Sport: ashes to ashes

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/17/ashes-cricket-editorial

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Sport can be cruelly fickle, a vertiginous white-knuckle ride from triumph to disaster that's as tough on the players as the supporters. There are good times: when the Seattle Seahawks beat the New Orleans Saints earlier this month, the celebrations were so energetic that the nearest seismometer registered five minor earthquakes. And there are bad times. Imagine the scene early on Tuesday morning at Perth's Waca cricket ground, where a disconsolate barmy army, exhausted by the heat and the wretched performance of England against a ruthless opposition, lost even the heart to sing Livin' on a Prayer. A golden era in cricket, three Ashes series in a row, is over.

And it may not just be the cricket. Olympic glory is a fading memory as the generation that delivered the record medal haul begins to lose its edge. Bradley Wiggins has a knighthood but no golds this year. Andy Murray is a great tennis player but he faces daunting opposition to repeat his epic Olympic and Wimbledon wins. His anointing as the BBC's sports personality of the year at the weekend may mark a peak in Britain's sporting fortunes that won't be reached again for years.

Part of the reason may be the mental challenge of staying hungry. The Yorkshire cricket commentator Geoffrey Boycott, much cheerier now all his strictures about England appear at least partly justified, was on brilliant form in Perth (Chris Tremlett "couldn't bowl my mum out"), particularly when excoriating Kevin "more brains in a pork pie" Pietersen. But he had a point when he described the psychological effort of maintaining the concentration required to face world-class bowling hour after hour, resisting, as Mr Boycott always did, the urge to hit out. Others talk of the difficulty of avoiding slipping from match-winning consistency into match-losing complacency. And however great a team, at some point there always has to be a handover from one generation to the next.

What is more troubling is that a model of national sport may be crumbling. Elite sport – whether it's cricket or tennis or Premier League football – justifies the money it attracts by the TV audiences it generates. But, as the Olympics explicitly promised, it is also about inspiring the next generation and getting ordinary people to take exercise. Participation, which soared on the back of the Games, is now ebbing, not least in tennis, cricket and even football (not something 2014's World Cup is likely to change). From the Premier League to the Lawn Tennis Association there are questions about how effectively – or even fairly – the riches trickle down through clubs to the grassroots. School sport is struggling for space in the curriculum, and councils axe sports facilities as a first resort. Unless the grassroots are tended, the glory days won't be back.

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