I sit here stunned. The BBC has just announced that the Jamaican police now consider the death of the Pakistani team coach Bob Woolmer at the Cricket World Cup is murder. What has the sporting world come to that if your team loses someone murders the coach? Have money, TV, gambling, media hype, drugs and more money… completely destroyed the fabric of the games we love and play? If it turns out that Coach Woolmer was murdered, sadly he won’t be the first person killed for failure in the arena of sporting excellence. Colombian footballer Escobar was murdered – allegedly by drug cartels who had lost huge bets on the game – after the 1994 football World Cup where an own goal he scored against the USA led to Colombia’s elimination from the tournament. Football referees and cricket umpires have copped death threats, most notably Anders Frisk from alleged Chelsea fans and umpire Darrell Hair from Pakistani enthusiasts – which caused both to give up the game they loved and contributed to immensely. Woolmer’s murder, if it is that, is even more tragic because he is being blamed for the failure of the whole team to perform with either bat or ball. The Hansie Cronje affair sadly illustrated that cricket matches can be fixed and influenced by players on the pitch. But to murder the coach when his team doesn’t perform? With the money, fame and associated trappings of success, sport has long progressed from being a simple game, but at heart all sports remain games: challenges to be enjoyed, overcome and celebrated. How sad then to find myself writing about the negative side of sport when it has so many uplifting stories. Two that come immediately to mind are Operation Breakthrough, our feature last issue, showing how sport is offering an escape for derailed inner city kids, and the story that has every rugby fan quivering in expectation – the return of Jonah Lomu to Hong Kong. If you don’t know, New Zealander Jonah, at 19, played in the 1994 HK Sevens and was sensational: after bursting onto the world scene here he went onto conquer the world with his attacking rugby, speed and strength. A rare kidney disease destroyed his career, but now after dialysis and a kidney transplant he is back playing rugby at the top level – a sporting legend. In our increasingly ‘winning is the only thing’ world it’s important to remember that for every winner there must be a loser and that in sports the essential thing is to take part, not to conquer but to have fought well.

sd