Chris Rattue: Holiday dates leave us under the weather

Cartoon / Rod Emmerson

My American neighbour suggested this week that New Zealand's holiday schedule is wrong. Having just had his latest fishing expedition ruined by torrential rain, he was in no mood to muck about. A few trout could thank their lucky stars, but he certainly wasn't.

Why, he wanted to know, do we take our annual holidays around Christmas when the rain always arrives, and head back into the office and classroom during hot and sweaty months?

While this isn't strictly a sporting issue, there are ramifications for sport. For instance, this season's premier cricket tour by South Africa will take place from mid-February to the end of March. The schedule for this tour looks fantastic and weather-wise the timing is good, the problem being that most people will be back at work by then.

Our major tennis tournaments have to fit into world schedules, of course, but they have been hit by rain over the years, being held so soon after Christmas. Cricket - in quality and profits - has been severely damaged in our rain, as has occurred again this year.

Everything from DIY to lazing on a beach would benefit from different holiday dates. I dare say the logistics of making radical holiday changes would be deemed too great.

But why not have a very short break around Christmas Day, and then schedule the country's annual and school holidays in the driest month which is invariably February.

A change to our holiday timing could give people more guaranteed playtime, and the free time to watch and play sport when there is almost no danger of weather interruptions.

The weather in the Christmas period is so dodgy - shifting the holiday period might be a subject worth considering whether you are a sports fan or not.

If the quality is questionable, the quantity is wonderful, according to my American friends. Back in the US of A, even those in very "high" places get just two weeks of annual leave and because of this work ethic have trouble chilling out in what little holiday time they do have.

SOME HOLIDAY READING
So, if you are trapped inside, or just want some good holiday sports reading anyway, my top recommendation from 2011 would be A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke. Enke is the German goalkeeper who committed suicide in 2009. The story is told by Ronald Reng, Enke's writer friend.

Having just received the book via Auckland's excellent library service, I'm about halfway through a compelling read.

Reng deals competently with the subject of depression, but there is much more to the book than that. It allows the reader to experience the life of a top sportsperson along with genuine team dynamics from the inside, taking in everything from the mundane to the magnificent.

In revealing what lies in front of and behind the sporting spotlight, A Life Too Short matches the landmark 2000 soccer book Full Time: The secret life of Tony Cascarino, a different work in tone and subject material yet in certain ways very similar.

In an often humorous way, Cascarino - a long-time Irish international - revealed his world, including how flashbacks to failures could grip him in front of goal.

At times, he just didn't want to be there.

"The only thought in my head when I opened my eyes was 'shit, here I go again'. I did not want to be Tony Cascarino ... I did not want to be a professional footballer" is an immortal line in the usually shallow, anecdotal genre of sports biographies.

The Cascarino book, written with the aid of journalist Paul Kimmage, is the best of the best. Reng's work is on a par. Severe depression may affect up to 5 per cent of the population, and Enke's life is capable of having a special meaning for far more than just sports fans.

The Cascarino and Reng books are exceptional because they reveal that while the lives of sports stars are intense and far from what we might term normal, the range of their emotional experiences are common to us all.