IS SPORTS (NATIONAL AND SCHOOL) REALLY “SPORT” ANY MORE?

BY Goolbai Gunasekara

Watching the Sports News on TV raises my blood pressure a notch or two. The battles (yes battles) on varied courts is enough to give an over keen sports enthusiast a heart attack at the goings on of some athletes and players these days. There is BIG money to be won. The millions at stake cause today’s children ready to sacrifice more than I think is normal or even healthy. But who am I to judge these modern trends.

The British taught us to behave graciously if we lost at anything competitive. We were supposed to be ‘Good Sports’ in the face of adversity. We shook hands with our opponents, smiled politely, sometimes shared refreshments ( specially after those Westrop Shield Netball matches) when Colombo Schools met each other, year after year in Colombo.

We did not find it difficult to lose although we prefered , of course, to win. Colombo Schools were pretty evenly balanced . Often the same girls played in the team for a few years. Boys from other Colombo schools came to watch and behaved impeccably. Not that they had much choice with teachers breathing down their necks, but it was all a different scenario.

The change in attitudes came unexpectedly during the three years I was a pupil at Bishop’s College and played on the school team. The Westrop Shield was supposed to be given to the winning team of the WESTERN PROVINCE but until then only Colombo and a few suburban schools bothered to enter. Suddenly, one year we were told that Ibbagamuwa Central School had entered the lists. I hesitate to call it ‘the fray’ because there was no such word in our rather old fashioned Sports vocabulary.

In a day attitudes changed forever. The Ibbagamuwa girls played to win. There was no polite fraternizing. They leapt about the court literally over our heads. Their subsequent victory was a total rout of all the Colombo schools that went down like ninepins to a far superior sort of game played by an outstation school.

Graciously losing was no longer an option. It was WAR albeit a fairly courteous one. The following year Colombo schools tried again. This time much harder and in a far less friendly spirit. But their efforts were in vain. Ibbagamuwa won again and quite easily too. Had they won the Westrop Shield for a third time they were allowed to actually keep the trophy and a new one would have to be found.

Never have Colombo schools practiced so hard. Cynthia Rasquinho, the premier Sports Mistress of that time spent hours working out strategy with the teams she coached. All this agonizing, practice and pride paid off. Vainly did our British Principal of Bishop’s at the time tell us that the game was all that mattered. We didn’t believe them. It was victory at all costs. Ibbagamuwa Central was defeated that third year by St. Bridget’s Convent in a close final. And the game was never the same again.

The attitudes of competitiveness and rivalry continued to increase in every Sport. It invades the spirit of National and School Athletic Meets of both sexes which had been pleasantly energetic affairs and not killer occasions. Cricket, rugby, football and other boys sports in Sri Lanka began to take on more sinister aspects. It was not too long before knives were being carried to cricket matches and the newspapers published appalled Editorials of the situation. Principals of all schools began to realize that sports was no longer sport. They were battles. Is this what we now have to teach our children? That winning is all that matters?

Gracious losing was not on the cards. Long after the actual matches were over, boys continued fighting (verbally and physically ) outside the sports arenas. A new era has now arrived and our children are no longer heirs to sport played for the sake of ‘sport’.

Gracious losing was not on the cards. Long after the actual matches were over, boys continued fighting (verbally and physically ) outside the sports arenas.

In almost every sport it seems that cheating is rampant. I am told that even Referees can favour sides occasionally. It has happened I am told. Challenging the referee is considered extremely disrespectful. In any case it is difficult to prove a biased call. The alleged corruption in some sports is a disgrace. Less nationally popular sports follows suit. 

After having had some of the best teams and best players in the world when Gamini Dissanayake was Minister, we are now rated poorly. This has dismayed us.

So again I ask is ‘School Sport’ really ’Sport’? And is ‘National Sport’ worth being hopeful on the national arenas? Are we teaching our children to play Sport for the right reasons? To my generation what was important was not winning ( not ONLY winning though it was satisfying to win).

What we now need to insist upon is Good Health, Exercise, Team Spirit, Bodily Co- ordination and Friendship among competing schools and National teams.. Honour among athletic bodies is vital. These were the reasons we encouraged sport decades ago. These ideals no longer hold true. World Sport has declined likewise and politics has begun to play a rather ignoble part.

The Greek ideal of a perfect body is no longer important. International players are making fortunes out of sports. This is a far cry from the Olympians of old when the only reward was a wreath of olive leaves and a blameless reputation.

At this moment we have some world class sports players …..men and women….who have already made us proud. May we hope this can soon become a national norm in the field of Sri Lanka sport.