Been watching some baseball last few days - in particular, the Red Sox. They are on a tear lately... 14 in a row... (and like, 22-5 on last 27 games). They were completely out of competition for the post-season, last month. Now, right back in it.
Tying this back to flopping -- can you imagine a striker taking a 95 mph heater, on the elbow? Baseball players, like - give me a little spray and I'll shake it off....
Can you imagine a baseball player taking a 95 mile-per-hour heater onto the end of his foot or into the groin? Or up under his jaw. or into his face?
That's what professional cricketers have to contend with. And if you're in the slips with a ball coming at you low at 70 miles an hour, you have no protection on your hands or your shins. So, if you get that wrong, you're going to have a broken finger or a broken leg.
Sport at the elite level is played by people who can push through pain. I can't speak for basketball, but I know that there is no player at that World Cup who hasn't pushed through significant pain and played with significant injuries, where an injection is the only thing allowing him to walk.
I only heard yesterday that the Argentinian goalkeeper played with a broken hand. There's no love between me or any English person with the Argentinians, but that's a pretty tough dude.
For what it's worth, most pure soccer fans get fed up with the antics of rolling around and feigning injury. But it's down to the governing body (FIFA) to put a stop to it, and they're scared to.
And it does tend to be certain countries, the traditionally bad. Argentina have had a horrible reputation spanning back to 1966 of feigning injury, using bully boy tactics, and not wanting to play football against the better teams. Italy had a similar reputation for quite a long time, but they decided to stop qualifying for World Cups.
It's crept in somewhat into all nationality, but there are certain countries that aren't renowned for fainting and falling over at the drop of a hat, including England and the home nations, as well as Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries.
I was attracted to American football from the get-go, but that was a lot to do with the romance and fighting hard to listen to it on a crackly Armed Forces Network back in the early '80s. And back then, there was maybe 1% of things for my attention when it comes to entertainment than there are now. So I can definitely understand why some people wouldn't want to devote the time to understand.
In short, saying sports are good or bad when they're entirely subjective is the same as saying comedians are or aren't funny, music is or isn't enjoyable, and food is or isn't nice. None of those things make sense when you look at them rationally, but we're human beings, and we seldom look at things rationally.
