Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds was left out of the team to play Bangladesh in Cardiff last night because of a disciplinary matter.
Andrew Symonds
This raises the interesting issue of truth and ethics in sport. Can a lie ever be excused?
I’m going to stick my neck out here and say that telling fibs in a sporting context is okay under certain circumstances. I don’t believe the Symonds incident is one of those.
There is necessarily a lot of gamesmanship in competitive sport. Football clubs almost never line up as selected, and that’s now accepted as part of the game.
A couple of months ago I heard footy commentators discussing a coach’s lie when he said minutes before a game that a certain player would be on the field, but he never showed. They felt that was beyond the spirit of gamesmanship and I agree.
The Ponting breach is more serious because he was more blatantly dishonest (and John Buchanan). There was nothing to be gained competitively from their deception. They were concealing the truth to prepare a public relations strategy for delivering bad news. It’s hard to consider any other interpretation.
The official line is that they didn’t want a distraction just before the game. That sounds very shallow.
In future we’ll listen to Ponting and Buchanan, and wonder if they’re speaking the truth.
