just not cricket

Alex Gallafent writes:

For the English, the phrase ‘that’s not cricket’ has a meaning beyond sport. It means that the rules of civil society - of fair play - have been broken. It relates to cricket’s historical position as the sporting element in British imperialism. If you or your country played cricket, the theory went, you’d gone a long way to becoming properly civilised.

However ridiculous, that idea has some romance to it. Leaving aside reasonable arguments that any kind of imperialism is far from civil, the notion that a sport could capture something societally aspirational is attractive. And that’s what many misty-eyed English cricket-lovers are left with these days. If anything, cricket is the last vestige of the Empire, romanticized out of any context into a metaphor for decency and order. If something is indecent or disorderly it’s just not cricket.

Cricket, then, faces a problem. The game is now an international sport - a direct result of its colonial reach. But not all cricket-playing countries are alike. One, in particular, is breaking all the rules.

Zimbabwe is a Test nation. That is to say, they’re a nation that plays at the highest level of the international game, the Test match. They’re also a full member of the ICC, the International Cricket Council. But other cricketing countries are less than keen to step onto the same field as Zimbabwean cricketers right now. Last week, cricket authorities in England and South Africa suspended bilateral ties with their counterparts in Zimbabwe, in response to the deteriorating political situation in Harare.

There had also been talk of suspending Zimbabwe’s membership of the ICC. But today the council stopped short of that option. Instead, Zimbabwe voluntarily withdrew from an upcoming tournament in England. The British government had warned that it would deny entry visas to the Zimbabwean cricketers if they attempted to take part. The compromise was accepted by the ICC in part because other members - notably India - had made clear their opposition to any suspension of Zimbabwe.

At the conclusion of the ICC’s extended meeting in Dubai, incoming chief Haroon Lorgat argued that sport and politics can’t and don’t mix, saying ‘they should be kept separate.’

That’s easier said than done, as continuing debates about the Beijing Olympics demonstrate. And it’s perhaps especially difficult to argue for such a separation when it comes to sports that grew and developed in specifically political contexts. Sport doesn’t exist outside of society. It’s a product and a reflection of society. Forgetting that, it might be argued, just isn’t cricket.

China sports

Matthew Bell writes:

Thanks to China Sports Today site for this video of Nike tv ads in China from a couple of years ago.

Europeans, nationalistic?

Op-ed columnist Anne Applebaum has a piece in the Wasgington Post today about nationalism (gasp!) and soccer in Europe.

Where to turn for the latest NBA news and gossip…

Spain, of course. OK — some guys from Spain, and their website.

You can hear The World’s Gerry Hadden talk to the Hoops Hype guys in this audio segment, from today’s episode of The World. Check out a couple of pics, too.

Olympic Tech

We’ve been told, by unnamed sources, that there will be an Olympic Games sometime this summer. We believe that’s happening in Beijing.

No, seriously. We’re trying to get our head around how to cover an event of this size and magnitude. From my own little tech corner, I’m just keeping a folder full of interesting tekky tidbits related to the Games.

The plan is to occasionally highlight two or three technologies on air.

This was our first effort — rice husk running shoes, overly-fast(?) swimsuits, and the dreaded “environmental training chamber.”

Celtics (and Open Source) Rallying Cry: Ubuntu

Here’s a great little item we ran on yesterday’s show that was pegged to Game 3 of the NBA finals.  It’s about how the Boston Celtics have adopted a South African concept, Ubuntu, as a kind of rallying cry.  Ubuntu translates, roughly, as “I am because of you.”  The piece came courtesy of Martha Bebinger over at WBUR here in Boston.

Perhaps not quite enough Ubuntu last night for the Celts — came up a touch short in the 4th quarter.  But at least LA got to the foul line enough to keep the complaining down this AM…

Now, I gotta level with you.  I’m from Indiana — Larry Bird country.  In fact, I grew up not far from the little town of French Lick, IN (no, NOT a joke, and not of questionable taste) where Bird began to first hone all of his amazing hoop skills.  French Lick is Indiana’s version of a resort town, with “healing mineral waters,” etc.  So, all this to say that I was a pretty big Celtics fan back in the day.  But no more, even though I’ve lived in Boston for nearly 13 years now.  In fact, I haven’t paid much attention to pro basketball for years.

BUT, that’s not to say I don’t have a dog in this hunt, as they say.  See, I cover technology for the show, and when I heard “Ubuntu” my ears perked up.  Why?  Because Ubuntu is one of the hottest open source computer operating systems around!  I could write more, but a listener beat me to it.  Here’s his comment:

Just enjoyed Martha Bebinger’s June 10th PRI-The World news-report on the Boston Celtics adopting the South African “Ubuntu” philosophy of team-spirit in basketball play. No “shot-out”, though, in her story, to the listening geeks in her radio audience: “Ubuntu” is also a term that was adopted (a few years ago?) by the open-source, collaborative coding community for a popular free-variant of the Linux operating system for PCs. Just thought I’d share that here to add some more depth to this term that might be new to some. Go Celtics!

