Wednesday, July 31, 2002

Paddy's Sports View 31st July 2002

When your team has just been knocked out of the World Cup it is easy to empathise with the words of the great Bill Shankley "Football is not a matter of life and death, it’s far more important than that." But when the emotions have cooled, and reason returns, most of us can philosophically reflect that it is only a game. Sadly, and sometimes tragically, the passion that sport arouses can create gross over-reaction to the outcome of events. The cricket followers who in their disappointment burn down stands. The football supporters who can only deal with bad results by going on the rampage and destroying property. The disappointed cricket fans in India or Pakistan who take their own lives because the national team has lost.

Sporting support should be passionate, but it should also be fair and take place in a context which recognises that, at the end of the day, all sport is ephemeral and trivial. If we agree that sport is ultimately unimportant (albeit that it can be the modern opium of the masses) then this can lead to the creation of a moral framework within which it takes place. Formula One (F1) motorsport is an interesting case in point. When the commercial imperative dominates then you get the amorality that we saw from Ferrari at the Austrian Grand Prix. And you also get the unsavoury bowing to pressure of the British and other governments when the F1 dictatorship threatens to take away their national Grand Prix unless they allow tobacco advertising and sponsorship. On the other hand the huge increase in money in F1 has made it an infinitely safer sport, and the organisers are to be congratulated for ensuing that F1 does not kill drivers or spectators as regularly as it did in the days when I was first a fan.

F1 is a sport that has used its financial strength to ensure that safety is the number one priority. All motorsport is dangerous, but so are many other sports where speeds are high and participants are exposed. Skiing and other winter sports are not free of risk, and contact sports such as rugby can have freak accidents in which players are injured or killed. As with F1 every precaution must be taken in all sports to protect participants and spectators and ensure that risks are minimised. This usually happens today, and whilst no sport can be completely risk-free, with one glaring exception, sports are generally played in a context that recognises that it is “only a game”. The exception to this is, of course, boxing.
All sports reward those who are stronger, faster, and more skilful than their opponents. When Sachin Tendulkar scores a century he has won the battle with the bowling attack. When the Brazilian football team triumph over the opposition it is talent, team work and mental strength that produces the result. I would be the first to accept that a great boxer like Mohammed Ali was also a supremely talented athlete – one of the greatest of all time. But Ali’s “sport” is unique because what boxing is about is causing brain damage to your opponent. To win a boxing bout the best way is to knock your opponent out cold - and knocking somebody out will damage the brain. Sometimes the brain will recover- more often not. Repeated attacks on the brain over a boxing career cause permanent damage – as we see today with Ali. And all too often there is death in the ring. When the Japanese boxer Akira Taiga died during a fight in October 1997 he was the 27th Japanese professional boxer to die from wounds inflicted in the ring since 1952. Around the professional boxing world death and injury is the norm, and has been since the sport began. Hardly surprising because that is the object of the game. To physically harm your opponent in such a way that he collapses or gives in – or dies.
In the Emirates, and across most of the Middle East, there is no real boxing tradition. Let us hope that nobody tries to create one. The plan to stage a boxing world title fight in Dubai between Roy Jones and Vasily Jirov should be resisted and the evils of this so-called “sport” should be brought to the attention of the authorities. There is room for many sports in Dubai, but professional boxing is a barbarism where life and death are in the balance in every bout. Dubai doesn’t need it.

Wednesday, July 10, 2002

Paddy's Sports view 10th July 2002

The last time India played in England in a Test series was in 1996 and I was at the Lord’s match of that series when two young players made their debuts in the Indian side. Rahul Dravid was one of them and he came close to the very rare feat of scoring a century in his first Test match – and the even rarer one of doing this at Lord’s. The other player was Saurav Ganguly, and he went one better than Dravid by scoring a superb hundred, thereby getting his name on the famous centurion’s board in the dressing room at his first attempt. It is good to see these now mature masters back again this year.

Six years on the tyros are Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh. I saw Sehwag in the Lord’s One Day International and he looked superb scoring 71 runs off 65 balls and putting on over a hundred with his captain. But it was Yuvraj who really caught the eye. First he bowled seven overs of attacking spin taking the successive wickets of Flintoff, Thorpe and Hussain and reducing England from 201 for 2 to 222 for 5. When India batted Yuvraj came in with India struggling at 141 for 4 chasing 271. He then hit 64 runs at a run a ball and, together with Dravid, saw India home to an excellent victory with an over to spare. Yuvraj deservedly won the man of the match award and his form has continued in the other matches in the series – including an amazing 40 runs off 19 balls in the next England match - as well as significant “ship steadying” innings in the two Sri Lanka games.

