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Petal Alderin Profile
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Can we please discuss a sporting issue?


Watching the Sri Lanka/India match this afternoon, the two SL batsmen batted all the way through and towards the end, one had an injury and was given a runner, and the other fellow (not surprisingly in that tremendous humidity and heat!) developed cramp in his leg.

Michael Atherton was absolutely adamant that giving a runner for an injury is ok, but no runner should be allowed if there's cramp. The batsman in question didn't ask for a runner anyway. But this reminded me of another match, when SA played England and Graeme Smith had also batted forever and started cramping. He asked for a runner, and Andrew Strauss flatly refused.

Rules aside (rules are made to be broken anyway imo) I think this is more about sportsmanship than rules and sticking to the book. To me, if a fellow sportsman is struggling and needs help, the sporting thing to do is grant that help - especially if there's no way in a million years that your side is going to win the match anyway! I'm not sure what everyone else thinks about this ... however, sportsmanship and fellow feeling for your team-mates and your opponents should come first in my book.

I can't wait for the day when an English player gets cramp and his opposing Captain refuses assistance! And it will happen - in fact it already has, but the player was given a runner, in the true spirit of what cricket should be all about.

Apart from the fact that running with severe cramp can be extremely detrimental health-wise, and the guys always need to go on a drip afterwards, so refusing help is just plain mean and nasty.

At least I think so! What happened to feeling for your fellow man?

---
Anything Goes
Mar/26/2011, 19:13 Link to this post Send PM to Petal Alderin
 
Morwen Oronor Profile
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Re:


I agree with you absolutely Petal.

One of the reasons that I hate sport is that it seems to be that winning is more important than playing the game. We are taught that sport "builds character" well I don't see any character in the people who will "sledge" each other to put their opponent off their game, or as you say refuse a runner for a man obviously in trouble. There is very little real sportsmanship in sport it seems to me.

I believe that the game and the entertainment of the crowd is far more important that winning. I often ask the question, "what happens to the 'man of the match' award money?" I think a true sportsman would donate the money to a worthy charity or use it to help a budding star achieve a dream. And why are they paid so much money? They get everything paid for them, trips abroad, adulation of the crowd, accommodation, food, clothes everything is given to them, all they do is buy their gear and even that is subsidised by the the companies they promote. So why do they need to earn millions on top of all that. Surely a reasonable salary and the money from the tickets, which are far too expensive anyway, should be used to promote the sport, especially with people who can't afford to get into the sport.

Just some more to talk about on this topic. I'm pleased you brought this one up. Thanks Petal.
Mar/27/2011, 9:36 Link to this post Send PM to Morwen Oronor
 
Petal Alderin Profile
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All sportsmen earn far too much imo, and sport has become more about money than anything else these days. And then they get egos the size of the Matterhorn and think they're something soooo special. Cricketers are perhaps the least affected by celebrity status overall, although of course there are exceptions - like KP who thinks he's just the biz. But the salaries paid to footballers for example are just ludicrous and they most definitely aren't worth it. GP drivers - maybe understandable that they earn high salaries because it's such a dangerous sport, but what they get paid is still far too high.

I know that a lot of our cricketers do give back to the sport, and do a good deal of coaching and training of talented youngsters to encourage them, and assist with cricketing academies and the like. People argue that their professional playing years are limited and they need to retire around their mid to late thirties, but then they still travel all over the world staying in five star hotels with everything laid on and subject us to absolutely naff commentary half the time, discussing everything in the world but the match we're watching and joking between themselves. The only commentator I enjoy is Robin Jackman - the others, without exception, drive me up the wall.

I'd like to know what Leo and Heart and Mel think about this topic!

---
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Mar/27/2011, 18:22 Link to this post Send PM to Petal Alderin
 
Kaunisto Profile
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I don't have a clue on cricket, but I'll say this: for every millionaire professional there's millions of players/athletes out there doing it just for sport. It's a whole different thing to talk about people working for living and sportsmanship of people just playing a game.

(Wait a minute... "just" playing a game? Can't believe I said that.)

---

Mar/28/2011, 0:48 Link to this post Send PM to Kaunisto
 
Petal Alderin Profile
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I was really referring to professional sports people K, some of whom forget the basics when they start to think that they're top dogs! Participating purely for the love of whatever game/sport and enjoying everything about it I agree, is different. Everyone starts out that way and then ... sometimes things change when money comes into the picture.

But caring for a fellow sportsman - whether a member of the same team or an opponent - should still be important in my book!

---
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Mar/28/2011, 4:03 Link to this post Send PM to Petal Alderin
 
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I get the impression that they drive to excel to the point when they are accepted into the national team and then it's all about ego and keeping themselves in the team and not about working with the team for a win. I watched the Sri Lankans playing their game the other day in awe of how they work together as a team, they are there to do a job and they go into the job immediately. It's not a matter of posing and playing for the crowd and then instead of coming back and saying "sorry, we didn't do our best, I'm retiring because I'm not worthy of being the captain," with a little humility, it's "please can the country get behind us and support us" why? Why do I have to support a team that doesn't do the job they are being paid a fortune to do?

