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, 11:26 am
@The Rangerman-243: Sounds good
Enjoy.
20 Feb 2013, 11:28 am
@The Rangerman-243:
Have a good one Ranger.
20 Feb 2013, 11:29 am
@John Galt-250: Are you saying that because the cop “may have been crooked” that he deserved to have his head stove in on the road and that the person who did it set free?
20 Feb 2013, 11:30 am
The O-dawg is doing a lot of crying.
Thinking about his first night sharing a cell with the famous 350 pound Zulu called Frontendloader.
20 Feb 2013, 11:31 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-251: thanks.
p.s. what other possible defence could oscar have offered up besides an intruder?
temporary insanity?
jealousy?
drugs?
mental incapacity?
these would have all admitted intention surely?
either way, its not about what he shouldnt have said or what he should have said imo, its about the truth, whether it be palatable or not.
20 Feb 2013, 11:31 am
@gunther-254: Don’t think Nair cares for the sympathy vote
20 Feb 2013, 11:32 am
@Muttonbird-241: way of the world unfortunately.. money talks… when you say “poach” its best to mention that these kids are poached from the poorer suburbs of NZ, many here still believe we send the waka to the islands under guise of night, our longpig suckling warrior, armed only with taiaha and patu sneak through the fale’s stealing the first born 6 month old male (asking him which are his whanau) and then carrying all 30 or 40 of them back to the waka, they sail for weeks wiht nothing but the longpig of pirated european traders for food, and once they reach the shores of Aotearoa (when these first borns are 6 1/2 months old) are they settled into the ways of the ancients..
we maori are just too good at spotting natural all black talent in the dark of night, under the fronds of the pacific palm tree…
so, be specific when talking poaching or you may miscommunicate your meaning to these people
20 Feb 2013, 11:32 am
Does anybody remember the name John Verity?
(Possibly) the last white man to be hanged in South Africa.
In 1983 my brother and I had to drive down to Cape Town to help two friends (also brothers) who’d had to fly out from the USA to clean up their sister and 12 yearold niece’s murder scene in Observatory/Wynberg.
No guns involved but more blood stains than I’ve ever seen in my life and those scenes have stayed with me forever…
I can only imagine what it was like for Reeva’s family…
Verity was hanged circa 1985.
20 Feb 2013, 11:32 am
@nortierd-236: A King’s plea for support
08 February 2013
George Byron
RUGBY boss Cheeky Watson has made an
impassioned plea to Port Elizabeth fans
who support the Bulls, Cheetahs, Sharks,
Stormers and Lions to switch allegiances
and to get behind the newly promoted
Southern Kings.
Speaking at the Kings’ launch of their new
black match day kit and ticket prices for the
Super Rugby season, he said “fans and
people of integrity should stand up and
support the Kings”. Rugby bosses want to
pack the stadium for the Kings clash with
the Western Force on February 23.
In the past when the Kings have played
against other Super Rugby franchises in
friendlies, the Kings supporters have
sometimes been outnumbered at their own
stadium.
20 Feb 2013, 11:32 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-251:
When does Oscar plead and can he turn around now in the face of other evidence and suddenly say ‘ok I did it, Im guilty’?
20 Feb 2013, 11:33 am
@John Galt-252: thanks man.
@Muttonbird-253: you are not even remotely qualified to pass judgement on a case in a country so far removed from any reality you are familiar with muttonman.
you have no frame of reference and the lens you are using to view the issue is a telescopic one.
if you are puzzled by us, we are puzzled equally by you, can you understand this?
20 Feb 2013, 11:34 am
@Muttonbird-253:
Yawnbird.
20 Feb 2013, 11:35 am
@The Rangerman-255: he’s a bulls supporter so I’d go with the last on your list
20 Feb 2013, 11:36 am
@Transformation-259:
sorry sheeky, you must understand that those fans have rights just like your all-black supporting pellies ok?
20 Feb 2013, 11:36 am
@Muttonbird-253: if it was the other way round, and Bees was the one killed by the cop, do you think it would have had the same outcome?
I dont personally..
20 Feb 2013, 11:37 am
@Transformation-259:
Don’t you think people are entrenched in their ways?
Not to mention already having bought the other sides’ jerseys etc.
I don’t know if them having possibly one year in SR will sway the public, but maybe when the Kings play the overseas opposition it will be different.
20 Feb 2013, 11:38 am
@Transformation-259: get your jersey quick! There aint gonna be a 2014 edition.
20 Feb 2013, 11:40 am
@the curse-265: Don’t think the cop would have $80k.
then again, it was an SA copper.
20 Feb 2013, 11:40 am
Bullets fired from top down apparently.
Meaning he had his legs on.
Eish Oscar.
20 Feb 2013, 11:40 am
@The Rangerman-261: Ok. But do you think because Reeva Steenkamp was white Oscar will be treated differently than if she was black? Genuinely curious.
20 Feb 2013, 11:41 am
@John Galt-269: and bottled of testosterone….the dope was a doper too.
20 Feb 2013, 11:42 am
@Muttonbird-270: no.
20 Feb 2013, 11:43 am
@Transformation-259: what about your filthy capecrusader brothers who support kiwi teams (you included) – I suspect many a confused faces in the stands when the Chiefs pitch up.
20 Feb 2013, 11:43 am
Looking bad .
20 Feb 2013, 11:44 am
@Dilligafrican-272: And if the cop Bees killed was white?
20 Feb 2013, 11:47 am
@The Rangerman-264:
People of integrity should stand up
Einapoes.
20 Feb 2013, 11:48 am
bakkies brace yourself:
Botha: “We found two boxes of
steroids…” Nel interrupts him.
Botha corrects to: “Two boxes of
testosterone, needles and
injections.”
