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Sport cheats are bottom of the class in pupil poll
As part of the relaunch of MCC Spirit of Cricket in Chance to shine schools from today (26 April), The Cricket Foundation and MCC have commissioned a survey on poor sportsmanship, from grassroots to the elite end of sport.
The research finds that professional sportsmen who break the rules are not “cool for school”, and young fans are not as impressionable as we might think.
Three-quarters of 1,015 children, aged eight to 16, polled describe a sportsperson who does something unfair in a game as a ‘cheat’ (72%) and stupid (33%); with only 4 per cent describing them as ‘cool’.
Far from being easily influenced, two thirds of children (67%) deny that seeing a famous sportsperson doing something unfair in order to win would make them more likely to do it themselves.
However, the school playing field is still a hot bed of rule breaking with more than half of children (54%) witnessing unfair play in every single game they play. Faking injuries, elbowing in the face, arguing with the umpire and head butting are among the many examples of gamesmanship that youngsters give in the poll.
Encouragingly, in a like-for–like survey of two hundred eight to 11 year olds involved in the MCC Spirit of Cricket scheme, the number of children who witness unfair play in every game drops significantly to 37%. Equally, the number of children who say they ‘hardly ever’ or ‘never’ see unfair play (41%) is twice that of children who are not part of the fair play scheme (21%).
Other highlights of the MCC/Cricket Foundation national survey include:
• Fourteen is the age when bad sportsmanship is most common, with almost two thirds (63%) of teenagers of this age regularly seeing cheating in games
• Leeds is the place where children most see unfair play ‘lots of times in a game’ (27%), neighbouring Sheffield is the least (7%)
• Unfair play occurs overwhelmingly more in team sports (72%) than in individual sports (just 6%)
• Dads worry more about their offspring being impressionable: almost half (46%) confess to worrying about their kids copying an unsporting pro, compared to one in five (21%) of relaxed mums
• Half of parents admit that their children’s bad behaviour on the playing field is their responsibility; followed by the coach’s (28%).
Spirit of Sport Hall of Shame
Former boxing champion Mike Tyson’s notorious bite on Evander Holyfield’s ear in their 1997 heavyweight title match is voted the worst act of bad sportsmanship. Tyson receives a quarter (26%) of parents’ votes.
Thierry Henry’s double handball against the Republic of Ireland in last year’s World Cup qualifier earns him second spot in the ‘Spirit of Sport Hall of Shame’, surprisingly ahead of Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” act, which is ranked third.
Watch the Top 10 worst sportsmanship moments here and find the full Spirit of Sport survey in the Media Section of this site.
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Archive news
January
- New hospital cricket project launched - 22/01/2010
December
- Season's Greetings from Chance to shine - 19/12/2009
- Pioneering Chance to shine scheme wins UK Coaching Award for ‘Coaching Intervention of the Year’ - 15/12/2009
- Prince’s Trust cricket scheme helps teenager to turn his life around - 02/12/2009
November
- Chance to shine Year 4 Operations Report published - 27/11/2009
- City brokers' dropped catches are fine for Chance to shine - 23/11/2009
- New Lord Mayor launches his Appeal Pitch Perfect, bringing music and sport activities to disadvantaged young people across London - 15/11/2009
- 'Sir Les' helps to raise £20k at C2s Golf Day - 06/11/2009
- The British Library to archive chancetoshine.org - 03/11/2009
October
- Awards shine a light on grassroots cricket stars - 23/10/2009
- Cricket Foundation to benefit from Lord Mayor’s Appeal 2010 - 19/10/2009
- Birch joins Cricket Foundation Ops team - 07/10/2009
- Sit ringside with Strauss for Chance to shine - 07/10/2009
- Law firm’s state school comp at Lord’s a smash hit with youngsters - 01/10/2009
