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"Win at all cost" Attitude

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The Steve Smith incident that happened couple days ago got me thinking about "Win at all cost" attitude that is instilled in the kids nowadays at an early age. Unfortunately, both coaches and parents are culprits here.
Generally, kids go to play & learn cricket because they found it to be fun, either watching it or while playing it in the gullies.

My cricket coach always wanted me to perfect the fundamentals of the game, before he would even put me in the nets. He would not accept any shortcuts. However, he always insisted that process of becoming a better bowler or a batsman was more important than a win or a loss. This doesn't mean one need not work hard for a win.
Swami Vivekananda has a famous quote where he says that "The means to an end is more important than the end itself". In this case, Steve Smith wanted to get an advantage by scruffing up the ball and get it replaced to get more reverse swing going or damage the ball so that the umpires would give them another ball. But the "means" to get to that advantageous position (the goal, in this case) in the test match is sadly cheating or a shortcut. I blame "win at all costs" for this incident.
Kids need to be taught the process - fairness, determination, putting in hard yards, fitness, technique- is more important than the wins and losses. Yes in this day & age it is hard to imagine someone actually accepting losses, if the gain is performance improvement. However, I would want a kid to understand what and how much it takes to be a winner. 

Constantly badgering him/her that you have to win, may force him to look at other avenues of achieving it, which may include unfair means to please parents or coaches. It has been my beef with parents who push their kids so hard that they start losing interest in that activity, whatever it may be. Let the kids be. He/She may not become a great cricketer, but the time spent learning the game is not waste. Cricket teaches you discipline, fundamentals, teamwork, grit etc and all of these characteristics are helpful in every sphere of one's life.
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