The importance of work/life balance - John Eales
The importance of work/life balance
JOHN EALES
March 15, 2010 - 4:05PM
It is not so long ago that women could vote and get equal pay in tennis, but not be seen in the foyer of the Australian cricket team's hotel.
The role and profile of women in men's sport has evolved. Former Australian opening batsman Michael Slater once described how he debuted in an era when captain Allan Border dictated that no wives or girlfriends were allowed into the hotel foyer until the team had won the Ashes.
Such a dictum wouldn't go down too well these days. But in the not too distant past, it was de rigueur in the world of male sports. For the Wallabies it all changed in 1998 when Rod Macqueen set up a base camp in Caloundra.
The base camp concept followed a bleak period in Australian rugby history and preceded one of its greatest. Of the changes, one of the most radical was that our wives and girlfriends were allowed to stay with us in camp at any time. So were our kids and it was a positive change.
Our new regime elicited much comment from the media, with one of the more probing a request for clarification on the team's policy on sex the night before a match. The best response I have heard to that poser is attributed to US baseball player and manager Casey Stengel. He posited that the trouble is not that players have sex the night before a game, it's that they stay out all night looking for it.
Understanding the groupie nature of US sport, he was probably speaking more about the married players than the single ones . . . or maybe he wasn't.
As our team had many young fathers, this familial environment helped enormously.
There were still times that were sacrosanct and exclusive for the players, like when the team checked into a hotel a night or two before a test, but in all the arrangements were very family friendly. The balance worked because a happy wife makes for a happy life and a happy life generally leads to players who are less distracted and perform better.
Former Wallabies coach John Connolly understood this dynamic. If he sensed a troubled soul, he'd greet you at your car and in the 40 metres between the footpath and sideline he'd hit the two or three most important issues in your life.
He stopped short of marriage counselling, but his genuine understanding meant players gave him extra on the field.
He understood it was impossible to completely separate one's off-field life with on-field performance and the team benefited.
And that's where we come to Michael Clarke, who has taken personal leave from Australian cricket duty to, as it turns out, terminate his relationship with fiancee Lara Bingle.
Sportspeople are not automatons. They go into and out of form within their relationships as much as their sport. But compounding the pressure, they must also share their ups and downs with the public. Clarke/Bingle-related stories yesterday featured on more than 10 pages of the Sunday papers in Sydney, they were also among the most viewed news items on many internet sites.
Granted, some sportspeople expose themselves more than others and in those cases sympathy will be meagre, for if you are feted and fed by the women's magazines, you can hardly complain when you are framed by them. Life's microscope is confronting and unrelenting. And when you have a problem, and are away from home for months at a time, it is not as simple as sorting it out over a glass of wine.
But whether Clarke and Bingle have six Clarke-Bingles or they separate is irrelevant to me, but how he bats in a test is. So presuming his personal issues were affecting Clarke's professional life and how couldn't they be he has rightly taken leave to sort them out.
As a compassionate leader, how you handle what are considered softer issues is crucial. Even in the hard core field of battle, former defence force chief Peter Cosgrove admits that the wounds of the mind can be as debilitating as any physical ailment.
So for Clarke I say, if he needs a week out of the game to sort himself out, take a week; if he needs a month, take it. He may not have handled this in a manner that has pleased everyone; you never could. One thing is certain, however, he will be a wiser man from this experience and, in turn, probably a better parent and captain.
** (The author has an investment in International Quarterback, the company that manages Clarke, but he has no direct role in his management.)
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/un...0315-q8d9.html
