Crossing The Floor From Politics to Sport

Despite the oft used phrase ‘politics and sport should never mix,’ it is quite common that sports and politics do.

Currently many International Sporting Federations are prevaricating over what to do in relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Few have drawn a line in the sand and made it clear to their member nations what is acceptable outside of competition and what is not.

It is interesting that as much as sports fans do not like politicians using sport for political gain, there are a large number of former sportspeople who have moved into politics. Many no doubt have used their sporting profile to gain election.

Those that stand out are the likes of footballer George Weah who became President of Liberia. The infamous Idi Amin who was a national boxing champion before becoming President of Uganda. Another boxer, but a former World Champion who retired before he lost his title Vitali Klitschko, is the Lord mayor of Kiev.

Then there is Lord Coe, in his athletics days better known as plain old Sebastian Coe who became a Member of Parliament and Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition. Sir Alec Douglas-Home is the only British Prime Minister to have played first class cricket, having represented Oxford University and also Middlesex.

Canada’s Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was a black belt in Judo, while another Canadian Prime Minister John Turner held the Canadian record for the men’s 100-yard dash and qualified for the 1948 London Olympics; unfortunately a bad knee injury kept him from competing. While in the United States President Gerald Ford made a name for himself in his younger years as a centre and linebacker, for the University of Michigan, he was also assistant varsity football coach for Yale University, before becoming junior varsity head football at Yale.

Australia has had a number of State Premiers who made their name in sport prior to entering the world of Politics, and any number of members of Parliament in both federal and state governments.

Yet there are not many that enter this world and then return to sport.

Ric Charlesworth, the former international hockey player and state cricketer was a federal member of parliament for ten years representing the Labor Party. Following this stint in Canberra he very successfully returned to hockey as a coach of the Hockeyroos in an era that saw them sweep all before them on the World stage. Then he took over the role with the Kookaburras, and once again was hugely successful winning all there was except for an Olympic gold medal; he had to settle for bronze.

Not surprisingly with such an accomplished resume Charlesworth has been in much demand as a coach, a mentor or a consultant to various sporting organisations. In the world of hockey he had a stint as coach of India, and he acted as a consultant to the New Zealand cricket team and also the Fremantle Dockers in the AFL.

This week it was announced that Charlesworth was going to assist the China Women’s Hockey team as an assistant to a player he formerly coached, who has also swept all before her as coach of the Netherlands, Alyson Annan. They should make a formidable combination. These are potentially fantastic appointments for China. With players who are brought up on discipline being a key to success many expect the players to thrive under such leadership.

While this is great news for China and their hockey program, possibly for the first time since leaving politics Charlesworth now finds himself dragged back into it whether he likes it or not. In truth it is likely that he doesn’t care, as that is a part of his life he left behind 29 years ago.

However, the timing of his announcement that he is going to be working with the Chinese team could not have come at a worse time with Australia going to the polls in a Federal election tomorrow. While many of the public may not have even noticed the news, and if they had thought “good luck,” the Labor party it is believed are far from happy.

With China having signed a security pact with Australia’s Pacific neighbour the Solomon Islands last month, the Labor party were fuelling a paranoia in relation to China, and claiming that the Liberals had taken their eye off the ball.

Australia’s fraught relationship with China has been a central talking point of the Election campaign. One key reason for this has been that several marginal seats in Sydney and Melbourne with large Chinese-Australian populations hang in the balance, so courting the community has become essential.

While some may see Charlesworth’s announcement as being ill-timed in respect to the Federal election, is it damaging or is it in fact a positive move? Could it be seen as actually mending some bridges between the two countries? It could well be the latter, as in the latest news it has been reported that the Liberal/Democrat Coalition’s use of hardline rhetoric against China is turning voters off. Charlesworth’s move and announcement which was rumoured to have upset some within the Labor Party could in fact be a huge positive for the Labor party, unless of course they are not being open and honest with the public.

Either way one suspects that Charlesworth will not care and that his focus has already shifted onto the task ahead which is making China along with Annan a force to be reckoned with.

No matter how much sports fans would like to see the sporting world distance itself from Politics and remain an almost utopian world of its own, the more you realise that this is never going to be the case.

“Ten years to cultivate wood, a hundred years to cultivate a man,” is a Chinese proverb. Remembering that Ric Charlesworth was a politician for ten years it is appropriate that it comes from Guan Zhong who was also a politician in the Spring and Autumn Period in China. It is said to mean that although it takes 10 years to grow a tree that’s ready to be used as wood is a long time, a person’s education is a life-long process or most time-consuming.