POLITICS and sport are two things that should be kept separate. Case in point: The America's Cup.
The Oracle court case debacle, and the timing of the verdict, has snatched the attention away from the event itself. Sportspeople love history, and with the America's Cup being the oldest trophy in
sport we should celebrate it.
We know now that if Team New Zealand does claim back the trophy, Oracle will say they were always up against it after being docked two race points. I am a fan of the good old sportsmanship where you lose gracefully, take it on the chin and do everything you can to make sure it does not happen again. But, that's not going to happen.
With so much money at stake, you can put money on it that the courtroom politics will be used as justification if Oracle loses.
Through my own experiences in sport, when politics became involved is when the fun was sucked out. Which left me with a dilemma, to play or not to play?
Obviously I chose to play, but I would be lying if I did not admit there were some reflections made.
I'm a fan of sport being enjoyable, so, for me, when sport loses its fun-factor questions need to be asked.
Sport turned into a chore rather than an enjoying contest between teams, individuals and competitors.
I respect that sportspeople are finely-tuned athletes who are trained to be almost machine-like in their methodical approach to scenarios, but there does need to be an element of fun.
Getting back to the America's Cup, an event which has been on the sporting radar since our unsuccessful defence in 2003, I feel the court proceedings have drained a slice of life out of the competition.
However, go Team New Zealand, go Chris McAsey (our Northland grinder onboard Team New Zealand), and, go sporting excellence.
The America's Cup gets underway tomorrow morning with live coverage on TV One from 8am.
