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Lanky:

An interesting, if not slightly rambling post. Made all the better by no mention of some pill-popping, blood-doping, lyrca-clad, big-thighed cyclist. So thanks.

I agree, wholeheartedly, with all of your views about the behaviour of professional sports bods once they've finished competing. We can expect no more of them than we would of any other law abiding citizen. Obviously.

I do take issue with your point about the obligation to train hard (though not necessarily the making the most of their talent bit). I'd say that a professional sportsman or woman is obliged to train to a reasonable level – which I would say is 'hard' – in return for their pay. It is up to them to do so, but if they didn’t then I suspect they would not be doing their job properly. One could then try and get all ‘disciplinary procedure’ on their sporting ass. Just for a giggle. But that’s merely a minor gripe, and I’m probably just splitting hairs owing to your use of the word ‘hard’.

Your attempt at goading me into a response through your post’s sidetracking into my 'duty to entertain' belief has actually worked. It’s my belief, perhaps not shared my many others, but fuck it, I’ll continue to defend it.

I listen to and watch sport, on the whole, as an interested neutral. I like it that way. The one team I give a damn about and actively support probably cause me more anguish and pain than I care for. But I kinda like it that as well. As for everything else, I view it as a source of (potential) entertainment. Because to me, that’s what sport is: entertainment. I don’t care so much about who wins leagues, series or matches (just so long as more often than not the English rugby team, and any team managed by Tony Pulis, lose). If I make the effort to tune in to, or even attend, a sporting event, then I want to be entertained. I believe sporting teams and individuals should try equally as hard to entertain as they do to win. I fully appreciate that certain, maybe many, teams and individuals will tip the balance very far towards the need to win. But I don’t like that because it’s invariably dull. And I don’t want to be subjected to dull sport if I can help it.

I want to see football teams playing with exciting wingers and forwards; not two walls of five players destroying a game. I want to see snooker players being flamboyant, not resorting and sticking to safety shots. On the rare occasions I pay attention to rugby, I want to see the ball in the hands of a player who’s running with the thing; not 80 minutes of scrums. I want to see exciting rallies in tennis; not strings of robotic aces. I want to see golfers… …actually, I don’t want to see golfers, but that guy with the natty trousers is alright by me. Darts can’t help but be entertaining: players come out to their own theme music and wear ridiculous shirts – fantastic! Cricket in all its forms is probably a bit different, but it is inherently brilliant, so I don’t care (five day matches that end in draws will always trump the stat-drenched, binary win/lose world of yank sports, which is all good in my book). Are there any other sports? I’ve not checked recently.

So, it is my belief that sport should be entertaining, and those responsible for it should bloody well make sure it is played in an entertaining way. If it isn’t, and they won’t, then the upshot is that I’ll stop giving a monkey’s about it. I appreciate that this may not be a significant loss to the world of sport, but as with so many things, I don’t really care.