“What is the purpose of sport? Simply, to win!”

Oct 27, 2013 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft
Former Middlesex and England captain Mike Brearley gave an enlightening speech last week at the Bradman Oration, in Melbourne, Australia, on the psychoanalysis of sport and its ultimate purpose.
(The speech is featured on www.cric-info.com, so I would suggest that it should be required reading, for those who read these articles and revere cricket generally.)
I did not play much against Brearley, but I do remember that while he was average, at best, as an opener, he did once take his existence into his hands by hooking one of my deliveries for a six at Lords, while I played for Lancashire. The rest was not pretty. He probably used bath salts and magic cures afterwards!
But, seriously, I feel elated and vindicated now too, since Brearley even used a famous quote, one of two that he offered in his speech, that I had only used myself in a recent article, one voiced by former Liverpool Football Club manager, William “Bill” Shankly:
“Some people believe that football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you that it is much, much more important than that!”
The other quote used was from John Arlott, still revered by some as the best cricket commentator ever:
“Nothing in cricket has the slightest importance when set against a single death from violence in Northern Ireland!”
True!
Former Australian captain Richie Benaud, another doyen of commentators, and who had a serious vehicular accident also earlier this week – he is, thankfully, okay – concurred:
“Nothing in cricket can be a tragedy. Nobody died!”
Yes, kids shooting other kids dead are real tragedies!
A batsman getting out for a “Golden Duck” – out to first ball faced – or a bowler getting hit for sixes and fours in one over, or a fieldsman either dropping a catch or misfielding, cannot be a tragedy, as many well established commentators and scribes, themselves with accolades, profess.
These are standard cricket occurrences, things that will happen time and time again, forever, as long as the game is played!
Anyway, to answer Brearley very simply, any sporting activity worth it’s while participating in has but one ultimate objective – to win!
What exactly is the point of training so damn hard and giving 100% if one simply plays to ‘enjoy the game?’
What utter foolishness!
I take the general American attitude to sport, and that of another whom I had quoted previously, Allen “Al” Davis, the man whose name, as Head Coach, General Manager and Owner, will always be associated with then almost incomparable Oakland Raiders American (Grid Iron) Football team.
Oakland Raiders won three Super Bowls under Davis’ stewardship. His outstanding quote?
“Just win, baby, win!”
Sports, like most things, should either be done well, at least to the best of one’s ability, or not at all!
Yet, very recently, as we have all heard and read, several cricketers were caught and convicted for “match fixing”, which has become such a problem that it probably would never fully disappear, but would go further underground.
There have been several instances in the last decade when sports teams, including cricket teams, even university teams in USA, have not stuck to that maxim or attitude of winning, but seemed to be just pretending, going along for the ride, just for money or personal gains!
Times may have changed, but attitudes should not have!
I once asked the late Roy Fredericks, when he was at the top of his game opening batting for Guyana, Glamorgan and West Indies, even before I played for West Indies, as to how did they, as individuals picked to represent West Indies, ‘come together’, in mind and body, to effect wins as a team?
With his always cynical smile, “Freddo’s” answer was profound and instructional:
“Crofty, it is not always easy, as many of us come from different countries in the Caribbean, but somehow, we manage it simply because, more than anything else, we want to win, so we quickly gel as a team, quickly working out weaknesses and strengths of every member in our own team.”
Back then, West Indies teams came together only two days before a Test series started, since funds, travel and communications were not as they are now. But win, very regularly, did West Indies!
From personal experiences, one’s adaptations are important to winning.
I only found out that I was selected for WI President’s XI, against Pakistan, 1976-7, while travelling from Georgetown to Unity-Lancaster in a bus.
But, by the time we got to St. Lucia, two days later, I had become a team member, and, under Alvin Kallicharran’s captaincy, Joel Garner and I had eighteen wickets between us, as we beat Pakistan.
On to Test cricket!
West Indies Cricket Board sent our senior men’s team on a week’s bonding exercise in Florida before their tour to India. Interestingly, and correctly, the team’s suggested motto is “One team, one goal!”
This is another time, and that is a good initiative, but the objective of both exercises, 1976-7 and 2013, must absolutely be the same – Win, baby, win! Enjoy!

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