Sportsmanship

 In losing on Wednesday to Stuart Bingham in the quarter-final of the World Snooker Championship, Ronnie O'Sullivan proved himself a contender for the world's most sporting sports star. He may have lost, but in doing so he showed that there are still standards in public life, and some people do care about doing the right thing. Not something we see often these days.

The Awakening Conscience
William Holman Hunt (1827-1910)
Photo Credit: Tate Britain [CC BY-NC-ND]

Leading by six frames to five O'Sullivan potted a black. When it was returned to its spot, it should have obstructed his next red, making it trickier for him to progress. But there was a tiny divot on the table, and the black ball wobbled ever so slightly from its spot, making  access to the red simple. The Rocket wasn't having any of it. He asked the ref time and again to replace the black to make it more difficult for him. But the black wasn't having any of it either, and kept bobbling away.

In the end, Ronnie did the unthinkable. He refused to pot the simple red. Instead, he played a difficult defensive shot to the end of the table. The shot cost him the frame and, arguably, the match. It's one of the most noble gestures we'll ever see. As Ronnie was lining up for the shot, the former snooker world champion Neil Robertson, who was providing TV commentary, said: "If he plays safe here this will be probably the greatest bit of sportsmanship I have ever seen in any sport."...

What makes it so memorable is that it comes in an age when we expect political leaders to cheat, lie, profiteer and tell us black is white. Could you imagine Trump, Putin or Netanyahu refusing the pot? Or Sunak and Starmer sacrificing the easy win because it's the principled thing to do?...

Similarly, when Liverpool's Ronnie Fowler jumped over the Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman in a vital match and the ref gave a penalty. Fowler frantically waved his hands to tell him Seaman hadn't touched him. The ref ignored his noble protests and the penalty went ahead... Fowler won a Uefa Fair Play award for his reluctance to accept the penalty.

Great sporting gestures don't need to involve sacrifice. They can be about empathy and compassion. In the second Test of the great 2005 Ashes series, Australia fell short of victory by two runs. The fast bowler Brett Lee had almost seen them home to victory. While others were celebrating, Andrew Flintoff knelt down to console the distraught Lee. Wonderful.

Ronnie himself has been involved in a similar moment. After he demolished Ding Junhui 10-3 in the 2007 final of the Masters, Ding wept. Ronnie gave him a much needed cuddle, kiss and pep talk...

Sadly, there isn't currently a World's Most Sporting Sports Star award. Perhaps it's time for sport's bigwigs to come up with one. In the meantime, we do have Sports Personality of the Year, and what could be more deserving of that title than Ronnie's gesture to show integrity is even more important than winning? That's a message many of our politicians and others in public life should heed.

( Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian, 2024)

Examples of how sport can lead the way in showing how truth is more important than deceit, compassion more noble than arrogance or hubris and integrity greater than victory. Great to see Ronnie O'Sullivan caring about doing the right thing.