India look to be the form side in the One Day series and will now play England in the final at Lord’s next Saturday. England are a strong batting outfit at the moment scoring over 500 runs in an innings in each of the Sri Lanka Tests, and also batting well in the one-dayers. But so far this English cricket “summer” has been marked by an absence of top class bowling. Murali was the only bowler high in the world rankings in the Test series, and he was less than fully fit. In the one day series none of the three teams has a bowler of real class playing (except for Harbhajan Singh, who seems unsuited to English conditions). So for the batsmen it is “help yourself time” and many of them have relished the opportunity. My guess is that it may be the same in the Test series and I would not be surprised to see some high scoring draws amongst the four matches. From an English perspective the key is whether Darren Gough will be fit and whether Matthew Hoggard can regain the form that seems to have deserted him for the moment. These two at full pace could cause some problems for the Indian batsmen. If we get a spell of decent weather, and some hard pitches, then the Indian spinners will be on more friendly terrain and England’s notorious vulnerability to spin might be tested. But at the moment it does look like the Tests will be more agreeable for the batsmen on both sides, than the bowlers.

This has been a damp old summer so far and my guess as to why Sri Lanka have so under-performed is that they are fed up with grey skies and constant interruptions to play – and who can blame them. The Lankan team has been here since mid April and they have rarely had conditions that suit them. The spirit seems to have gone out of the side and even Sanath Jayasuriya has found it hard to motivate them. They look like a side that cannot wait to get home – their first long tour to England has not been a happy one.

For India their tour has only just begun and it is very much “so far so good”. But any lover of Indian cricket knows that it would be premature to claim that the corner has been turned and that a consistently performing side has now emerged. Amazingly it seems that their new star Yuvraj Singh will not be staying on for the Test series - Sunil Gavaskar says that Yuvraj is “not yet ready for Test cricket”! From what I have seen he looks ready for any sort of cricket – I am sure that England supporters will breathe a sigh of relief when he boards the flight back to India next week!

Paddy's Sports view 10th July 2002

The last time India played in England in a Test series was in 1996 and I was at the Lord’s match of that series when two young players made their debuts in the Indian side. Rahul Dravid was one of them and he came close to the very rare feat of scoring a century in his first Test match – and the even rarer one of doing this at Lord’s. The other player was Saurav Ganguly, and he went one better than Dravid by scoring a superb hundred, thereby getting his name on the famous centurion’s board in the dressing room at his first attempt. It is good to see these now mature masters back again this year.

Six years on the tyros are Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh. I saw Sehwag in the Lord’s One Day International and he looked superb scoring 71 runs off 65 balls and putting on over a hundred with his captain. But it was Yuvraj who really caught the eye. First he bowled seven overs of attacking spin taking the successive wickets of Flintoff, Thorpe and Hussain and reducing England from 201 for 2 to 222 for 5. When India batted Yuvraj came in with India struggling at 141 for 4 chasing 271. He then hit 64 runs at a run a ball and, together with Dravid, saw India home to an excellent victory with an over to spare. Yuvraj deservedly won the man of the match award and his form has continued in the other matches in the series – including an amazing 40 runs off 19 balls in the next England match - as well as significant “ship steadying” innings in the two Sri Lanka games.

India look to be the form side in the One Day series and will now play England in the final at Lord’s next Saturday. England are a strong batting outfit at the moment scoring over 500 runs in an innings in each of the Sri Lanka Tests, and also batting well in the one-dayers. But so far this English cricket “summer” has been marked by an absence of top class bowling. Murali was the only bowler high in the world rankings in the Test series, and he was less than fully fit. In the one day series none of the three teams has a bowler of real class playing (except for Harbhajan Singh, who seems unsuited to English conditions). So for the batsmen it is “help yourself time” and many of them have relished the opportunity. My guess is that it may be the same in the Test series and I would not be surprised to see some high scoring draws amongst the four matches. From an English perspective the key is whether Darren Gough will be fit and whether Matthew Hoggard can regain the form that seems to have deserted him for the moment. These two at full pace could cause some problems for the Indian batsmen. If we get a spell of decent weather, and some hard pitches, then the Indian spinners will be on more friendly terrain and England’s notorious vulnerability to spin might be tested. But at the moment it does look like the Tests will be more agreeable for the batsmen on both sides, than the bowlers.

