What a mistake

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.