Hatred.

It’s a strong word is it not. It conjures up images of some of the worst atrocities committed by mankind: Apartheid, ISIS, Donald Trump.

I sometimes wonder whether hatred plays a role in sports though. More specifically, in the life of a sports fan.

Ok, so maybe hatred is a too strong a word, so let’s rather say a passionate dislike of your opponent. So, to what extent does a passionate dislike of the ‘other’ impact the sports fan’s experience? Does it enhance it or detract from it?

We’ve seen this recently, with the various referenda and election campaigns that have had us glued to our TVs on an off the past couple of years. Or at least self-confessed political junkies like myself. The levels of disharmony in a country are rightly used as a barometer of society’s health and as an indicator of national direction.

Is there a parallel though in the world sports fans such a me inhabit? Are my celebratory dance of joy at seeing the Aussies lose a test series, or my howls of laughter at watching England fail to qualify for Euro 2008 spontaneous expressions of pure elevating joy, or are they tinged with more than a healthy dose of schadenfreude – that perverse pleasure we feel when other people suffer?

What purer expression of sport can there be than the Olympics. So consider the following statement from the Olympic movement’s official website:

“The most important thing … is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

So I’ve given it some careful consideration and done an honest self-assessment. And I’ve concluded that it’s bullshit.

I’m sure there may be some fair-weather fans out there who for them this is the case. But they don’t count. From a young age many of us naturally intuit that the only thing more important than whether you won or lost is by how much. Triumph is the most important thing, irrespective of the degree of struggle involved. Do I really care if an Australian batting collapse is due to exquisite bowling or poor shot selection?

I think this extreme attitude is fed to us subliminally from early on. Think about all the war-like terms and metaphors used to describe sports. Must-win games become “do or die battles”. Legends are cajoled out of retirement because “their country needs them”, as if the national infrastructure will collapse if they don’t play. Great performers are called “warriors”.

So I am comfortable with my passionate dislikes. Defeat breaks me and I have no warm feelings for the enemy . Just ask my wife. I’m not fun. It’s who  I am.

So who do I dislike the most then? Defeat to who is most likely to have me reaching for a bottle of scotch, no glass required? I started this blog just before the series against England last year. And yes, while it is true that I have no love of the poms, for a variety of reasons, they are not the worst. They can’t be at any rate as my wife is from London, and peace in the home is a virtue.

It’s the Australians I truly despise. As the architects of much of our suffering in the early days, the antagonism I felt for Waugh and co. have become permanent edifices etched into my psyche.

I don’t mean to say Australia is a bad place, or that the people are bad. Far from it. Some of my best friends are from there. I even visited once, many years ago. The people were genuinely nice. So pleasant in fact that it totally pissed me off and completely ruined my holiday.

So here we are then again, one test in to another series against the old enemy. And man, what a thing of beauty that match was. It did pose one dilemma for me. How to follow the game. Unusually for me, I could not find a reliable illegal stream. And as the test wore on into day 4, and a SA victory came into view, I was made aware of a secondary option. Australian radio.

But to do so I had to sully myself. To access the radio link on the Cricket Australia site I had to register as a fan of Australian cricket. I wrestled with this for the better part of an entire session, and in the end, I did it. To add insult, the sent me this email:

Just how does one balance the indignity of an email like this against the opportunity to listen to their commentators squirm and try explain the inexplicable?

From Australia’s position of dominance after one and half days to the magnitude of their defeat is a collapse even Hillary Clinton supporters would agree is a shocker.

So I did it. I made my choice. There are two tests to go. I hope the boys don’t make me regret it.

GPF