly we’ve got it just as bad as ever at the moment with Meyer and his rookie coaching buddies. Francois Hougaard, Goosen, Serfontein, Jordaan, A.Coetzee- guys like that all have natural instincts to play with the ball and are gifted backs.
@polaris-619: Yeah they did alright at times. Just a bit of accuracy and solid enough game-plan and they did more than enough to score a few tries. They were really exciting under Mallet though.
20 Feb 2013, 18:41 pm
@the curse-628:
One of only a few mistakes the messiah made, no second row didn’t help either, free line out ball for the Bokkie.
20 Feb 2013, 18:43 pm
Is this article about the debilitating social disease known as fairweather supportering. I couldn’t get more than halfway through it…
20 Feb 2013, 18:43 pm
@NZINCHINA-629:
Winning.
20 Feb 2013, 18:44 pm
@ 623 Agile
…and as if by magic he appears,hoezit Steggies? Jy reg vi di seisoen?
20 Feb 2013, 18:45 pm
@NZINCHINA-631: shhhh, highlighting the fact that playing Isaac Ross, a rookie, no Carter for two matches and Ritchie mcCaw just returning from injury would crush Cab..
remember, they never have their strongest team when we beat them, but the reverse is always in effect when they beat us..
strange logic but it seems to comfort him..
20 Feb 2013, 18:45 pm
@Spiesisworthless1-630:
Herr Meyer should spend less time destroying Motorola walkie talkies and more time man managing, after you drew with the Argies and he sold his players out to the media I knew it was going to be a good 4 years for us.
20 Feb 2013, 18:47 pm
@Anairetes agilis-633:
Some would say that including myself pre marriage of course and excluding the hookers
@the curse-635:
Isaac who?
20 Feb 2013, 18:48 pm
@Rage-634:
Rrrreg soos n Steg, my maat.
Hey, I bumbed into old Johannes Cardinelli recently, I told him I read the blog and I’m a Bulls supporter… looked like he was expecting a PK outta leftfield right about then hahaha.
Hello JC
20 Feb 2013, 18:49 pm
@NZINCHINA-637:
Why don’t we just start our Rugby Blog, with blackjack, and hookers.
20 Feb 2013, 18:49 pm
In fact, forget the Rugby Blog!
20 Feb 2013, 18:50 pm
@Anairetes agilis-638: you bumbed Cardinelli?
but of a big admission there bru
20 Feb 2013, 18:50 pm
@Anairetes agilis-639:
Gambling and prostitution is illegal in China
20 Feb 2013, 18:50 pm
@NZINCHINA-637: pre-farking-cisely
20 Feb 2013, 18:51 pm
@the curse-641:
Lol
20 Feb 2013, 18:53 pm
@the curse-641:
Well, have you met him in real life? He in fact doesn’t resemble my best friend’s mother like I thought he did. He’s a little less manly, but probably endearing to his own mother….let’s not judge.
20 Feb 2013, 18:54 pm
@NZINCHINA-642:
Yeah, I guess that means those poor squinty-eyed ******** never heard of it then, huh, china?
Where’s your sense of adventure and patriotism?
20 Feb 2013, 18:58 pm
@Anairetes agilis-645: Glad to see you again fella.
20 Feb 2013, 18:58 pm
@Anairetes agilis-646:
There’s no need to make a racist call about Chinese people, my daughters are half Chinese. You’d be interested to hear what Chinese people have to say about white people but you’re probably shocked they have actually have an opinion.
20 Feb 2013, 18:59 pm
@Anairetes agilis-645:
20 Feb 2013, 19:00 pm
@stormersboy-647:
Hey hey, how are things going?
Nahh, I’m just here to answer Keo’s desparate wh@ring for my F5 key. I’d tap that, but JC’s face isn’t in the header, if you know what I mean.
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