This has been a damp old summer so far and my guess as to why Sri Lanka have so under-performed is that they are fed up with grey skies and constant interruptions to play – and who can blame them. The Lankan team has been here since mid April and they have rarely had conditions that suit them. The spirit seems to have gone out of the side and even Sanath Jayasuriya has found it hard to motivate them. They look like a side that cannot wait to get home – their first long tour to England has not been a happy one.

For India their tour has only just begun and it is very much “so far so good”. But any lover of Indian cricket knows that it would be premature to claim that the corner has been turned and that a consistently performing side has now emerged. Amazingly it seems that their new star Yuvraj Singh will not be staying on for the Test series - Sunil Gavaskar says that Yuvraj is “not yet ready for Test cricket”! From what I have seen he looks ready for any sort of cricket – I am sure that England supporters will breathe a sigh of relief when he boards the flight back to India next week!

Wednesday, July 03, 2002

Seve Ballesteros - In Memoriam



In the early years of the Dubai Desert Classic there was no more popular competitor than Severiano Ballesteros. Seve was usually a contender to the last – and indeed was the winner of the tournament in 1992. He has continued to take part over the past few years despite the obvious fact that his golfing powers were waning. In recent years, in contrast to the smiling Seve of before, we have seen a man clearly not at peace with himself, or with his golf. I remember at Creek two years ago watching him struggle off the tee, and on the greens. His face was grim and he seemed older than his years. He was still courteous and professional, but the easy smile which used to signify how simple he found the game was gone.

Seve recently had to withdraw from the Irish Open having signed for the wrong score on one hole (a 10 instead of a 12!) - and he has now announced that he will not take part in this year’s “Open Championship” at Muirfield. Is this the end of his great career? Seve’s slump in form has lasted so long that one perhaps must accept that he will never again play at the highest level. On the other hand Nick Faldo, only a couple of years younger than Seve, seems to have a new lease of life and is competing very close to the top again. Faldo’s performance in the U.S. Open was superb, finishing in the top 10 and also scoring the lowest single round of the championship. It would not be a total surprise if Faldo won at Muirfield, a course on which he has already won two “Opens”.

It would need a highly skilled sports psychologist to explain why Ballesteros has so lost his form and why Faldo has regained much of his. I would like to suggest one reason. Nick looks as if he is enjoying his golf again. Reunited with his long term caddie Fanny and newly married (again!) Faldo looks at peace with the world and with himself. Those who bumped into him during this year’s Desert Classic commented how charming he was (not a word always associated with the rather brash young Nick Faldo)! Seve, on the other hand, looked tired and drawn. When things went wrong (as the always will, at any level, in this diabolical game) Seve looked as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Any smile was forced - more to mask despair than as a natural reaction.

What can the ordinary golfer learn from the trials and tribulations of Severiano Ballesteros (and the contrasting better fortunes of Nick Faldo)? First and foremost we must learn that golf is only a game. Those of us who pay money to play do so (presumably) because we want to. Because we enjoy the experience. When it becomes a burden if we lose our form, or if we think that we always get the wrong rub of the green, then the enjoyment goes with it. This can then lead to a vicious circle of golfing depression. We play badly. The luck goes against us and we play even worse. We don’t enjoy the experience and so we play even more dreadfully! When we play well then we can enter a virtuous circle. A couple of good holes and we begin to believe that, yes, we can play the game. So on the next tee we drive with confidence, and not with worry. And so we may carry on playing better.

The extremes I have sketched out do not, generally, happen like that, of course. In any one round we will have the highs of good holes mixed in with the lows of the disasters. The challenge, which every golfer knows, is always to move on to the next shot, the next hole, and the next round and forget what went before. Easier said than done.
But for Seve it does look as if (in the words of Grantland Rice) that the “last game may be done” and that his “last score may be in”. If so then we can all, without question, say - in the words of the same poet - that he deserves to enjoy his retirement and to be the one who “in the night, beyond the fight …finds his rest at last”. With Seve we will remember his great triumphs, but we will also remember with great affection “how he played the game”. He has earned his rest.