9.40am GMT
Botha says they found two bottles of
testosterone and needles at Pistorius’s
house.
20 Feb 2013, 11:48 am
@The Rangerman-255: Saying ‘I lost it’ would have delivered a lesser sentence eventually. That I truly believe. (and it also allows for some leniancy in terms of incarceration).
The 1st rule of fight club: Shut your trap, don’t call anyone but your attorney and demand to see a medical professional. The end. (Not that I’m in favour of this of course, it’s just the way you get your defence off to a good start.)
What he’s done now, is show his state of mind was ‘perfect and rational’, before and after the shooting. It shows premeditation, as well as ‘covering his butt’ tactics – which means he was thinking clearly after the fact…….for all intents and purposes.
Any mention of temporary insanity, rage, provocation etc etc etc etc etc – is now worthless. IMHO of course.
This fella is just too used to his minions making all his problems ‘disappear’. Everything from troublesome ex-GF’s, to allegations of excessive drinking etc. Why on earth would he think this would be any different?
I’m guessing he’s realised this IS different.
20 Feb 2013, 11:48 am
@The Rangerman-261:
Muttonbird, like millions of people all over the World, are taking an interest in this unfortunate and tragic affair.
It’s not about,
in what Country this shiit happened.
It’s about the people it happened to.
This is OJ Simpson stuff all over again. And yes the World will judge.
20 Feb 2013, 11:49 am
@Transformation-277:
Poeps is at Defcon 4.
20 Feb 2013, 11:52 am
@Transformation-277:
Does this surprise anyone?
20 Feb 2013, 11:52 am
@RL-273: Kings for Life
#when’sthenextTestmatch
20 Feb 2013, 11:52 am
@gunther-280: nah not at all… I realise just how prominent steroids are in society today, moreso yours, but also in Aus and NZ..
as Cane says, the whole world is watching this case and it isnt only Oscar on trial, SA justice and her legal system is also on trial..
Im just surprised that muttonbird has mentioned crime stories in SA and hasnt had all sorts of ***** thrown at him..
strange dont you think “buddy”
20 Feb 2013, 11:52 am
@cane-279:
Hhmmmm.
Computer says no.
This mutton likes to dress as lamb.
20 Feb 2013, 11:52 am
‘Botha says if he heard a noise he would try to find out where his girlfriend was and if she was safe.’
Objection!
Speculation.
Is the defence allowed to object at any point?
20 Feb 2013, 11:53 am
@gunther-280: Vodka & OJ, mayday, mayday
20 Feb 2013, 11:53 am
@cane-281: Bakkies
20 Feb 2013, 11:54 am
Keo – this article smacks of loser’s mentality my man. Fans should always be passionate and South African athletes and coaches should always strive to be the best.
We, the fans, recognise that South African rugby performs so far below its potential. Its true that all teams have the potential to be better but South African rugby really can be a lot better. And we are on our way there.
I will never resolve to accepting mediocrity in South African rugby. If you want to do that, you might as well just emigrate to Wales.
Springboks to be the best team in the world. Nothing less. Man up and stop whinging.
20 Feb 2013, 11:54 am
@Muttonbird-275: He wasn’t. Anymore conjectures or speculation?
20 Feb 2013, 11:55 am
@Transformation-282: Kings for a year!
20 Feb 2013, 11:56 am
@Dilligafrican-286:
He’ll be popping zanax like smarties.
@the curse-283:
He’s still learning.
He’ll progress slowly to your psychotic levels.
After all it took you years.
He just needs his Kobus Kitty moment .
20 Feb 2013, 11:56 am
Anyway…………………………………………Concerning Oscar.
So he thought there was a burglar in the house?
What prevented him from shouting………………………”Darling is that you”.
Before unloading his magazine through the little hole at the end of the barrell.
20 Feb 2013, 11:56 am
@Muttonbird-270: This might sound really ‘crass’, but the deceased plays nothing but a supporting role in this circus.
This is what it is because it’s Oscar P – nothing more, nothing less. (And purely because he is SA’s biggest sporting export and ‘hero’).
A sad indictment on humanity in general if you ask me.
@Transformation-277: I feel desperately sorry for Bakkies. I reckon he only wants to believe in the cream bun and hot tea type of things in life.
Sadly for Bakkies, I have a feeling the entire underbelly of Saffa sport is about to be exposed a little in this case. The group OP ‘ran with’, his mates etc. The testosterone found in his home opens up a whole new can of worms.
20 Feb 2013, 11:57 am
@Kaizan-288: step away from the tik bro..
best team in the world
hahahaahaha
20 Feb 2013, 11:59 am
Pistorius said it was dark, but Botha claims a witness heard gunshots, saw the lights on, heard “a female screaming” and then more shots.
Investigator: another witness heard the gunshots but thought he was dreaming … And heard a women screaming
Game over.
20 Feb 2013, 11:59 am
Oscar Pistolero.@the curse-287:
Don’t tell me Old Sam Houston is in Oscar’s corner?
20 Feb 2013, 12:00 pm
Cheeky said “fans and people of integrity should stand up and
support the Kings”.
This cnut Cheeky is accusing people like Tacitus of not having any integrity – well what does this doos know about integrity. He said he will abide by SARU ruling re the number of buitenlanders in his squad – he then included all 5 buitenlanders in his squad saying that is not his final squad and that he was still going to announce the final squad. Bullshitter fcker that he is he has not done so as yet.
20 Feb 2013, 12:00 pm
Game over
20 Feb 2013, 12:01 pm
@Dilligafrican-290:
Are you saying Sheekies Range Rover is going to turn into a pumpkin in October?
20 Feb 2013, 12:04 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-293: remember the gun that accidentally went off at Tashas in Melrose Arch nearly hit a boxer pal of his on the foot & the owner let the get away with it as they are regulars there…
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