Sport provides hope and escape

From Mark Keohane’s “Keo’s Corner” on IOL Sport

Hey, a bit of perspective please. EVERYONE!

Every news and sporting headline about Covid-19 is laced with shock and horror. Every headline, in digital or print media, takes on a social media life of its own with fear central to everything.

Sensation is beating the hell out of sensibility.

Calm down people. Calm down.

The Germans led the way a week ago with a sporting return via the Bundesliga. Typically, it proved a success for what is possible when common sense combines with a credible plan that speaks to finding a solution and not overstating the obvious, which in this instance is the presence of the Coronavirus as a global pandemic.

Different countries are reacting differently to combating the virus, with some excessive in enforced lockdown (read South Africa) and others more trusting of their citizens to be responsible, accountable and educated in how to manage themselves with proper hygiene, their space with physical distancing and also in showing respect for the next person through limiting in-person social interaction.

Life cannot indefinitely be put on hold. Sport, as a contributor to living, can’t just close shop and reopen when every government official is comfortable that a sniff is not a potential death sentence.

The English Premier League, one of the biggest sporting attractions on the planet, is set for a competitive resumption of a season already 76 percent complete. The projections are for matches to be played behind closed doors in a month’s time. Players this week started training with their teammates and all players, managers and support staff are adhering to strict health protocols.

Everyone, who is present at training (from players to support staff) were tested on their arrival. Of the 748 tests conducted at the start of the week, 742 returned a negative result. There were six positive results, among players and staff, with three of them from one club.

Guess what the headline screamed?

‘Breaking news: six EPL players test positive for Corona virus!’

The second paragraph of the story told the real story, which was that 99.1 percent of those tested were cleared of any infection.

What was a good news story was secondary and the good news stories I’ve read for the past two months have been buried as a footnote or mentioned as a throwaway line.

I read about spikes in infections, spikes (per capita) on deaths and percentages that are exaggerated to support the shock factor. I have to dig really deep for a similar enthusiasm on the spikes in testing, the hot spot variables when it comes to testing, the spikes in recoveries and also the flattening or levelling of a curve through assessment of spikes, in which the descent in many countries has been as dramatic as the assent.

Very few articles that highlight the number of deaths, balance this daily breaking news update with an expanded statistic detailing how many of those who have passed were also suffering from serious secondary or primary pre-existing conditions.

I read a piece that five percent of the deaths in the United Kingdom were exclusive to Covid-19 and that 25 percent of the deaths were made up of people suffering from diabetes, which was way less than any collective of those with extreme cases of lung illness caused by smoking.

You can’t buy a cigarette but if sugar is your sin, the poison is in abundance and on sale everywhere.

For the record: I don’t smoke. My reference to tobacco and sugar is an observation of the madness of the moment, and it is a particular reference to South Africa.

I don’t read about the gains being made in the fight against Covid-19, unless I am reading the New Zealand Herald. The Kiwis, more than any other nation, dealt with Covid-19 in the most remarkable fashion, with their Prime Minister addressing a nation daily through the most telling times and constantly providing hope that the people of New Zealand’s actions were beating the virus. New Zealand’s leadership gave their citizens hope because they treated them like citizens and not criminals.

Professional sport returns in mid-June and life in New Zealand is thriving under an adjusted normal.

Ditto the Germans, who have found solutions and communicated the good news with each solution.

My hope is for South Africa’s leadership to do the same and to appreciate how sport provides hope and escape and how constant and transparent communication kills the calculated spread of chaos with calm.

South Africa’s people need sport as much as they need a communicative cuddle from the President.

And they need both, sooner please rather than later.