From The Touchlines

Most of you would have read about the skirmishes that ensued following Serbian Novak Djokovic’s victory over Bosnian-American Amer Delic in the Australian Open. But if you haven’t, you can read it here and here.

Over the years I’ve come to believe that sports bring people of different races and nationalities together. In short, it unites them.

It has always been heartening to see Malaysians rejoice together when the country does well in any sports – badminton, mostly.

You can see for yourselves how all races can just click together in rejoicing over the big achievement. There is no such thing such as Malays, Chinese or Indians. Just Malaysians.

But to see politics come into play – such as in the case of the above-mentioned tournament – it is indeed very sad and shameful to see a tennis tournament of such stature brought down to the ground by such unwanted incidents.

A tennis match is a tennis match. Nothing more. It is just two world-class players on court trying to outdo one another. Nobody talks politics on the court. You can do it outside but please, when you enter the arena, try being civilised and just enjoy a good tennis match.

After having travelled all the way from Eastern Europe to the Asia-Pacific, the last thing you would want to do is waste your time throwing chairs and getting yourselves arrested by police. This is the time when you exercise tolerance.

Yes, the history is still there. Yes, the hurt remains. Nobody’s denying that. But what has happened, has happened. You cannot change the past. Why not just move forward and be better?

The time has come for common sense to prevail and set aside all differences. It will not be easy, but it will definitely make everyone’s lives a lot better.

I hope I have not offended anyone here, but if I have, I apologise.