OPINION: After all, sport has to pay

It was the first game of the 1995-96 premier club cricket season.
Mark Greatbatch reportedly marched into the home team's changing room in the bowels of the majestic Cornwall Cricket Club and sat among his premier teammates.
Back from a season's lay-off, the former Black Cap pulled out a cheque-book from his sports bag, wrote one out for the princely sum of $100 and handed it to a club senior, saying something along the lines of: "Here you go. Here's my sub for the season."
That was the measure of the Central Districts Stag. He could have demanded the sky but, apparently, in his eyes, it was imperative to dismiss any speculation that he should be treated differently.
After all, why should an international cricketer want to come back to his humble beginnings when he could be out there hob-knobbing with the elite? Too much money? Perhaps.
An easy way to shut up vindictive elements? Possibly.
Frankly, I'd like to believe Greatbatch did it because of loyalty - just look at the Greatbatch memorabilia hanging on the walls of the Cornwall pavilion clubroom.
Any sport, like a good wife, demands loyalty and responsibility, and in return gives the sportsperson fulfilment and peace.
Times have changed, though. We now live in a society when money is the common denominator in anything that remotely demands time. Even so much as a sneeze can warrant a wad of dollars.
Wouldn't we just love to know what, if at all, Cornwall is paying long-time Taradale allrounder Roger Johnston?
At a time when petrol prices are soaring and the Napier City and Hastings District councils have put up the cost of using sports fields, it may not seem unreasonable for a sportsperson to try to make ends meet.
How can we forget the drama last season surrounding former English import Daniel Drepaul's move from Central Hawke's Bay to Napier Old Boys' Marist amid accusations of player-poaching?
However, the justification for paying players like Johnston, when compared with the cost of bringing in an import, does not hold water.
While it's admirable to blow the patriotic trumpet of employing home-grown players, a region will inevitably become poorer for ignoring talent.
That the Hawke's Bay Magpies lured former All Black Danny Lee home is commendable and a testimony to both parties' loyalty to rugby.
However, rugby boss Mike Bishop would be myopic if he didn't consider shopping in the no-frills aisles of the South Pacific nations, such as Fiji, where thrills are plentiful at bargain-bin prices.
Professionalism is here, whether you like it or not. The question is, are we ready to embrace it, or are we still in denial?