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
Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 … 23 » Show All
20 Feb 2013, 09:41 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-124: my word, there is a definition after all!
20 Feb 2013, 09:47 am
Bakkies Botha cited
——————————————————————————–
19 February 2013, 16:37
Toulon second-row Bakkies Botha has been cited for a shoulder charge on Montpellier wing Yoan Audrin.
The former Springbok lock will face an LNR disciplinary committee on March 5 after taking out Audrin without the ball during Toulon’s 51-6 victory over Montpellier at Stade Felix Mayol last weekend.
In a bizarre twist of events, Audrin was shown a yellow card for (involuntarily) clattering into Toulon scrum-half Nicolas Durand in the air after being bumped off course by Botha, whose enormous frame obscured the referee’s view.
The match was just Botha’s second game back after a long lay-off following surgery on a fractured eye socket.
20 Feb 2013, 09:49 am
@grant10-152: he he that’s our boy!
20 Feb 2013, 09:50 am
Investigating officer Hilton Botha on the stand.
Tappit name.
20 Feb 2013, 09:50 am
@stormersboy-153: Some things will never change…..
Taxes….mans corruptability and Bakkies…..
20 Feb 2013, 09:51 am
Career over 4 Baxxies now i think. Will he go down as the biggest thug in world rugby?
20 Feb 2013, 09:51 am
@grant10-155: True
20 Feb 2013, 09:52 am
@grant10-155: I thought the froggies liked it rough and tough
20 Feb 2013, 09:52 am
@grant10-152: great stuff bakkies. Would love to see him and Eben pair up
20 Feb 2013, 09:53 am
@Muttonbird-156: Not by a long shot, although he is the most celebrated thug.
20 Feb 2013, 09:53 am
Softie Frenchies.
20 Feb 2013, 09:54 am
@Fern-29: How has that been allowed to happen Fern? Is there a wide income gap in SA or something?
20 Feb 2013, 09:55 am
@stormersboy-161: becoming real slaptjips
20 Feb 2013, 09:55 am
@grant10-152: this man is a blight on the game..
dirty cheating filthy scum that he is.
it must have beehn coached into him at the Bulls.
when will SA clean up her rugby? it is atrocious, eye gougers are seen as heroes, parents encourage their kids to take steroids which are available at any local school, the national teams coach backs killers, SARU are now trying to rig super rugby..
the list is endless, have they no shame?
20 Feb 2013, 09:56 am
What is a muttonbird?
Some kind of Keewee sextoy?
20 Feb 2013, 09:56 am
@Dilligafrican-160: He’s done more damage than good though.
20 Feb 2013, 09:57 am
@Tacitus-35:
The Bulls game vs the Kings will actually be quite interesting from a spectator point of view as the majority of PE friends I have are all Bull supporters while the EC was absent from Super Rugby.
They have all the Bull jerseys and regalia.
Would like to see if they will now support the Kings and ditch the Bulls
20 Feb 2013, 09:57 am
@Muttonbird-162: like the space between your ears…
@the curse-164: easy now – the cheating bit belongs to you lot
20 Feb 2013, 09:58 am
@gunther-165: Sooty Shearwater, bro. A Maori delicacy in some parts of the country.
20 Feb 2013, 09:59 am
@Muttonbird-166: nonsense…every story needs an anti-hero
20 Feb 2013, 10:00 am
@Muttonbird-169:
Still no clearer, don’t worry I’ll ask Poep.
If I can get him off his soapbox.
20 Feb 2013, 10:00 am
@ 165 gunther
Hehehe,sharp!!
20 Feb 2013, 10:01 am
@Dilligafrican-168: It may surprise you to learn that Baxxies is seen by the rest of the world as an angry and dimwitted freak who picks on the smaller players he comes across because he’s too chicken to front up to the big ones.
