Rollers have no show of levelling playing fields

Lance Armstrong are one of the big names giving sport a bad name. Photo/File

If we were to play a word association game, "sport" and "Kate" would be two words that would seldom, if ever, go together - unless, of course, cheesecake-tasting has recently become a new code.

It hasn't always been that way, though. Way back when - after the wheel but before the internet - I competed in netball, was a mean sprinter and a champion swimmer and, like most New Zealanders, I watched a lot of sport, albeit on the telly.

I still remember, with great fondness, my brother and I being woken at 2am on a Sunday morning by our dad, while the withered old crone was rustling up cheese on toast and hot drinks in readiness for the test match kick-off.

More often than not it was the Lions versus the ABs, and my favourite player, back then, was Sid Going.

We weren't alone in the fanatical following of our beloved boys in black. You just had to draw back the curtains and look up the street - every second house, at least, glowed proudly in the dark, each home like a glittering symbol of support for a much-loved team of men who were the epitome of good sports.

Thank heavens for such warm and wonderful memories, because I sure as hell wouldn't bother for what they try to pass off as sport these days.

Many will argue, but I was never a fan of sport turning professional. In my opinion, once it became a business it ceased to be sport.

I thought the money would then breed greed and ego - and it did - and it would just become a matter of time before corruption got its filthy hands on a season ticket to the point where cover-ups, scandals and drug/alcohol-related binges would feature in the media more often than the games.

With hundreds of allegations pertaining to drug cheats and match fixing in a whole host of sporting codes, the end result, for me, is one of mistrust and scepticism. I can't watch sport of any kind now without wondering, in the back of my mind, if it's not rigged in some way - I hear that a swimmer has just slashed six seconds off a previous personal best and I automatically think "banned substance".

The corruption is bad enough but, sadly, it goes well beyond that.

Player behaviour has been on a steady decline since the days of going professional - and not just in New Zealand. It's a global thing.

The celebrity status players get results in egos so big it leads to an arrogance that makes many "sports people" believe they can get away with anything. The governing bodies fluffy PC approach and carefully managed media dealings of such incidents further enable them, which is why we see repeat offenders.

If it were you or me, they'd throw the book at us, lock us up and hold us accountable. But not so for sporting celebs - it appears they can beat their partners, assault people, drink-drive and abuse drugs and alcohol with little, if any, consequence.

Some even get paid a hefty amount by some tacky weekly magazine in exchange for their crimes being reincarnated as a "dealing with my demons" sob story. We not only accept their unacceptable conduct, we reward them for it.

Bad sports are becoming all too common off the field as well.

Increasingly, we are seeing more examples of it at all levels - from sideline parents verbally and physically abusing the ref at a kids' match to drunken stupidity, racial taunts and violence appearing on a regular basis at a grandstand near you.

The most recent scandal, of course, involves cricket. Probably my favourite of armchair sports ... well, it used to be. Another pleasure ruined by greed and corruption.

We may have suspected it in countries like Pakistan and India, but not here in tree-hugging New Zealand. The rot has set in on the willow - no wonder it weeps (assuming they still make cricket bats from willow; no doubt it's some genetically modified wood injected with high-tech chemical compounds while it's hollow handle carefully conceals the performance enhancing concoction of energy drink and sleeping pills, administered directly through the skin). I feel for those who are doing everything right, the increasingly rare sorts who are the good sports.

It's going to be a monumental task to get enough rollers out to level the playing field.

The state of sport in New Zealand? Right now, it's a right balls-up and some good kicking is called for.

investik8@gmail.com

Kate Stewart is an unemployed, reluctant mother of three whose sporting activity is now limited to tiddlywinks.