Sport is Politics or Vica Versa

When Pakistan Dictator Pervez Musharraf got involved in the "ball tampering" row I was minded how shallow and similar sport and politics were now becoming. Where everyone lies and denies but being caught red handed is the only crime and even then it is not always a crime! Musharraf who curtails human rights on a whim and yet he feels compelled to speak of the honour and integrity of his country being besmirched in a game of cricket.

If you want another example consider Rob Styles functional gibberish about why he gave a penalty but did not send off a Sheffield United player. Compare that with Condoleeza Rice's talk of a sustainable ceasefire and the difference now it is agreed from an unsustainable one she could have demanded weeks ago. The point is neither party is talking a lick of sense and neither admits to mistake. One can complain about some vague notion of consistency and having ones intelligence insulted but they have neither lied nor told the truth nor made sense. Both have probably made pragmatic decisions but neither will ennuciate them preferring to hide behind a wall of double speak and apparent stupidity.

In the same way that New Labour and the so called Intelligence Services posted a tissue of lies and misnomers about Iraq's capacity to launch Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). When it was shown as laughable nonsense it no longer mattered as it was about Human Rights and the E-V-I-L of Saddam. The shifting sands of BS as I call it - a moving target that changes when the lie is found out. Compare that with the recent Test Match being called off. The concrete issues are unmuddied as all 4 officials agree the ball was tampered with, that Inzaman in the absense of anyone else is therefore responsible and the test match was correctly ended by the umpires and again the Pakistan captain is responsible. Yet reading reports and the media spin you get no such clarity as people fall over themselves to see other issues such as; the umpire; prejudice; no one is proved to have done it to the ball; to say ball tampering is rife; Fletcher visiting the match referee and carefully worded comments like "no complaint about the match ball" which could almost be Bliar speak for it was mentioned but no complaint was made! Nope, what is used is people's own ignorance and lack of care for facts (their preference for their own prejudice) to just get through a day without being found out save by that minority who for some reason care enough to establish the truth and may be convieniently categorised as cynics.

Politicians know to deny and deny again what is obvious truth that reflects badly on them. Take Wayne Rooney after he ended John Terry's domestic season last year we were told it was a total accident. Carvalho's testie ditto. Porto player's head you guessed it our poor boy and all these cynical referees. Ferguson says he's being targetted which given he gets away with giving dogs' abuse to referees week in week out sounds like spinning. I hear Man U fans argue he is unlucky or being targetted like it is better to be a hapless pathetic Rube than someone who has flashes of temper. Similarly politicians like Tessa Jowell would rather admit to being a pathetic fool ignorant of her family's financial affairs than admit she and her hubby made a fortune cuddling up to extreme right winger Berlusconi. Seriously is being a ridiculous victim fool really better than admitting the truth? It does seem that knowingly doing something is somehow, rather than a positive sign of guts and personality, a thing to be avoided....

Indeed what is so shocking in sport is to realise how the competitors are increasingly so obsessed by winning that what they achieve does not matter. Floyd Landis, Warren Gatlin and Marian Jones will deny their drug tests as Rooney denies being culpable for his transgressions - they would rather spin it and mutter darkly about conspiracies.

It seems the paranoia so dismissed in our real lives is not only accepted but increasingly supported in public life at the expense of truth, honesty and achieving anything unsullied. Whether that should apply in sport is now of course multi million dollar questions.