I hate cricket, but when I see a great catch, or someone caught behind I love the art of it.
As a valued cultural product, sport irrespective of the type or title, when performed by experts is nothing short of art in motion.
Sport creates a universe all of its own. A world with it’s own language, model citizens, groups and behaviours. Not all of them good or beneficial by traditional standards, but logical and intrinsic to the way that particular sport and it’s players and supporters have evolved.
If I was Matilda the Martian just landed in Oz around awards time, I’d think all footballers wore penguin suits at functions; What footy wives and girlfriend’s wore played a significant factor in the performance of cricket and AFL players and that AFL and Rugby league were by far the biggest sports in the world.
I wouldn’t know that rugby league struggles with weekly crowd attendances, that the Australian Rugby Union is currently renegotiating it’s media sponsorships, that football refers to the ’round-balled code’, its supporters cruising along to a tribal beat all of their own!
What would be obvious however, is how pervasive and deeply ingrained football is in the Australian psyche…I love all sport (hmmm… I do struggle with cricket), and I am fascinated by the way the business of sport operates within its own unique paradigm.
Increasingly so, nowadays, given the communications challenge posed by the mobility of new media…Watch this space, I can feel a dissertation coming on 🙂
Commentaires