20 Feb 2013, 10:01 am
@Dilligafrican-168: nope, we are saints, its why the (NZ led) IRB love us… secretly, Andrew Hore was presented with an honorary lifetime membership for dropping the Welshman, Kevin will be knighted this year for services to “real centres” and McCaw will indeed b e handed a new invisibility cloak..
20 Feb 2013, 10:01 am
@gunther-171: mutton…shears….what is it with these keewees?
20 Feb 2013, 10:02 am
@Muttonbird-169: what’s the maori name for it?
20 Feb 2013, 10:03 am
@gunther-171: its a seabird gunther, namely shearwaters..
google it..
20 Feb 2013, 10:03 am
@156,
I think the title of ‘biggest thug’ is firmly with Johan Le Roux.
Please dont bring him out of retirement to stake his claim to that.
If he reads your comment, he just might try storm SARFU headquarters pulling a Mike Tyson on everyone he sees.
Truely a low moment in BOK rugby.
20 Feb 2013, 10:04 am
@the curse-174: lol.
@Muttonbird-173: he aint angry. I think he enjoys it.
20 Feb 2013, 10:05 am
@Dilligafrican-176: “titi” or muttonbird..
20 Feb 2013, 10:05 am
@Dilligafrican-176: Wouldn’t know. You could probably Google that too.
20 Feb 2013, 10:06 am
Thanks curse.
20 Feb 2013, 10:07 am
@gunther-171: soapbox? just having a laugh gunther, all firmly tongue in cheek.. I realise many SAs dont understand sarcasm, but what the heck
senility is not something you want to catch buddy
20 Feb 2013, 10:08 am
Where does this muttonbird thing rank with a long pig in terms of Maori delicacies?
20 Feb 2013, 10:08 am
@Muttonbird-182: sweet as bro, I got the name off google too, have always known them as muttonbirds.
20 Feb 2013, 10:09 am
@Dilligafrican-179: He’s got white-line fever. There are other examples. Off the top of my head Troy Flavell, and more recently, Callum Clarke. These types of players are unable to be rehabilitated, only managed.
20 Feb 2013, 10:09 am
@the curse-180: sounds more palatable….wonder what titi breasts taste like.
20 Feb 2013, 10:10 am
Are they good eating?
20 Feb 2013, 10:11 am
Kings 4Life!!!
the Force are looking for excuses claimining we are spying on them
20 Feb 2013, 10:11 am
@the curse-183: eish…you don’t speak sarcasm so well eh?
@gunther-184: waddefok is ‘n langvark?
20 Feb 2013, 10:12 am
@the curse-185:
Kia ora Pops….te reo o Te Taitokerau….Oi …Muttonbird
20 Feb 2013, 10:13 am
@Transformation-189: more like Kings4ayear!!!
20 Feb 2013, 10:14 am
@gunther-184: not all maoris ate longpig Gunther
never tried muttonbird myself, though know those who enjoy it..
20 Feb 2013, 10:14 am
@Muttonbird-162:
There’s an incredibly wide income gap in SA. Almost 2 different countries in fact, as our previous President once claimed.
20 Feb 2013, 10:14 am
@gunther-184: Don’t think you’d find many examples of Maori eating the European invaders much. Te Rauparaha was a bad-*** though and used to go on raids to the South Island and, according to anecdotal legend, ate babies for strength!!!
20 Feb 2013, 10:15 am
@Dilligafrican-190:
I think it’s a kiwi version of a shallow pig.
Or a fuckfuck as my nephew calls it.
20 Feb 2013, 10:16 am
@Te Rangatira-191: kia ora bro.. aye, just like in rugby, we be sharing the wealth
20 Feb 2013, 10:16 am
@gunther-196: lol…or a band of the 90s.
20 Feb 2013, 10:17 am
@gunther-196: long pig is not porcine in nature, but I think Gunther already knows this
20 Feb 2013, 10:19 am
@David-194: This trend is continuing the Western World over and in South Africa I know it is particularly keenly felt. Income separation is a major cause of violent crime in all societies and where the gap is widest , crime is more severe.
Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 … 23 » Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.