Opinion - Regular readers might have noticed by now that my glass is invariably half-empty.
In trying to justify my occasionally unkind comments towards athletes, coaches, teams, sports, media outlets and governing bodies, I like to tell myself that I am merely a stickler for authenticity.
Photo: RNZ / Photosport
Confected competitions, imposters, cowards, cheerleaders and all round incompetents just aren't my thing.
Suffice to say, it hasn't been an easy task trying to come up with a list of sporting highlights for 2021. In fact, off the top of my head, I could barely identify one - at least where professional sport is concerned.
I've written before about the increasing disconnect between sports lovers and elite sport. More and more I see people organising their own teams, events and competitions because of their dislike of, or disassociation from, what's in the shop window.
Where once they were avid armchair fans, now they create or participate in community initiatives that they, their friends and their family can enjoy.
If I have a favourite sporting moment from 2021, then it's from a recent parents v children cricket match.
To me, that's sport as it should be. Fun, with the emphasis on participation and fellowship.
That sense of being part of something, of creating memories and friendships that last a lifetime. You can't beat that.
I also thought of a friend's son and the way sport has changed his life to a degree.
This lad was already an accomplished athlete but decided to try his hand at a new code. He worked away quietly on his own for months, before he had the confidence to start playing with other people.
The doors that have opened for him since and the new community he's become part of have really broadened his horizons. He might not go on to be a world-beater, but that's not the point.
I'm sorry, but those things have more value that squabbles over where the next America's Cup will be staged. There's more to like about that than, say, the way various codes in this country continue to mistreat female athletes.
If I think of the sporting year, then I think of cultural reviews. New Zealand Rugby (NZR) are the latest to require one of those, in the aftermath of Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate's unhappy time on the Black Ferns' tour to Europe.
"We're putting the finishing touches on an independent panel with a really broad, impressive cross-section of skills and diversity that we think can bring value to that piece of work,'' NZR chief executive Mark Robinson said.
Ngata-Aerengamate said, via social media, that she suffered a breakdown on that tour, after allegedly being belittled by head coach Glenn Moore.
Never mind the, almost gleeful, way Robinson talked about the calibre of the panel, as if this review were a good thing, rather than a disgrace. We don't, as I've said with regard to sports such as cycling, need reviews to tell us things that all of us already know.
Team environments should be the place that professional athletes receive the most care and support. Instead, we appear to routinely abuse them.
Rather than spending tens of thousands of dollars collating reports and assembling panels, let's just try and treat people nicely.
It's little wonder that sports enthusiasts seek to create their own clubs, competitions and communities. They see how the establishment treats its own and opt for something more collegial instead.
At a professional level, not a lot jumped out at me in 2021.
I'm not an America's Cup or Olympic Games enthusiast. Even if the latter did provide us with the only highlight of the rugby year.
The Black Ferns Sevens team are a remarkable outfit, led by a remarkable woman in Sarah Hirini. Their gold medal win in Tokyo was definitely in contention for my moment of 2021.
As was New Zealand's win over India, in the inaugural World Test Championship cricket final. Some might plump for Ajaz Patel's 10-for, in the recent clash between the same two teams in Mumbai, but I find it hard to celebrate individual achievement when the collective performance was so appalling.
No, if there was a moment that stays with me from 2021, it was golfer Patrick Cantlay beating Bryson DeChambeau in a six-hole playoff on the PGA Tour.
DeChambeau is changing golf forever. Just ask him. The man's a visionary and a trailblazer and the best player in the world, by far. Or at least that's the way he tells the story.
To see Cantlay, who has all the charisma of a cardboard box, beat DeChambeau at the BMW Championship was a triumph for substance over style. The further DeChambeau hit the ball and the more histrionic he and the commentators and the fans became, the more you had to admire Cantlay's composure and dignity.
This wasn't just sport of the highest quality, but a confrontation with a few life lessons in it as well.
Sport can be a wonderful thing but, at elite level, it hurt and disillusioned too many people in 2021 for me to look back with any great fondness.
h] Related
