The cricket World Cup Final of 2019 will be remembered for a long time by anyone who watched it.  It proved to be an astonishing, riveting, inspiring, confusing, thrilling, sporting, enthralling occasion  as history beckoned a winner. So, who did win, England or New Zealand? Both teams scored 241  runs in their allotted fifty overs (New Zealand for the loss of eight wickets, England for the loss of ten  wickets); both teams scored fifteen runs in the ensuing ‘Super Over’ shoot-out (New Zealand for the  loss of one wicket, England for the loss of no wickets). Neither team actually won by the normal  means of judging winners. England were however awarded the trophy, based on scoring more  boundaries during their innings, and therefore they will be seen as the winners. They were not the  winners, however.  

For many people, New Zealand were the winners, for the way they handled the manner of their  ‘defeat’; they did not moan, complain, berate or make excuses but rather complimented the  opposition for their play and remained calm. Others say, both were winners, for the way they both  responded to the result, and argued that after both the original fifty overs and then the ‘Super Over’  were tied the trophy should have been shared by both teams. So who did actually win?  

England did not win; New Zealand did not win; both did not win. No-one won but everyone won. In  truth, however, cricket won; sport won, and, by extension, humanity won. It was a similar  experience not far away in London on the same day, at the same time, when Novak Djokovic and  Roger Federer contested the longest, closest Men’s Final in Wimbledon history with the first ever  final set tie-breaker, with Djokovic ultimately being declared the winner. Tennis won, with Djokovic  praising his opponent: “It was a match … that transcends our sport.” Humanity won.  

In any sporting contest we all tend to want someone to win, whether we are a dyed-in-the-wool  fanatic or interested supporter. That is the point of a sporting contest, to win. It is what keeps  people coming to watch; a team wins. Interestingly, though, coaches and players often say that  though they lost they actually deserved to win – “the better team lost”, they claim. Sometimes, it is  accompanied by crowds booing, players complaining, managers blaming, supporters taunting. In  such cases, sport certainly does not win.  

In that cricket World Cup Final, cricket won not just in the result but in other ways as well. With nine  balls of England’s innings to go, and twenty-two runs still needed, Ben Stokes hit a huge strike which  Trent Boult caught on the boundary, only to step backwards and stand on the boundary rope a  fraction of a second before he threw the ball to his team-mate, Martin Guptill. Immediately Guptill  signalled to the umpires it was a six, damaging and decisive a blow as it was. Sport won there;  humanity won. Then with three balls to go, and nine runs still needed, the same Ben Stokes ran two  runs but as he dived for the crease the incoming ball (thrown by the same Guptill) ricocheted off the  bat of Stokes and ran over the boundary, giving them six instead of two runs. Immediately Stokes  asked the umpire not to count the four extra runs as he did not want to gain an unfair advantage.  Sport won there; humanity won.  

Cricket, tennis, any sport wins when both teams have tried their hardest in the fairest manner, when  both teams accept decisions graciously and gracefully, when both teams display good sportsmanship  and fair play, when both teams work as teams not as individuals, when both teams show a positive  and determined attitude right to the final moment, when the result goes from one side to the other,  backwards and forwards, when both teams acknowledge the massive contribution of their  opponents. Sport wins and therefore humanity wins.  

Often sport does not win, such as when one team or player cruises or bruises their way to victory,  when one team wins by a large margin. The fact is, it does not really matter who won if sport and  humanity do not win. We need to help our children understand this truth at the youngest age. We  

need to make sure that in every school fixture, sport wins more than any one particular team. Who  wins is actually not important; what wins is. That will bring a new zeal and love for sport.