Dangerous Cost of Fair Play
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There was a time in sport when “fair play” (FP) was never spoken. It was taken for granted that, players will not indulge in ‘shady’ activities and nearly all, respected it. This was one of the pillars of sport from the time of the Greeks. The one that put sport on the respected pedestal in a civilised society. Today, we will have to ask whatever happened to FP, the vehicle that carried sport through the ages. Vanished into the thin air? It is nowhere to be seen in controlling institutions, management, teaching, competitions and among players. As a result, sportspersons are not respected anymore. That leaves a lingering question- “Is the end near?”
Are we going to lose a ‘value’ with which many societies existed for centuries? The trend seems to be in that direction. I hope, I am completely wrong here. None of us want to see a society without the values of sport. How did this happen?
Unpleasant sight
Some years ago, I witnessed an Under (U)-14 match in a junior international event in the far east. The tournament director called the match and left the two players to work out the mechanics of the game. Nothing wrong about that, because, that was the way early rounds of any Tennis tournaments were played for a 100 years. This spectacle was a disaster. The officials took the view they will not interfere at any cost and they too, watched the horrors of cheating. No two points were played without an argument and the spectators, time and again, got involved with the line-keeping. Tennis lost its lustre that day.
These incidents have not gone unseen, especially, in age group matches. Subsequently, ‘officiating’ began and it is only reducing the unpleasantness, but has not eliminated it. What is officiating? In effect, it is supposed to be training officiating staff such as tournament directors, umpires, officials and court staff how to conduct a very fair Tennis event. It has to fulfill the requirement of an event to standards set by the Tennis authority such as the ITF, ATP, WTA and the local Tennis association. It is going in that direction but, at a big cost.
Professionalism in  officiating
In the decades before the ’90′s, the entry form for Tennis events stated that every player will have to umpire at least two matches. This was a rule. If there is a dispute, the umpire replayed the point. It solved the issues- not always but, most of the time.
World controlling bodies such as the ITF, ATP and others stepped in to rectify this and the standards upgraded. Today, we have gold, silver, bronze, green badge qualified officiating carrier stream in Tennis. Officiating is a part of the event, even in U-10 competitions. It is a very popular pursuit as I know, to player after 14. They want to take up officiating, rather than play Tennis as a career. Why? Money is the answer. Today, in countries like ours, the sure money is in officiating and not in playing. There is a pathway to end up as international umpires, earning thousands of dollars a week, costing event organisers thousands of dollars more than before. In fact, all officiating costs a lot.
International Venues
If you have been following Tennis events on TV, you would have noticed the same faces umpiring wherever in the world the event is held. It is not only the players who travel today, the officiating staff also travels. It also costs a lot.
Last week, Acapulco in Mexico and Dubai in the middle east concluded their events. The view of those arenas was very inviting. In these and in such big arenas, there is another device to maintain FP and eliminate officiating errors. The Electronic-Eye. Officially, only 3 unsuccessful appeals are permitted in a Set and in a tiebreak, to a player. This is working out well. There have been erroneous calls from this too, but I would say it has been very effective. From what I know, very few venues in the world can afford this. Machine is replacing man at a price.
Who pays?
While the big venues have their advertising and other forms of sponsorship, without which such prize money and grandeur is not possible, the little ones have to be paid for by the participants – the players. Today, age group events charge an entry fee that is more than the prize money of the winners just two decades ago. Trying to copy the professional circuit formula has made lesser events too expensive to conduct. The few that are being conducted have financial gain as their priority, rather than promoting the game. It is having an impact on the game, which is not positive at all.
The final line on FP is that, player development programmes have tossed the ‘sportsmanship’ spirit out of the window. The result is, players are paying for everything in the development stages. Now doping, another cheating menace has appeared and controlling it too is a cost. In sports today, coaches, officiating staff and events are financially winning and the players are paying. It is not working! Have we abandoned FP in sport as a device in development? Better not ignore this.
–George Paldano, Former intl. player; Accredited Coach of Germany; National, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup captain/coach– georgepaldano@yahoo.com