Our country, win or lose
IT takes a lot of nerve to be a South African sport fan. From the glory and ecstasy of the superb triumph of the Springboks over France in the Rugby World Cup quarter final on Sunday, we then witnessed the utter humiliation of a crushing defeat by minnows The Netherlands in the Cricket World Cup on Tuesday.
This made even worse by the fact that our cricket boys had just completed two recordbreaking wins in their opening matches.
Everybody has an opinion when it comes to talking about why we won, or how we lost.
In fact, the couch potato who has probably never held a bat or laced a pair of football boots has as much right to an opinion as does the qualified coach or trainer.
That’s one of the things that makes sport so great – and enables the sports betting companies to make fortunes.
Nobody needs to tell the Proteas how badly they played on Tuesday, in both the bowling and batting departments.
Not only are they disappointed as much as are the fans, but they will be berating themselves for their poor individual performances and will know that they were carrying the nation’s pride and expectations.
By the same token, our rugby players have now added more pressure on themselves after their tremendous win, since the expectation level of fans has been raised by quite a few notches.
And if they win the semi-final against England this weekend, we will naturally expect them to also win the final.
The trick is to not turn our heroes into villains or blame the ref when they lose, and to remain true fans in the bad times as much as in the good.
Yes, we talk about ‘us’ and ‘we’ when they win, and ‘they’ and ‘them’ when they lose, but that shouldn’t be the way of proper fans.
And what is true on the sport fields is also true in life in general: we can’t always be the winner.
Sometimes the other team plans better, or responds quicker, or executes the tactics more accurately, or makes fewer mistakes, or has the best of whatever luck is going.
Be happy for the winners and sympathise with the losers. Imagine how French fans felt at the end of the game!
Be sure of one thing: the Proteas will win again and the Boks will lose again somewhere, sometime.
And when that happens, we will still support them, as we do Bafana Bafana, the netball Proteas, Banyana Banyana, our athletes and swimmers and all who represent our nation.
Make the most of the celebrations when we win, and take the losses on the chin if we don’t.
That’s the way of all true fans.
As Rudyard Kipling wrote: ‘If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same…you’ll be a man, my friend.’
Let’s stay united, in victory or defeat. Stronger together!