Business ethics take over sport

Thank you, Martin McKenzie-Murray, for your piercingly insightful “Caught and bold”, November

3–9. I happened to see that damning press conference at which David Peever’s solution to The Meaning of

Life and all challenges therein appeared to be that we simply “move on”. This is the expression used by so many bankers, politicians and corporate types who assume impunity from any and all fiascos occurring on their watch. Blame and sanction is, of course, for underlings. I might just as well have been watching an extract from senate estimates, or the banking royal commission, such was the familiar jargon. Mountains of brain-choking words saying nothing of relevance, and an undercurrent of “I have far more important things to be doing than speaking to you lot”. Professional sportsmen (as yet not the women ) earn eye-watering amounts of money, but now appear to have to sacrifice integrity and individuality as the price for doing so – exactly as is the case with politicians, to our nation’s enormous cost. It might be said that so much has been lost in sport since people could sit on “the hill” and enjoy the Australia versus West Indies matches, before sport became overwhelmingly a business enterprise ( but with embarrassingly little “trickle-down” benefits for young local players).

– Elizabeth Chandler, Napoleon Reef, NSW