The Amatuer Myth

I love the amateur ideal. I love the idea of sport only being part of a successful sportsman's life. I love the story of Roger Bannister who broke the 4-minute mile as a medical student, won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and then retired from sport to become a doctor. The problem is that there are so few stories like Roger Bannister's in the annals of amateur sport. WG Grace may have been designated as a Gentleman not a Player but he earned more money from cricket than most professionals and despite qualifying as a doctor there can be no doubt that cricket was the major thing in his life.

Amateurism was defended as an ideal because it was recognised that dedicating oneself completely to sport was damaging for a person's long-term well-being. No matter how glittering a sportsman's career, it will almost always end in tears, and then what? Only a small percentage can become journalists or coaches; the majority are left with no real work experience and no real career prospects.

The portrayal of sportsmen as overpaid parasites is a falsehood. In fact the reverse is true; we, the public, feed off them. We lure them into sport with perverse amounts of money and fame to satisfy our lust for entertainment, only to reject them when age and injury forces them into pre-middle-aged retirement. As a young teenager I wanted nothing more than to be a professional cricketer. Now I am quite happy that my lack of talent forced me to be an amateur.