Gamesmanship/Sportsmanship/ Etiquette

Gamesmanship/Sportsmanship/ Etiquette

Definitions

Bowls, croquet and darts are our Club sports but they share the same psychology as other sports like golf, cricket and football. All sports share the same ideals of sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is defined as fair, generous, and polite behaviour and is always important in sport. Etiquette covers the formal rules of correct or polite behaviour and is a combination of good manners, sportsmanship, and sociability. Gamesmanship is a tactic often used contrary to the concept of sportsmanship and the etiquette guidelines for a sport. It is the use of dubious (although not technically illegal) methods to win or gain an advantage. It is described as pushing the rules to the limit by bending the rules, but not breaking them, to achieve a desired end. It is often about intimidating and/or winding up the opposition hoping this will put them off their game.

Gamesmanship in action

We have all seen this in action, be that overly bouncing a tennis ball or wanting excessive time outs for toilet breaks or by distracting an opponent by commenting, laughing, criticising or even filming their action on their mobile phone. One classic example was a golfer asking his opponent, who was playing a sensational game, whether he was breathing in or was breathing out at the time he made contact with the ball. The player started to think about this, became distracted, lost focus and his game fell away. In AFL some players resort to "Staging" through excessive exaggeration of contact in an unsportsmanlike manner. Soccer players fall in agony pretending they were deliberately fouled hoping to be awarded a penalty. The

moral question here is whether such tactics, while not breaking any rules, is in the spirit of game.

Some more examples

There are plenty of such examples of bowlers not ready to bowl; taking excessive time to deliver their bowl; needlessly following their bowl up the green; deliberately standing in a position to distract their opposition; and making annoying comments with the intention of being overheard by their opponents. Croquet players will sometimes laugh or ask a question as their opponent is about to play. Talking, jingling spare change, or rustling a lolly paper are also used for a bit of gamesmanship.

Only a game

Bowls is only a game, and it’s thin and mean

When you get licked to blame the green. Bowls is only a game, so when you freeze

Don’t blame your team, the light, the breeze. Bowls is only a game, so when you fail

Against your luck, don’t grouch or rail. Bowls is only a game, not a grab for pelf

So when you lose just blame yourself. Then play the game for all its worth

With cheerful mind and hearty mirth And win or lose, you own the earth. – Anon.

Cricket, referred to as the “gentleman’s game” has over the years demonstrated some classic examples of gamesmanship ranging from sledging, verbal abuse and physical intimidation through to the infamous Trevor Chappell underarm bowling incident. We have also seen examples where tactics go beyond gamesmanship into bad sportsmanship including ball tam-

pering using trouser zippers, sandpaper or sticky lollies.

During important Darts games tactics used to unsettle your opponent are, as they are about to throw, standing behind them and clicking your darts together, talking within earshot, shuffling your feet, clinking the water jug and glass, clearing your throat and coughing and whistling. It might also be achieved simply by making silly faces behind a players’ back.

Some people have the rare attribute of being extremely annoying without even trying to exercise gamesmanship, often to the detriment of their own team. Examples include coaching their own players, telling teammates what they are doing wrong and explaining how they would do it, commentating on the actual bowls trajectory and giving players information that they clearly already know, such as “you’re short again”. Perhaps this is “ reverse gamesmanship”.

So, back to the original moral question “is gamesmanship part of the game and therefore OK? In a tri-series cricket final in 2006, Sachin Tendulkar was given out caught behind off a ball that had hit his shoulder. Ricky Ponting, the Australian Captain, and his team discussed what should be done and then requested the umpires to call him back to the crease. We all remember the "Hand of God" scored by Maradonna in the 1986 World Cup. Many years after scoring the controversial goal, Maradonna confessed on a program La Noche that the goal was actually scored with his hand.

Conclusion

Would this occasion be more favourably remembered by Ricky Ponting than a victory that involved destroying a young batsman’s confidence through not being honest or playing the game fairly. Would you enjoy a victory from a tussle that was based on merit and the best team winning or beating a better side by upsetting them? Personal

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