Tony Becca

VICTORY IS the sweetest taste a sportsman, or a sportswoman, can experience. In fact, it is what makes some sportsmen and some sportswomen, or most sportsmen and most sportswomen, dedicate themselves to preparation and to hours upon hours of training.

To a number of sportsmen and sportswomen, however, sport is more than victory. To them, the sweet taste of winning is second to the enjoyment of sport, to the enjoyment of the sport of their choice, and to the passion to perfect their skills in that sport.

In other words, to them, sport is more than exercise, it is more than competition. To them, like those who play cricket, it is the sweet sound of bat hitting ball, it is the sight of a fast bowler running in, a spin bowler teasing the batsman with flight and mesmerising him with spin, and that of a batsman either, for example, chipping and driving through the covers with a full swing of the bat, or swivelling and hooking a fast bowler for six with his body perfectly balanced.

In recent years, however, the coming of professionalism has changed all that - to the point where sport is no longer interesting and exciting to some unless they win, or their team, the one they support, wins.

In the past, people used to flock to sport to enjoy it, to enjoy, for example in football, a player dribbling through the middle and beating one man, two men, and then three men before laying it off to someone else - probably the striker who would then collect, turn, and send a powerful, one-time shot to goal.

And, of course, there is another of football's beautiful movements - that of a player flying down the wing, easing up only to dummy, to body-shift an opponent, speeding away again, and then sending in a perfect cross to someone inside who will rise and head it home, or sometimes to someone who, in perfect balance, will blast it home past a diving goalkeeper with a wonderful shot.

Today, however, because of professionalism, the importance, because of money, is winning, and because of that the gospel preached by owners, managers and coaches everywhere and day after day is consistency, consistency, and nothing else.

Play in the 'V'

That is why today, in cricket for example, although the hook and the cut are two of the most exciting strokes in the game, young players are encouraged, or rather, are told by their coaches not to hook and not to cut but instead to play in the 'V'.

In other words, young players are taught by most coaches not to express themselves, and certainly not to be adventurous. They are, instead, taught to be careful, to be cautious, and not to take chances.

Consistency, however, is mediocrity, and it is because of that dependency on consistency and the preaching of consistency why sport, in many respects, has lost its appeal.

In this day and age of professionalism, there is no individualism, or rather, there is hardly any individualism, there is hardly any expression of oneself, that is why, for example, batsmen no longer hook or cut, why footballers, most of them, can hardly dribble, and that is why, certainly in Third-World countries where, for whatever reason, winning has become so important, there are so many empty stands at sports events.

In a country like Jamaica, for example, in cricket, the only time there is a large crowd at any match these days is when the West Indies, and sometimes Jamaica, are playing - and only when they are winning.

In other words, no one, or hardly anyone, and especially so in Jamaica, goes to sport today because he or she enjoys sport. A Jamaican, generally speaking, goes to sport today to see his or her team win, and if his or her team cannot win, if his or her team has a record of losing, he or she does not go.

It is as simple as that.

That is why the West Indies, once the best in the world and the most loved by West Indians, are so much criticised and so strongly criticised these days - to the point where even when they play well, even when, despite the odds, they go close to winning, they are still condemned.

Sometimes the criticism, the condemnation, is so bad, it appears that instead of being our ambassadors, they are strangers from another planet.

In the first one-day match in India recently, India scored 338, the West Indies replied with 324, and they were criticised. In the last match, India made 341, the West Indies replied with 181, and they were criticised.

In the first match, no one gave the West Indies credit for fighting all the way as they did; and in the fourth match, no one, but Brian Lara, appreciated the way India played, and instead of criticising the West Indies, gave India credit for being brilliant.

Deserved to win

Instead of finding all kinds of excuses as is the norm, Lara said: "I thought that India played much better than we did today and they deserve to win. Their performance was outstanding with the bat and in the field. I wouldn't fault my guys for not having the enthusiasm to fight. We came here knowing exactly what this match meant to us and we were outplayed."

Thank you, Brian. That is what sport, partly, is all about. It is the ability to appreciate when the opposition has been brilliant, when you have been outplayed and when, instead of making excuses, you acknowledge having been outplayed.

Although sport is also about competing and winning, it is also about the perfection of skills and the satisfaction in perfecting one's skills, about expressing oneself and entertaining others.