I think that their salaries need to be drastically reduced, that being a member of a national team, supporting your country's ambition to be the best at a sport should be what it should be about and an honour to serve your country as a sportsman, not a matter of getting enough money so that you can fly around in your own personal jet. But hey, that's just me. Of course the public feeds the stupidity by giving ordinary boring people get adulation, like the Beckham and Brangelina nonsense. Actors too, they also earn far too much bloody money. That kind of money should be paid to doctors, nurses and teachers, and police, not to idiots who run around chasing balls, or pretending to be having sex on a movie screen. --- Rant over.
Mar/28/2011, 9:44 Link to this post Send PM to Morwen Oronor
 
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As much as good sportsmanship is key, there has to be a desire to win. If athletes treat their sport as if it's 'just a game' then there would be no desire for victory, meaning that watching the sport will become more dull than watching grass grow. There has to be that healthy competitve nature drilled into sportsmen that enables exciting sports for the spectator. I'm not advocating cheating, there has to be a desire to win without the need to exceed the boundaries of the sporting regulations.

Athletes are paid far too much, but that's what happens when you have a rich industry and nothing will stop unless the fans turn away or the sport implodes from overspending. I would like to see a cap on salaries in football and other sports though, I don't care if Bendtner or some other prima donna whinges about the ski trips they won't be able to go on because of it, it has to be done to make sport more affordable for the common man. It seems that the top sports are coming playgrounds for the rich only now unfortunately due to the extreme ticket prices (a season ticket at Arsenal costs over a thousand pounds I believe FFS).

The spoiled, ego-centric sportsmen could easily be evaded if the media stopped reporting on their private lives. As disgusting as their behaviour is, I don't care about Wayne Rooney sleeping with prostitutes, Steven Gerrard beating up bar staff or Ashley Cole shooting teenagers with air guns.
Mar/28/2011, 19:14 Link to this post Send PM to Li0nh3eart
 
Petal Alderin Profile
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Well said. With our cricketers, we actually hear very little about their private lives - they do keep themselves to themselves mostly, which is good. The trouble is that they've got this moniker about being "chokers" and their opponents know it, and they give them lots of malarky on the pitch. Well and good, but my point is that they should be able to rise above that and prove everyone wrong, rather than wilting under pressure. The news and papers here are afire at the moment - and at least one of them has been accused of thinking that he's bigger than the game itself. Which puts it in a nutshell.

---
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Mar/28/2011, 19:44 Link to this post Send PM to Petal Alderin
 
Morwen Oronor Profile
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There is something everyone can do. There's the World Freedom Charter, they're looking for signatures, I don't have the link right now, just google it, read the manifesto and sign. They're looking to create an egalitarian society where money is removed and all resources are used equally everywhere, this is not a drive to remove sport and competition from society but to stop money being paid to people for ridiculous reasons and allowing everyone to have a share in everything.
Here you go, read it here and sign

Interesting.
Mar/29/2011, 6:52 Link to this post Send PM to Morwen Oronor
 
Loveable Bitch Profile
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I fully agree that most sport stars are overpaid and therefore act like they are better than anyone else. However I do think some sports are worse than others - footballers for example get paid far too much for what they do and act like jerks most of the time. Snooker players or cricket players or even darts players seem to be much nicer people overall and also do care about the other players.

I do think that salaries need to be capped and also need to be the same throughout the world. The top division in a sport needs to pay the players the same in every country. That would require some countries having to offer pay cuts and some get pay rises. Also coaches and support staff should have lowere salaries or we should even get rid of some of the support staff.

The Ricky Ponting resignign thing really annoyed me... not that he resigned as captain but the fact that all throughout the World Cup he was saying I still want to play and be captain and then the day after they lost, he had resigned due to pressure from the selectors. There are so many mixed messages.

This applies to other things as well - for example Tim Paine (the Australian wicket-keeper) is being talked up as being the next best thing and a future captain and yet they give the vice-captain role to someone else and also don't play him as the main keeper over Brad Haddin. That makes no sense to me.

There were also rumours that Andrew Strauss should step down after England failed to get to the semi-finals. I think that is such an extreme reaction to a long winter of sport. They have at least stopped Ashes series just before World Cups.

As for the runners for people - I don't agree with rules being broken. If you are getting cramp then you are not fit enough to playing cricket in the heat. You should not be given a runner because you cannot do your job. If you are injured that is different as long as it wasn't an injury that you had before the match because you shouldn't have been playing in the first place.

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Apr/1/2011, 19:28 Link to this post Send PM to Loveable Bitch
 


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