KEY POINTS:
Professional sport and sportsmanship do not always mix - or maybe that should be don't often mix - so let's lead the applause for Kumar Sangakkara, of Sri Lanka, and English rugby player Steve Thompson.
Sangakkara was on the receiving end of umpire Rudi Koertzen's almost incomprehensible dismissal
of the Sri Lankan batsman who was making the Australian attack look ordinary in the recently-completed second test.
Sangakkara is probably the best batsman in the world on current form, ahead even of contenders like Australians Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, Phil Jaques and South Africans Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis. The Sri Lankan is averaging over 300 for his five turns at wicket this test season. He was in full flight, slicing and dicing the Aussie bowlers and threatening to make a race of it even though the Australians had set them a world record 507 runs to win.
Threatening, that is, until Koertzen's finger went up in his trademark 'slow death' dismissal, like someone has filled his hand with helium. However, the ball clearly hit Sangakkara only on the shoulder and helmet before it lobbed out to Ponting at slip.
But it is what happened next that really counts. When the match ended, Sangakkara came on to the field and shook hands with the umpires. There was no sign of complaint. He'd had a brief whinge and a face full of pain when he was given out but he can be forgiven that. No massive, brooding sulks and squawking to the media - just a handshake and tacit acknowledgement that human umpires also mean human error.
Maybe it was this gentlemanly acceptance that spurred Koertzen to apologise to the batsman. Not known as someone who rushes to admit he is wrong, Koertzen stumped up on this one - and all power to them both. That is how cricket should be played.
Except, of course, for the fact that the Sri Lankan shouldn't have been given out. It also begs the question of cricket's loony refusal to use the full power of technology in such cases, although there are signs that the trial in English county cricket of allowing the fielding and the batting side to make two challenges each when they believe the umpire has made an error might yet find its way into test cricket. Too late for Sangakkara and Sri Lanka, however.
The other thing that activated my sense of fair play came when former World Cup-winning hooker Steve Thompson turned out for Brive a week or two ago.
Thompson is the giant hooker (1.91m, 115kg) who was recognised as one of the best in the world but who gave the game away when he injured his neck in a tackle.
He made a big dent in the couch watching the World Cup but got fired up again when he saw his Brive team-mates training for the new season. Through the club, he organised a session with specialists in France and was rewarded by being told his neck was all clear and he could play again.
Still only 29, he has turned out for Brive again and has reportedly lost 10 kilos in a month. If the new French diagnosis sounds a dangerously convenient exercise, Thompson insists he has proper medical clearance and that his neck feels better than ever after a demanding rehab programme. He is gunning once again for an England jersey.
But, just like Sangakkara, it was what happened next that intrigues. Thompson rang his insurance company and offered to pay back the hundreds of thousands of pounds he had been awarded for a career-ending injury.
"They thought I was mad," Thompson said. "They're looking into how we go about it because it's never happened before."
Thompson, you see, will almost certainly not get new insurance cover, which means he is playing the game because he wants to; not taking the soft option of couch, cash and convenience.
"But I've got the fire in my belly now. I'd much rather play rugby than keep the cash," he said.
Just hold me up there, for a moment, will you? My knees are sagging. Professional sportsman gives back the money? No, no, no, surely not. It just doesn't happen. It's right up there with unlikely events like Mary Poppins makes a porno film; Winston Peters welcomes immigrant journalists who buy coastal property; or global cooling.
Thompson said he was progressing full speed ahead picking up French again. Although his top speed in French is quite slow. "I've got quite a big head," he confessed, "but there's not much in it."
There's been quite a bit written and said about arrogance within and around our national rugby team. Would that we had more players like Thompson prepared to talk and not take themselves quite so seriously.
And who are not so in love with the money or the status that they forget why it was they got into the sport in the first place.
