Yes I know there are a lot of youngsters here so perhaps you should show this to your parents.
The last two Saturdays have been taken up by a semi final. One team of old lags playing a team consisting of 10 Under 16's and a 21 year old captain. There were playing in the senior competition because they were 'too talented' to play in the U16 competition. lol.
On day 1 the old folks batted a put up with a bouncer barrage from a very quick U16 bowler. Not a smart move but when the youngster came in to bat they were treated with due respect until the bouncer expert came in down the order. I had a quick word to the bowlers and they managed to york him with the third ball rather than boucnce. Three overs left in the day so they bouncer genius bowled two and was smacked all around the park.
Day 2 arrived and I was asked to single umpire another semi when neither umpire turned up. The team batting didn't last long and shook hands and allwas sweetness.
I wandered back to the other oval to stand at square leg for the rest of the match. Well it wasn't going to last very long was it. The youngster had been smashed all around the park and led by over 350 with just over two hours left. Now as this was a semi final there were no bonus points, just the winner advancing to the finals next weekend.
Given the state of play a nice team would have shaken hands with the winners a gone home. But oh no not the youngsters. Egged on by their parents they decided to bat again. The old blokes bowled folks who hadn't bowled for 20 years and still wickets fell. The captain offered his hand and it was refused. At drinks I suggested that the match might be called and was roundly criticised by the parents. Their precious youngsters wanted practice, they had a right to play, the other team got lucky etc etc. So back we trudged and play dawlwd on. No they never once tried to chase. I then expected the captain to do the old half hour to go thing but oh no on they ground. So the oldies decided to bring on the fire power. Well the parents were upset, why they didn't stand a chance, it was unsporting etc etc etc. Oh did I tell you the demon quick U16 didn't show for the second day. hmmm.
Well the game finaly finsihed and the parents were still upset. And they got more upset when they received a lecture from me about sportsmanship. One even decided the other team was unsporting because in the semi final they had not made a sporting declaration so their little darlings might sneak a win.
Give me a break folks, if you play your kids in senior competition they they are the rules, don't expect umpires to exercise some special duty of care because you as parents have alreacy abbrogated that by letting them play. Don't expect sporting declarations because they are youngsters and just for once in your lives understand that you have no say in what happens on the field because when you try it you look like complete fools. There must be respect for all players and what this young team and their parents did in this situation was to refuse to honour in a graceful manner the team that had decisively beaten them.
The final act of 'sportsmanship' by the parents was to report their opponents for consuming alcohol during the game and that was setting a bad example to their children. Hmmm the alcohol consuming by players was doubtful but hte complete lack of grace, honour and sportsmanship from the young team was evident from over 1 in the game.
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Topic: The Stupidity of Parents. (Read 2283 times)