metro blog: Pure sports cynisism...

So we love the sports we follow. We can’t wait for the next piece of unadulterated competition between elite athletes at the top of their game testing their power, endurance, skill and mind to the limit. In its purest form, it is a beautiful thing.But how pure are these sports nowadays? What is getting in the way? Whether it be a PR and money war between Man Utd and Chelsea for the countries favourite whinging Scouser, Wayne Rooney.Whether it be the doubt that your favourite athlete or cyclist is actually achieving these magnificent feats of endurance or speed without a little ‘help’.Or whether the moral question of a batsman, knowing he has hit a ball to slip, can stand there and stare at the umpire as if he has been teleported from Planet Zog, into a load of cricket kit and placed on the crease at Trent Bridge with a plank of wood in his paws.Now it would be ignorant of me to think there is a fully pure sport out there. One not touched by the interference of bonuses, job security or betting scandals. But surely we can strive to make our favourite sports as pure as possible.I sit here having watched Sky Sports News loop the same story of Rooney going to Chelsea in a part exchange deal for Juan Mata. Now I do not know where to start with what is wrong about this and I won’t bore you with it. They have since backtracked on the story where their ‘sources had led them to believe’ such a move was going on.Surely after all their years covering elite Premier League football they know when an agent is feeding them a load of rubbish, in order to manufacture a move? In fact it is naive of me to even question it, they certainly know what is going on but it is a good lead story and people will have forgotten they were talking shit by the morning. What credit they give us, the viewer?!What makes this all the more of a shame, is that on this loop, they had ‘that’ overhead kick against Man City. Footballing genius in its most pure form, the big occasion, the moment, the contortionism, the unbridled joy.Unfortunately, Rooney, amongst others, is a product of the modern game. The agents, the media, the sponsors... all trying to make a buck from young Wayne. Having been destined for stardom from a very young age he isn’t used to anything else. There is no perspective, or ability to take a step backwards and realise that he is playing for one of the biggest teams in the world, winning trophies, scoring goals, playing for his country and lest we should forget, earning a pretty penny.And yet, this 27-year old footballer would be well advised to look back on this, and think about why he plays this game. Trying that bicycle kick on the greens of the housing estates of Croxteth until dark, imagining he was playing in the biggest games, scoring the great goals.The stories in football are more frustrating than anything else. The Premier League will still come around next year and when the players are on the pitch, you will still see that pure exuberation in a players’ eyes when he scores in front of the home fans...Unfortunately the sports of Cycling and Athletics have had to put up with some rather more damaging stories.When Pierre de Coubertin created the IOC and tagged the famous “Faster, higher stronger” motto, the words ‘doping’ and ‘oxilofrine’ wouldn’t have been on the tip of his tongue."These three words represent a programme of moral beauty. The aesthetics of sport are intangible." said Coubertin.God bless the old French aristocrat, surely he would spit out his Bordeaux or turn over in his grave... (or whatever old French geezers do when in shock)The 100m sprint is unique, and the epitome of sport in its purest form. The first from Point A to Point B is the fastest man on the planet. Couldn’t be simpler?But we are forgetting the 15 syllable names of drugs that the likes of Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell have been caught doing in order to give them that extra hundredth.Since the days of the cartoon-like exploding eyes of Ben Johnson there have periodically been sprinters caught for something or another.These sprinters have lofty egos and second place means nothing to them. Johnson had Carl Lewis beating him, Gay and Powell have a certain Usain Bolt rewriting the record books and consigning them their very own place in history as also-rans. So they turn to drugs to get that edge and to attempt to resurrect those damaged egos from seeing Bolt’s heels time and time again?I am not having it that they do not know what is going in their bodies. Pleading ignorance after they have been caught is merely a pathetic attempt at shortening a ban, that in my opinion should be life.Just please don’t let Bolt be next. He is as purer athlete and entertainer as one could imagine. The sport will not come back from that. I don’t like to think about it.Cycling has had this trouble for as long as I can remember. Tales of bribery, drugs and money are rife in the sport where riders have to defy gravity climbing mountain after mountain.Throughout my lifetime this drug culture within the sport has really put me off following it. The winner will probably have been on drugs anyway I would think. I know I’m not the only one.With the whole British cycling revolution in Britain, and us actually doing well in the sport thanks to Mr Wiggins and Froome, I would like an expert to come and talk me through the finer points of the pelaton and the bit where the winner gets kissed by two French supermodels wearing a 1996 Croatia shirt. (I have since found out this is ‘King of the Mountains’)Until then I will cheer Froome on, whilst he rides his yellow jersey all the way to Old Trafford for the Third Test, to join our other all-conquering patriated Saffas.Cricket, the gentleman’s game, played in pyjamas, where you have cakes for lunch, and a tea break when the sun or the jogging about gets a bit much for you. Surely there is no wrongdoing here?Well there isn’t to be honest. Well not really, even in the most fierce of competitions, The Ashes, the game is played in good spirits and everything is generally agreeable.Where there is contention though is the whole debate around DRS and walking. DRS was brought in as a black and white way of getting rid of shockers from the umpire. Fair enough, each team gets two referrals per innings and must use them wisely. Something the Aussies failed to do in the first test match.At a moment when they had used their referrals Stuart Broad hit one to first slip. I repeat, Broad hit (not edged) one to first slip. Inconspicably Aleem Dar, who must have spent the previous night at Oceana in Nottingham on the WKDs, missed this and Broad had the audacity to stand and await a decision.If I wasn’t shocked enough at this, it followed that every pundit and every cricketer backed the decision of Broad not to walk. As the saying goes ‘That’s just not cricket’.In a sport that prides itself on its moral highground and fair play it seems rather hypocritical. Why moan about umpires making bad decisions if you are not honest enough to accept when you are quite clearly out? Fair enough if there is an element of doubt, but something that obvious is embarrassing. If high profile batsmen started walking again it wouldn’t be long before others followed suit... or is that just wishful thinking?So is there any sport that is completely pure? If the tranquil and gentry sport of cricket has these issues of foul play and grey areas what hope do we have?Well, up steps Golf, and the Open Championships. Players will regularly call penalties on themselves if they have broken a ruling, even if an official or playing partner might not have seen it. They are raised on golfing etiquette, to respect the rules, your playing partners and the golf course.I say all this and no doubt within two days Ian Poulter has been done for writing eight Hole-in-ones on his card alas Kim-Yung-Il, John Daly has wrapped his 3-wood around a fan’s neck and Tiger Woods is caught with his trousers down in the Muirfield rough.Anyway, there is a mass debate on using long putters and no doubt all the big hitters are roiding up. How can you carry a golf ball 340 yards otherwise? Quickly swapping the Pro-V1 for a ball made from flubber is the only possible explanation.What hope have we got in sport? Oh, for the the old days, it was a simpler time, it was a better time.
Source:http://ryancurtisfootball.blogspot.com/2013/07/pure-sports-cynisism.html

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