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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21 Feb 2013, 08:50 am
@@whistle@blower@-747: He has a a job. You can see the 5 min breaks in between his 1am and 2am posts. (That’s when he ‘works’ – handjobsforshekelsandmalemassage.com : Let me: ShaunB be your ‘helping’ hand)
21 Feb 2013, 09:01 am
As the saying goes: there is none so blind as those who do not want to see.
Every day we are confronted with situations where we get that uneasy feeling but rationalise that it is really ‘nothing’.
So you start dating a famous sports star and see that he is into guns. See the problem with a gun is that is you direct it at someone and pull the trigger you can harm or kill someone. So it’s dangerous.
You then need to ask yourself: why is this peace making loving person (who also states that he is a christian) into guns? Is the person plagued by fear? It would seem that way. The guns then represent in his mind his safety, the means to repel or fight off the threat – perhaps threats that are physical and emotional in its nature.
People’s hearts are melting with fear out there and its make them mad, angry.
Just ask dentists how many people suffer from bruxism.
21 Feb 2013, 09:08 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-749: the Untouchables
21 Feb 2013, 09:08 am
This zionist from the racist israeli apartheid state wants to talk about ‘mercernaries’ and ‘imports’ and ‘home’ grown players while on a tik high. How ironic :grinh
21 Feb 2013, 09:11 am
@Sheriff-752: @Sheriff-752: not to cast aspersions but did you see the pic in the sunday times of her shooting a gun in what clearly is a “sport” situation?
21 Feb 2013, 09:12 am
I have to tell you folk, that I am also getting more than fed up with the ‘Oscar groupies’ (the women who are wailing all over the interweb about how tragic this is for him….his family….blah blah blah.) I’m a woman but FFS this lot are embarassing.
As a human I feel for what Pistorius and his family they are going through.
As a decent human (I like to think I’m one…) I’m far more concerned about justice for Ms Steenkamp, and answers for her grieving family – either way.
I was not amused with the Pistorius family’s scoffing and laughing in court yesterday. (I initially thought – allow them this, it’s relief that the defence have managed to poke a few holes, and Oscar might with rescheduling get bail etc etc…)
Then I saw his OOM on tv…..saying “Oscar will be back bigger than ever, or better than ever etc etc” and I thought fuckem….
An innocent and unarmed woman was shot and killed – the end. And I see very little in the way of ‘justice for Reeva groupies’ wailing on the interweb.
21 Feb 2013, 09:16 am
@Transformation-753: OP is an ‘untouchable’. Julius WAS an ‘untouchable’ and he touched another ‘untouchable’ on his studio….Selebi was an ‘untouchable’ until a new ‘untouchable’ wanted him touched.
Other untouchables include:
Kebble and Bakkies
21 Feb 2013, 09:24 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-749: Hmmmmmmm.
Yes now I understand more from where former soccer player Marc Bachelor (sp?) is coming from.
He says that he had some sort of confrontation with Pistorius and the next thing he was summonsed to some high-ranking plod’s office “to sort the whole thing out”.
Interesting.
21 Feb 2013, 09:29 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-756:
The PR expert that they have imported from GB to protect the “investment” must have cringed at every word spoken by that “Oom”.
21 Feb 2013, 09:30 am
@BrumbiesBoy-758: Not just some high ranking ‘plod’: The Hawks…….
21 Feb 2013, 09:36 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-757: kia ora pedi..
speaking of bakkies, where is the paranoid fecker?
has the whole Oscar show coupled with revelations of his heroes citing gotten too much for the man? is he waiting for these two incidences to blow over to avoid suffering the repercussions of his own delusion?
strange hes not here to post article after article on either of these two subjects, one can only summise if these two incidences involved kiwis in some way this site would be inundated with news stories from all over the place.
love the fact the universe has been dealing him a hard dose of shut the fark up..
bakkies – jou dom ****
21 Feb 2013, 09:36 am
@Robzim-759: Higgins probably wrote it
Ex editors of ‘The Sun’ are not known for their ‘compassion and feeling’.
But that ‘Oom’ needs a twatsmack…as does the scoffing and laughing brother and sister….. (Must be honest, the brother gives me the creeps for some (as yet unknown) reason….. Something dark resides behind those frames.
