Sporting Failure 2002-3

So the England cricket team have failed again in their latest attempt to win the Ashes back from Australia, the eighth successive failure in fifteen years. I don't think we were really surprised were we? After all this Australian team is widely touted as probably the greatest Aussie team ever and one of the greatest cricket teams of all time. So although England appear to have made progress against the rest of the cricketing fraternity the Aussies just remain too good. End of story? Well, no, I don't think so. Defeat is never easy to bear but there are certain qualities you would like to observe even in defeat. Qualities like pride, hunger, passion, fire in the belly and, putting it bluntly, what the Spanish refer to as cajones. Defeat may be entirely predictable but it would be nice to make the victor work for his victory, give him a hard fight and bloody his nose a little.

I was in Australia to witness the defeats in Adelaide and Perth. Great humiliating defeats they were too, all well before the expiration of the allotted five days. As a proud Englishman it wasn't pretty to watch and other than the first day in Adelaide, when Michael Vaughan showed some defiance, it all had an air of inevitability. We knew what was coming and after the usual middle order collapse the end came fairly quickly on both occasions.

I started to wonder why we are so far behind Australia and why our cricketers appeared to be so inferior man for man. There must be reasons (as opposed to excuses) and I thought of the usual ones, namely, Australia is a sports-obsessed country blessed with a beautiful climate and excellent facilities and Australian children spend virtually their whole lives playing out in sun-drenched open spaces. By contrast we have a lousy climate and live in a fear-obsessed society where we daren't let our children walk a few hundred yards to school because of the perceived threat of abduction. We live in politically correct times where those who govern us tell us that it's not good for children to be competitive because some poor little dear has to lose. We have governments who make no attempt to encourage sport and who stand back and let greedy developers buy up school playing fields and open spaces. Add to this the fact that many state schools don't even play cricket and you can see that we do have something of a problem.

It's not just cricket though is it. Our national football team, for example, seems to comprise nothing more than overrated, overpaid, over-pampered under-achievers. You disagree? Ok, when did we last win anything?

Another problem apparent throughout English sport and particularly cricket is the resistance to change, the smug complacency and misplaced arrogance on the part of the sporting establishment - witness the disgraceful refusal to hand over the Ashes urn to Australia. In fact the general attitude of the English sporting establishment is still one of "It has always worked in the past so why alter it now?" Such foolishness. Standing still in life can never be a realistic option.

They say that sport mirrors life and that sport is the lifeblood of a country. Choose whichever cliche you like but the fact remains that sport is a fairly accurate barometer of the country's health and well-being. Sporting success creates a feel-good factor as the reaction in the Australian press to their Ashes success clearly demonstrated. Closer to home remember how excited we all were when we beat Argentina in last summer's football World Cup and thought we had a chance of making real progress in the competition? We should all lobby our MPs and tell them to stop the sale of school playing fields, eradicate the cancer of political correctness and provide the funding of decent sports facilities for all our schools.

What then of our sportsmen? Why, with some notable exceptions like our national rugby union side (and even they haven't won anything yet), are we so poor on a world stage? Well, I think with one or two exceptions (Steve Redgrave and Paula Radcliffe come to mind) we've become soft. We seem to lack inner strength and belief. We seem to lack streetfighters, men and women who never give up and who don't know when they are beaten. We don't seem to have the necessary hunger. Maybe our sportsmen are overpaid. Maybe they don't have enough meaningful competition in our country to enable them to acquit themselves properly on a world stage. Maybe the important factor is financial reward as opposed to national pride. Perhaps it's a combination of all these things

Success though, as any top sportsmen will tell you, is largely in the mind. Self-belief is vital. Sure, a large element of skill is required but many successful sportsmen say that 70% (or more) of their success is in the mind. If you really believe you can do it then the chances are that you will succeed. Take a look at the anatomy of a winner. Contrast the world's number one tennis player, Lleyton Hewitt (another Aussie - don't they make you sick!) with our own Tim Henman. Hewitt is skilful, positive and hungry. He's a streetfighter and a brawler. He's nasty, he never gives up on a point and never relents until victory is secured. At all times he exudes confidence. He's a winner. Henman on the other hand is skilful, a nice chap, from a nice comfortable middle class background, plays like a gentleman, chokes on big points and wins nothing. Who would you rather have on your side?

We need to put more time and money into our sport. We need to take it seriously, very seriously indeed. We need to improve not only the facilities in our schools but the facilities in our towns and cities. We need to encourage our children to play sport, we need to cast the net far and wide into the shires and inner cities. We need to get hold of our own streetfighters, get hold of kids with hunger and fire in their bellies. Get a hold of these kids, put a bat and ball in their hands. Give them all the encouragement and help in the world. Tell them that with skill, dedication and desire the world can be theirs. If we don't the gap is just going to get wider and wider and we may as well just get used to watching a never-ending procession of triumphant French, Brazilians, Americans and Australians.

JE
Jan 2003

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