"Gentleman" sports

Is cricket the only gentlemanly game?

I was once a serious tennis player but these days the tennis match spectator's gallery (especially at the Davis Cup events) looks like a lawless brawl.

What's happened? The word "sport" was once synonimous with "civilized behaviour".

There are many others in my opinion : tennis (depends where you play), golf, sailing...

Ah, yes. Sailing perhaps.


But all the "boo-ing and whistling" (plus the occasional outburst by the players) has ruined tennis as a "gentleman's sport". It all began to go downhill when Ilie Nastase and Ion Tiriac started shouting obscenities at the spectators and the judges.


Golf might be a contender except that I remember when the U.S. was trying to drum up enthusiasm for invading Irak - but France said, "No!" Shortly thereafter a Frenchman was pretty much ridiculed off the golf tournament by an American spectator. Well! Not what I call sportsmanship-like behaviour. :disappointed:

Well, these are more isolated cases than the rule.

They can get very serious about cricket in India and Pakistan and some games have had the problems that football has seen in Europe.

Mycernius said:

They can get very serious about cricket in India and Pakistan and some games have had the problems that football has seen in Europe.

Click to expand...

I think you meant to say, "They can get very serious about cricket BETWEEN India and Pakistan"