Thursday, September 27, 2007

Fun is banned

The new ECB head, Giles Clarke, has decided to outlaw all fun within the England cricket team.

In a surprising first move, he has acted to attack England's “unprofessionalism” going on to say Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood should have received bans for their moments of madness.

“We're not going to get proper athletes and a decent team if people do not have the right attitude as professionals in their sport.”

This is a bit weird. Professionalism is about acted in a reasonable and respectable manner at work. Outside work time is private time. The professionalism lies in not allowing your private realm of messed up ideas and broken brains to negatively impact upon your plain work persona. Neither Flintoff or Collingwood allowed pedelos or breasts to affect their performance at work.

So what’s the problem?

You might say that a little-known businessman who likes to talk too much may have a publicity problem. Talking nonsense to the press is one way of rectifying that issue.

Ayalac is all for drunken cricketers. There should be more role models like that: people who can’t handle their booze and get stuck in light water-craft; people who pay to see nude wrigglers. That’s the stuff this nation is built upon. And we should be proud.

3 comments:

Amit Bajaj said...

can i have your e-mail id? was looking for some advice. thanks - amit

Anonymous said...

For an image-obsessed organisation ECB do seem to be totally crap at PR. Giles has now nailed his colours firmly to the mast -what does he do if in a future game England's match winner/saviour is subsequently found in a lapdancing club/vodka bar/massage parlour afterwards?

Besides, for Clarke to qoute the example of the "Fredalo" is dubious; the only truly verifiable facts are that a) Flintoff was drunk, and b) there was a pedalo on a beach. Or are we saying that a professional sportsman must never get drunk?

But your guest columnist from last week hit the nail on the head. You can get away with all manner of pecadillos if you're winning. For example, it's fair to say that Glenn Hoddle's comments about disability, whilst enjoyably bonkers for the rest of us, might not have cost him the England football manager's job if the team's performances had been satisfactory.

Paul
Wakefield UK

The Atheist said...

Interesting thoughts Anonymous Paul.

But it looks like Giles has not read my guest's column. He will ban out-right any drunken cricketer, regardless of his success or importance to the team.

The highest levels of any area of life always has interesting characters, or, if you like, "flawed geniuses" and the management of these individuals requires attention to their particular demands. Imposing draconian rules and systems does not encourage excellence or creativity.

You might say, “it’s a bloody stupid thing to do” and you may well be right.