Team Talk 2/7/09
Andy Murray - Our Representative?
Apparently some of the papers prepared two headlines for Wednesday morning as they waited to see the outcome of Andy Murray's quarter final match against Ferrero: "Determined British Ace sails through to the Semi-Finals" read one, and "Bulshy Scot crashes out" read another! Obviously this plays on the way that when Andy Murray wins then we all want to identify with him, "We've won!" we shout as he lifts his racquet above his head in acknowledgement of the applauding public. However when he loses then we quickly distance ourselves from him; no surprise then that as his success has grown so has his popularity!
But are we heaping too much expectation on the British ace (see I can't help doing it either!)? As an England supporter I know too well the heartache of having my expectations raised by a promising run in a tournament only to find that we come up short. Well actually that's a half-truth; in fact maybe it's just a story that we followers of England sport have become so used to telling. After all in 2003 we went on a run in the Rugby World Cup and ended up winning! Perhaps we need to face head-on this claim that England are perennial under-achievers. Tim Henman at Wimbledon is often cited as an example, but the facts don't stack up with the story; almost every year that Henman competed he outperformed his world ranking, making the quarter finals 4 times and the semis 3 times where he lost each time to the eventual winner (not to mention that in 2001 he beat a certain highly rated emerging talent: Roger Federer). So why is it that the public so often view Henman's Wimbledon career with a slightly patronising ‘nice try Tim but you were always a bit of a disappointment'!
"Ah but what about '30 years of hurt' and all that?" Well it's worth asking again whether our expectations are too high; is it really fair to expect us to win tournaments when we're not even ranked in the top 5? We call the England team of the last four years ‘the golden generation' but perhaps they were just a very good generation (but not quite up to the 1966 vintage). If it just a story that we're perennial under-achievers then why do we have such high expectations? Why is it that we attach so much of our feelings of success and failure to the success and failure of our national icons?
Perhaps it's a strange irony of our individualistic times that we can't quite shake off the habit of binding some aspect of our identity to those who ‘represent us'. It's almost as though however much we're told that ‘every man is an island' we know that what one person or team accomplishes can have ramifications for the rest of us. Just as Andy Murray takes the court and we fee like we win and lose with him, so the performance of one man can determine whether we're all winners or losers. That was one of the great themes of the Old Testament scriptures; King David took the battlefield and defeated the giant Goliath and the nation rejoiced in their victory. The theme becomes even more significant in the New Testament where Jesus took the battlefield of this world and defeated the real giants that we face; sin, death and evil. Furthermore, whilst Andy Murray may be good (and may even win Wimbledon) he's not perfect and eventually he will lose - Jesus Christ is uniquely perfect and by his death and resurrection has gained an eternal and unshakeable victory for all who trust him.
Pete
Download Andy Murray - Our Representative? (4.74 MB MP3 file)