What say you about our chance tomm night? I’m saying Bulls at home: they must be firm favourites. And whether our team looks good on paper or not – lots of new combos and players there?
21 Feb 2013, 09:36 am
Kenny Kunene?
21 Feb 2013, 09:37 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-760: Wow, even more connected.
On a “lighter side”, somebody emailed me a picture of “Oscar’s new legs”…a set of prosthetics (complete with blades) connected to a massive ball and chain…
21 Feb 2013, 09:39 am
@the curse-761: Morning Pops.
Bakkies is probably locked down in his Bulls bunker. Watching replays of games in the 90′s and making notes on Kiwi cheating……
I think his world has been rocked somewhat.
But I just want to remind Bakkies, that just because our ‘heroes’ turn out to be human, does not mean they haven’t achieved greatness at times.
21 Feb 2013, 09:40 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-762:
Favourites?
Not according to the bookies.
21 Feb 2013, 09:42 am
What?
No Queens or Watson stories?
I’ll come back later….
21 Feb 2013, 09:42 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-765:
I fear for his safety, the bubble has burst exponentially and all these revelations have wreaked havoc it would seem..
it will only get worse for him when the Bulls lose over the weekend, I feel we may not see him for quite a while if that occurs
makes me want to sing from the hilltops
21 Feb 2013, 09:44 am
@Transformation-755:
No I did not, are you able to find it in your archives and preps post the link here
21 Feb 2013, 09:44 am
Bakkies Poepsie
Tomatoe Tomato.
21 Feb 2013, 09:46 am
@stormersboy-763: Yes, he has been oh so visible, parking his Porsche in the street outside court daily. OP is ‘connected’…..very connected.
@gunther-766: Regardless what the bookies say, I’m saying the Bulls are faves. We are talking Loftus here….(and yes, a few teams have knocked them over there in recent times
, but it’s still Loftus…..and it’s still a formidable Bulls team….)
@the curse-768: Bakkies won’t be watching any Superrugby, remember?
21 Feb 2013, 09:47 am
Tomorrows’ games
Landers
Brumbies
Bulls
21 Feb 2013, 09:48 am
@gunther-770: dont be like that “buddy”, comparisons are easy to make
Gunther Julius
potato pahtato
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-771: I did forget that, this could be the best season of rugby ever
21 Feb 2013, 09:50 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-762:
That’s why I asked you yesterday what you think his brother knows.
There is a video clip entitled ‘ media hounds Pistorius’ brother’ ; I reckon the theory of ‘intruder’ could be his brainchild.
I reckon only him and the dad really knows what happened there that morning, from the family side. The uncle has been told a version and he (as we would all do believes it to be the gospel truth)
21 Feb 2013, 09:52 am
@the curse-773:
Face it
21 Feb 2013, 09:54 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-756:
What the Oom is saying something similar to Isaiah 9:10:
‘ The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with cut stone
The sycamore trees have been chopped down, but we will replace them with cedars’
This is theme of Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s book ‘ The Harbringer’ ; read the book or watch clips on Youtube where he summarises it
21 Feb 2013, 09:54 am
@gunther-775: Im not as delusional as that one, and I can congratulate opposition sides if they win, as I did Englands victory over NZ, I dont go looking for shadows in the night continuously either..
but meh, its only your opinion and that means fckall in any case..
21 Feb 2013, 10:00 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-762:
It is a tough one to call, I think a lot depends on Jantjes at number 10, who has not played any rugby his season and who will be combining for the first time with Groom who is also a novice at this level.
Bulls by 3. Pleasletmebewrong.
21 Feb 2013, 10:02 am
@Sheriff-752: You need to up your medication, bro.
21 Feb 2013, 10:04 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-756: Indeed. Reeva Steenkamp was 10 times the man that Oscar Pistorius is.
21 Feb 2013, 10:07 am
@the curse-777: Eng’s “victory” was shadowy though. Not because they didn’t deserve it but because the ABs were below par.
Just like 1995.
21 Feb 2013, 10:08 am
@Muttonbird-781: 95 was a Madiba led conspiracy indeed… theres a scene in Invictus where he states categorically that they must win it at any cost..
open and shut case
21 Feb 2013, 10:12 am
@Muttonbird-779:
Mate where are you from?
