"SPORTS MADNESS" – by Des Kelly

“SPORTS MADNESS” – by Des Kelly

If ‘Sports Madness’ is prevalent anywhere, the Capital of this World of insanity would be right here, in this huge brown Continent of Australia.

NEVER DOES A DAY GO BY, without some sport, either on land, or in water, being carried out. (There would be more swimming pools here, in Australia than anywhere else in the World), and I am quite certain of this.

The reason for this brief, but important article of mine, is simply to ‘touch’ on the ‘Madness’ I write about when it comes to Sports in general.

A Sport like Swimming is safe enough, I would suppose. Even ‘water-polo’ is hazard-proof, as the ball tossed around, would have to be less ‘felt’, having its impetus lessened by the water it emanates from. It feels very good to say that ‘swimming’ as a whole, is a safe, necessary Sport. Teaching children to swim as soon as possible, might well save their lives someday. Diving, however, is another matter which is still connected with the swimming pools mentioned.

Divers, while young in the sport, sometimes twist and turn their bodies, as Contortionists do,

while diving, not realizing that as they grow older, these ‘contortions’ may well result in very painful spinal complaints, and other serious complications that they would have to suffer from, later in life.

The height of diving platforms should therefore be limited, or ‘capped’,and divers judged on less stressful dives from ‘boards’ any higher, than are

absolutely necessary. Of course, water levels of pools being dived into, must also be regularly checked. A quick exit from life is ensured if one dives into a pool with not enough water in it.

Now, let’s talk about Cricket. Vey unsafe at the time of Bradman & Co., until England’s bodyline bowlers convinced the Aussie Cricket Heirarchy that helmets, more body-padding, ball-guards, etcetera, were needed to stop very serious injuries occuring on the grounds. As we all know, that very sadly, a few batsmen nonetheless, were killed by a comparably little red cricket ball, recklessly bowled by lightning fast bowlers.

Getting away from the seriously dangerous aspect of cricket, for just a moment, while opinions differ, my own, is that there are too many different ‘types’ of this great game on the loose at the moment. While morbid cricket fans would spend their last dollar on watching a match personally, there are millions who like to watch the game on their television sets at home.

However, as the saying goes, ‘too much of anything is good for nothing’, and Cricket Australia is in danger of losing many millions of ‘fans’ simply because of the fact that not everybody necessarily likes every ‘form’ of the game. Again, speaking for myself, I would prefer the old-fashioned ‘Test-Matches’ or better still, the 50 over matches, played as cricket SHOULD be played, without the totally unnecessary bashing of the cricket ball during the T-20 ones for example. Now, there are matches with even less ‘overs’ per match, I believe. Batsmen do look extremely out of form, trying to bash every ball out of the ground, in the aforesaid matches.

This does not look at all professional, and many people will, in due course of time, desist from paying money for tickets to these ‘matches’, preferring to stay home and watch this particular type of cricket on their own television sets, if they really want to. This eventually means that Cricket Australia will lose money, in the long run, which is really a shame, that is now

being thrust on the ‘Gentlemans’s game’.

Finally, we come to what could be termed the rougher, tougher, ball-games now being fought out on grounds all over Australia & the World.

The latest ‘proof of the pudding’ is that one of the greatest Australian-Rules champions, Gary Ablett Senior is presently sueing the AFL plus former Clubs Hawthorn and Geelong for brain- damage he has suffered, as a result of the many games played, which has left him both sick and sorry, in his latter years. Obviously, his illness is due to the severe blows he has had to suffer directly to his head, thereby affecting his brain.

I have noticed one or two ‘Footy-players’ wearing what I would term a ‘skull-cap’. I have written about this before, and I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT ALL FOOTY PLAYERS ARE NOT WEARING ANY SORT OF HEAD-GEAR AT ALL, thereby having to suffer, just as Gary claims, unnecessary hardship after his life, playing football..

They have all their fancy football rigs and multi coloured matching boots on show, but nary a ‘skull-cap’ with which to protect their brains. What the AFL Heirarchy should now do is to mandate the wearing of protective light headgear for EVERY PLAYER. Don’t wear your headgear, then don’t play the game you love to play. You can possibly take quite a bit of solid punishment on your tough torsos, but never forget that your BRAIN is only covered by a rather thin ‘skull-cap’ with which to try to protect

you from serious harm.

To end this “Sports Madness”, I often wonder where the ‘BRAINS’ of the ‘SPORTS BRAINS’ ARE, Boxers wear elaborate head gear when slugging it out in practice matches, then go out to their ‘fights’ completely bare-headed, to have their brains sometimes pummeled with punches that send them, like the late great Mohamed Ali, into a pathetic shadow of what they once were.

WHAT MY ADVICE TO ALL SPORTS BODIES IN THE WORLD WOULD BE RIGHT NOW, IS THIS :-

USE YOUR BRAINS TO PROTECT THE BRAINS OF ALL WHO WORK FOR YOU. THIS WAY, YOU WILL AVOID “SPORTS-MADNESS.

Desmond-Kelly