In all the moral outrage around allegations of a betting scandal involving Pakistani Test cricketers, the amount cricket owes to God is never credited.
Cricket is the product of a Christian civilisation, and that is why honesty, integrity, fair play, and respect for external authority are so vitally important in the game. Violations against these principles are not just ‘not cricket’. More significantly, they are not Christianity.
Those principles are also vitally important in the activity that provides much-needed sponsorship for cricket - commerce. A culture where lying and cheating are allowed to thrive will not only be morally impoverished but financially as well. Some will do well in such a climate of course - in a fallen world the wicked can and do prosper (cf Psalm 73) - but if trust is undermined by a widespread culture of dishonesty, commerce cannot thrive.
The highly articulate comment by England cricket captain Andrew Strauss – ‘Cricket is in the headlines not just for the wrong reasons but for the worst of reasons’ - reflects the ethic of the Christian culture that gave birth to the game. Mr Strauss is among those who have called for a ban for life for any players found guilty of the kind of cheating being alleged here.
It is about time a leading cricketer/commentator had the moral courage to declare how much the high standards of their sport owe to the revealed will of the almighty God and Father of Jesus Christ, who 'never lies' (Titus 1v2).
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It’s a pity, then, that wherever “team sport”, “team policy” or “team business” is carried on, it is executed by fallible human beings, no one human being less fallible than the rest – as the Independent’s obituary in 2002 on Hansie Cronje has recorded.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hansie-cronje-749189.html
Cricket (as a team game) is no more blessed of God than any other team game. Perhaps football has never had the “class status” that cricket has had, but it is no less governed by rules, regulations and restrictions. The same is true of any team game.
I also note that masculinism finds it difficult to excel in team sports, yet still be humble enough to cede the glory for one’s success to God, while relinquishing celebrity (and all that goes with it) for oneself.
Perhaps human beings are no longer content to wait till the afterlife for reward – feedback in the form of esteem, monetary gain and celebrity are necessary assets while one is capable of appreciating them in the reality of now.
Beryl Polden
Wirral
Yes, thank you, that is an added dimension to this. The Christian concept of a Day of Judgement does provide a vital incentive to ethical behaviour.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that Shaw said it best:
ReplyDelete“The English are not very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity.” ;)
If I understand the situation correctly, the issues here revolve around a rather esoteric form of betting. No-one is questioning the result of a match - the way they did last time (2006) Pakistan was in town and were judged to have tampered with a ball. Neither is anyone questioning the players' commitment to fair play on the pitch and to what is usually known as the spirit of cricket.
ReplyDeleteWhat's at stake here is the ethics of betting. I really couldn't care whether it's the betters or the companies that set these things up that lose out, because the whole system appears to have no ethics of any sort, apart from being (apparently) very easy to rig. Or is there a moral dimension to betting after all that I have failed to see?
Oh, and the ethics of the News of the World, are, as usual, the most questionable of the lot. All the Pakistani cricket team needs, having been mostly wiped out by England on the pitch, and having had half of its country washed away, is a bunch of sleazy reporters out to drum up a bit of self-publicity. And succeeding admirably, apparently, judging by the way that the BBC falls over itself to go for anything that the News of the World cares to dish up on Saturday night.
As you might have noticed, I am struggling hard to find any moral or ethical dimension to this whole episode. Or, at least, anything for Christians to get outraged about. Paul would have understood that such things happened in the outside world - such was their fallen nature.
Your remarks remind me of the writings on the American cousin of cricket, baseball, by the columnist, George Will.
ReplyDeleteThe focus of attention on the individual performance of each member may distinguish these games.
Somehow this also causes rather ordinary poetry to aspire to greatness.
"Somewhere in this favored land, / The sun is shining bright. / A band is playing somewhere, / And somewhere hearts are light. / Somewhere men are laughing, / And somewhere children shout. / But there is no joy in Mudville, / Mighty Casey has struck out."
A "favored land" is one favored by God. These games a notable part of His grace.