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| source smh.com.au |
Richard Illingworth made a mistake. Umpiring in the
Wellington test match between Australia and New Zealand he incorrectly called Doug
Bracewell for a no-ball. A costly mistake for New Zealand as it was this ball
that should have had Australian batsman Adam Voges out caught four 7. He went
on to make 239, some 56 more runs than the entire New Zealand team.
In this game this was a big mistake. In the overall scheme
of things, of life in general, this mistake is not so important. However
Australia won this test match, guaranteeing that international media discuss
this mistake for years to come.
People, “experts” are calling for changes to the game. Allow
players or umpires to review no-ball calls or use line technology similar to
tennis hawkeye to electronically monitor for infringements by the bowlers.
Umpires can not make mistakes. Players however are allowed
to make mistakes – the whole reason the umpires are there in the first place.
If the players did not make mistakes then there would be no need for umpires to
make rulings about their mistakes.
It is the human infallibility that makes sport interesting.
Even the most skilful and talented sportsperson will make mistakes. They trip
over, drop the ball, miss a shot, or in the case of Tiger Woods, who kept
potting the wrong hole.
South African one-day
cricketers are wearing pink and green uniforms, Gary Hocking changed his name
to Whiskas and James Hird still this Essendon did nothing wrong by injecting
the players with unknown substances. My point is sport is full of mistakes.
Because there is so much money in sport with television
rights, sponsorship deals and betting we can lose sight of the fact that sport
is just a game. Something of which, the supporters of Melbourne and Sydney’s A-League
teams could be reminded. Two weeks in a row flares have been set off in the
crowd and spectators ejected for discharging missiles over the pitch.
Getting ready for the game: team shirt – check, tickets –
check, missile launcher –check.
Sure the spectators have themselves made a mistake by
following soccer. The international game, where after 90 minutes the game is
drawn 0-0 and the only thing that happened, was a player rolling on the ground
in agony one could expect from an amputation performed without anaesthesia when
in reality someone stepped on his shoelaces. It is understandable that
spectators get bored. And how often do we all make the mistake when packing the
bag for the game reaching inflatable clap sticks (in team colours of course)
and erroneously grabbing the flare gun.
