1. Romanian captain, Cristian Petre, who after suffering a 67-3 loss to England,  was asked by a reporter about the game and replied “I play rugby for happiness.”  More.
2. The French rugby team won the toss to choose who wears their own home jerseys in the Rugby World Cup Final and declined to wear their treasured ‘bleu’. Instead they felt it was right for Kiwis, as RWC hosts, should  wear their own colours.   More
3. Young Kerry Gaelic football Tomás Ó’Sé after the final whistle carried the ball as a souvenir to the Dublin goal keeper who kicked the winning point in 2011 All Ireland Gaelic Final. Caught on camera! More.
4. Former Somali refugee, Mohamed Farah, won gold for Britain in the 5,000 metres World Athletic Championships – making his new nation very proud while arch rival, Kenyan, Paul Lagat (representing USA) was the first to embrace him and congratulate him. More.
5. Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni showed honour when he allowed England’s batsman to be reinstated after being ‘run out’ because of a misunderstanding that the game had stopped for tea. More.
6. Vancouver’s Langley Elementary School children displayed true sportsmanship after Ice Hockey riots when they wrote to Boston school children to congratulate the winners, Boston. More.
7. Ex American basket ball pro, ex junkie and now coach, Chris Herren, is a true sportsman as he coaches children and encourages them to always have fun & enjoy their games. More.
8. The Indian & Pakistan cricket fans – arch enemies became friends for life as they shared the excitement & enjoyment of fierce competition as over one billion people watched the match on television.  One man offered to sell his liver … More.
9. 19 year old Japanese golfer, Ryo Ishikawa, donated all this year’s earnings to victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  More.
10. Irish rugby coach, Declan Kidney when asked about the illegal Welsh try that won the game said, that ‘while he felt extremely frustrated, he was not going to make an issue of it at a time when so many in the world were suffering. More.

I will tweet later our all time favourite single moment for 2011. Happy New Year  To One and All.  Say ‘Yes’ to Great Sportsmanship in 2012.

Arsenal compete at the highest level every year and fans get to see the best teams in Europe competing in their new HQ every year.

Despite competing clubs’ billionaire bosses throwing money into their toys (English clubs), Arsenal refuse to buy their way to success (cost control), have the lowest wages to revenue ratio in the premiership, nurture youthful employees (players), developed a stunning new HQ (stadium) and last year enjoyed the highest revenues in UK (albeit boosted by property sales). Arsenal have a stable platform for long term survival perhaps another 125 years if they don’t get sucked into ‘buying short term success’.

And the club has some soul. The single over-riding personality trait that the French footballing philosopher, Arsene Wenger, looks for in a new player is humility (assuming the player has the basic footballing skills). One of its young talents has another personality trait, compassion, which caused a social media stir this week….

Football star caught betting on his team’s results – on twitter Arsenal’s teenage sensation, Jack Wilshere, made a bet with North London rival Tottenham fans (who follow him on twitter) by betting £3,000 that Arsenal will end up higher than Spurs in the league table. If not he’ll pay £3k to Jack Marshall Fund for children. If Arsenal do finish higher than Spurs he’s asking all his Spurs followers on Twitter to pay a £1 towards the fund. Either way, charity is the winner. Now there’s innovative use of twitter from a conscientious, & highly talented, teenage footballer.

Another engaging use of social media is the club’s invitation to its fans to create banners online for display in the stadium. They move with the times.

Finally, Wenger & co displayed great sportsmanship in 1999 when two of their new overseas players were unaware of the great sportsmanship tradition – after kicking a ball out when a player is seriously injured, the ball is thrown back into play and given back to the opposition. The new Arsenal players unwittingly played the ball and scored a goal to win the game. Wenger & co knew this was wrong and insisted, after beating Sheffield United, and despite the FA Rules, on a replay. Full story in the eBook and book.

As a rival London club (with 129 years history) – a QPR fan, I have to applaud Arsenal’s approach, their football and their manager, Arsene Wenger.

In an economic era when survival is success, congratulations to the Arsenal, on not just surviving, but continually playing some great football on the highest altars and having some soul.  Here’s wishing them the best for the next 125 years.

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Indian fielder, Praveen Kumar actually fell over the boundary while stopping the ball from touching the boundary rope. He got up slowly and casually threw the ball back to the wicket keeper. The two English batsmen had run three runs but now thought they had actually scored a four, so the second batsman, Bell, grounded his bat, turned and walked towards the pavilion for afternoon tea. At which point the Indian wicket keeper caught the ball at Bell’s end and knocked the bails off shouting the traditional appeal ‘How’s that?’ to the umpire. Bell was out!

The third umpire was called in as the two English batsman stood by the boundary. The dismissal was confirmed. Bell was definitely out. The crowd booed.

During the tea break, the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, discussed the decision with his team and decided to withdraw their appeal so that Bell could be re-instated.

“In a game that has become increasingly dishonourable at times it required an honourable act by India’s captain and his team to enable Bell to complete an innings that appeared to have been curtailed by his own doziness” Mike Selvey, Guardian Newspaper.

Ian Bell: “It was the right decision for the spirit of the game. It was very naive of me to assume the ball was dead. I didn’t hear the umpire call ‘over’. To walk off for tea was stupid. I have learned a lot of lessons.”

Senior Indian batsman, Rahu Dravid said “it was the right thing to do. If that had happened to one of our guys we would have felt disappointed. The original decision was right in the laws of the game but not in the spirit of the game. Dhoni (the captain) had a team meeting and there was a unanimity in the decision.”

England and Wales cricket board chief executive, David Collier said “the withdrawal of a valid appeal at the tea interval was made in the spirit of cricket by the Indian team and demonstrates the true spirit in which the game of cricket should be played…”

—end—

Point Of Information: If England beat the World No. 1 team, India, in this four test match series and given that Ireland beat England in the most recent World Cup, does this make Ireland the Number one cricket team in the world?

‘There is a lot of love here’ said another Pakistani visitor. More sportsmanship is demonstrated in the video above. Arch enemies unite in the Cricket World Cup semi-finals as the magic of sport prevails and brings people together. Sport has brought the two nations together before – see my previous post re the ‘IndoPak Express’ whose t-shirts state ‘Stop War- Play  Tennis’ as India and Pakistan Play For Peace.

India beat Pakistan by 29 runs to reach the World Cricket Cup final.

Despite his massive disappointment and probable hounding by the media when he gets home, he answered all the questions thrown at him with dignity and honour and he applauded the English team on their victory several times. Even some of Ponting’s critics acknowledge how in post match interviews he always mentions the other team and usually in flattering term.

It was a pity that the interviewer, one of England’s great cricketers and captains, Mike Atherton, had to ask a cheap question about whether his captaincy would be under scrutiny. There’s so much more to ask. There are so many more questions that could engage an audience and extract insights into the mind of a great captain and insights into the wonders of this fantastic sport. Why aren’t they asked? If you’ve thoughts about the kinds of questions you’d like asked by sports interviewers, please send them in. I’ll collate them and eventually start asking interviewers to ask interesting questions, to help to enlighten us all.