Larry Kelley
Saratoga Springs, NY

Thanks Larry!  He shoots, he scores…AND the foul!  Sorry, I was channeling Fletch there for a minute.

By the way, Ubuntu’s first release was in October of 2004. 

 

Go Celtics!

Matthew Bell writes:

I just wanted to come clean there with my allegiances.

It’s not earth-shattering news that basketball-and in particular the NBA-is a global phenomenon. But I do find it interesting to see where the game has caught on and where it hasn’t. I spent a summer in Taiwan and Hong Kong back in 1999 and it was next to impossible to miss the news: Patrick Ewing’s New York Knicks would do battle in the NBA finals against the favorite, Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs. I remember one morning riding the train in Hong Kong, looking up and seeing a whole row of people seated in front of me holding up Chinese newspapers with NBA-related front pages screaming basketball in full color. In Taipei, I watched most of the games with my roommate on live Taiwanese TV in the early morning hours. They would take the US major network feed, turn the audio down almost all the way, and then do Chinese language commentary over the top. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

In contrast, I was in London in 2006 during the Miami Heat vs. Dallas Mavericks finals. As far as I could tell, there was no mention of this international sporting event in the UK news media. BBC Sport would do a little recap after the games. Other than that, nothing. Nada. Zilch. It might as well have not been happening.

Here’s our local Boston tabloid with the international angle on the NBA finals.

And here’s a question, where did Sasha Vujacic learn to play basketball? Because that Slovenian is dangerous!

Euro 2008 Soccer Tournament: Eye on the Ball

I’ve reported — last item in the linked podcast — in the past on Adidas‘ high-tech soccer balls. Back for the last World Cup, they designed something called the Teamgeist, or Team Spirit, in German. It incorporated some of the latest in soccer ball design and technology. Goalies, of course, hated the thing.

As part of that piece, I interviewed soccer writer Steve Amoia. Now, Steve has sent word that Adidas has launched EUROPASS, the official ball of the Euro 2008 soccer tournament. Steve has pictures and lots of great news about the new ball here.

Once again…the latest design and technology. And once again, shock, goalies hate it.

Thanks for the heads-up, Steve!

Ahem…cricket, again.

Sorry for this. It’s just that the only sports item we’ve had on the show recently is this little gem about the Afghan cricket team.  Enjoy.

Related articles

• Afghan cricketers set hearts on beating world [via Zemanta]
• Sound Of Leather On Willow In Afghanistan [via Zemanta]

blade runner

Alex Gallafent writes:

The recent earthquake in China (not to mention events in Myanmar / Burma) has put preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games in the shade. That’s as it should be.

China is considering how best to proceed with the Olympic torch relay, but there are some purely sporting stories that continue to develop too.

One of the most compelling characters in world sport, for my money, is the South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius. (Not to be confused with the electric bass giant Jaco Pastorius.) Pistorius is sometimes called the Blade Runner, on account of the way he runs. Pistorius was born without fibulas - the thin outer bone between the knee and ankle - and his legs were amputated below the knee at age 11.

That’s hasn’t stopped Pistorius from developing into a world-class sprinter. He uses a pair of springy prosthetic limbs to propel himself along the track. And it works: he’s set three Paralympic world records.

Not enough. A while back, 21 year-old Pistorius declared his intent to run at the regular Olympic Games in Beijing.  Not so fast, said athletics’ governing body (the IAAF) in January. It banned the South African from able-bodied events, arguing that his prosthetics gave him an unfair advantage over other athletes.

But now, the Court of Arbitration for Sport has ruled that Pistorius is eligible to compete for a place in South Africa’s Olympic team. Pistorius said:

My focus throughout this appeal has been to ensure that disabled athletes be given the chance to compete and compete fairly with able-bodied athletes. I look forward to continuing my quest to qualify for the Olympics.

My bet is that this isn’t over yet.

Sport - particularly the Olympics - is an important component of society’s belief in its own virtue. There’s a reason we don’t like it when members of the sporting community cheat, take performance-enhancing drugs, shoot secret video of the opposition - or just behave badly. For many of us, sport is an easy and effective way to elevate ourselves. We make a sporting triumph our triumph. Anything that threatens the purity of that experience is rejected.

So Oscar Pistorius occupies a curious position. No-one would argue that any of the above applies to him. His is simply a fight to play on the same field as the able-bodied. But the idea that he could have some kind of advantage - or worse, that we’re just not sure whether or not he could - upsets the equilibrium that sport requires to make us feel good about it.

It may well be that Pistorius enjoys no advantage at all. But it requires us to take a conceptual leap, to see the Blade Runner and a regular runner and place them on the same level, the same starting block. If that leap’s too tricky to make, no study of his technique will be sufficient to satisfy everybody.

But, presumably, if we’re not able to make that leap, what other imaginative hurdles might we also be unable to clear?

UPDATE

Bioethicist Gregor Wolbring got in touch after reading the above post. He’s got some really interesting things to say about Pistorius, transhumanism and other related topics.