21 Feb 2013, 10:16 am
@Robzim-778:
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-762:
And then the lineouts…….. Every time Fourie aims to throw I shudder- specially if he takes so long and start to get that puzzled look in the eyes.
Beside being technically the worst line out thrower to ever play supperugby, he also suffers from stage fright (missing the most vital ones) and seems scared shitless that bekker might become upset and either kak hm out or moer him in front of everybody.
Besides that, he is a great player.
21 Feb 2013, 10:18 am
@Sheriff-783: keewee land
21 Feb 2013, 10:19 am
@Robzim-778: @The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-762: Dont be worried, be afraid. The season for you is going to be k*k if you lose.
21 Feb 2013, 10:20 am
@Sheriff-776: I appreciate the sentiment. But the timing and manner in which said sentiment was executed and expressed by the ‘Oom’ was in poor taste…..all things considered. I wanted to dish out a stilleto smack. If I felt like that, what did her family feel?
As it’s allllllllllllllllll about Oscar…sleeping on a floor, not eating, reading his bible…..being strong in the face of adversity etc.
He’s alive isn’t he?
(And receiving some rather special treatment it would seem….family sitting reading his bible with him in his cell etc)
@Robzim-778: We’re on the same page…..a horrible page. However, if the new combos manage to gel in any manner….
@Muttonbird-780: She and her family certainly deserve more sympathy than he and his.
@the curse-782: Ohdear. Why poke a sleeping Yorkie?
21 Feb 2013, 10:20 am
@Robzim-784: and he’s throwing, basically, to Matfield again
21 Feb 2013, 10:21 am
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
21 Feb 2013, 10:22 am
EEEEEEEEEEEEEE
21 Feb 2013, 10:23 am
@Transformation-785:
Thought so.
21 Feb 2013, 10:24 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-787: all in the name of social science
21 Feb 2013, 10:27 am
@Robzim-784: Yes Rob and with Steenkamp there who is not a good option at 4, I share your concern. Bekker has had the tendency in the past to go deep in the lineout with the first ball. If he does the same tomorrow night, Fourie will probably (definitely?) miss his target again !!
21 Feb 2013, 10:27 am
@shooter-786: Not on a personal level….on a bloggin level possibly
A person who writes the Boooooooooools off at Loftus, is either HG or Skop (neither of which have a decent track record in terms of predictions)
@Robzim-784: Feel the same about Deon F. Reminds of how I used to feel when John Smit would go for the full defensive lineout and throw to the back when we (Boks) were 5 metres from our line…….. I couldn’t watch. With Deon…I can’t watch a single throw in. (At Newlands, I sit looking down, with my fingers in my ears, because one hears the aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh).
We’ve been told he has worked on his throwing in….. (but I recall hearing that last year? and the year before?). And what I saw in the warmups…..eish.
21 Feb 2013, 10:30 am
@BrumbiesBoy-748: hmmm …. what’s that smell? … bring the rattex, quick!
**
“It was only yesterday [Wednesday] that we were informed by the DPP that he is being charged,” he said.
{koff, koff}
21 Feb 2013, 10:31 am
I have no doubt he will wear the same suit again today.
The reading of the Bible is of course what will get my attention. The PR company is at work, that’s for sure.
Visual and audio signals are being sent out: Oscar the victim.
I was quite intrigued with Carl Pistorius’ ability to not say ONE word when the media was hounding him. You can tell he is bursting to say something, but he does not.
I mean, why not just say:’ Folks I have had a tough day with my brother in court. So no comment from me thanks.’
21 Feb 2013, 10:33 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-794: I have a view that certain hookers simply can’t throw in properly irrespective of how much they practise. When you add pressure to that they struggle even more !!
21 Feb 2013, 10:35 am
@Sheriff-796: The shadyfucker did not have a tough day in court yesterday…..
He sat ‘scoffing at remarks, and even laughed at times’.
He seems to forget that his boet is still guilty of murder, regardless of how many holes they punch in the Schedule 6 version of the charge.
21 Feb 2013, 10:37 am
@CharlesM-797: I don’t know why we insist on having the hooker throw in. We could use Duane to lob it to Bekker… (it takes away a jumper yes, but I reckon we will get more straight calls than not)…..
21 Feb 2013, 10:42 am
@BrumbiesBoy-758: Money talks, Bull $hit walks
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