Wimbledon next week. Like the tournament dress code, all sports want their heroes white. In terms of virtue rather than skin colour. Sport demands the appearance of righteousness. Its default position is to pride itself on the moral lessons it teaches the rest of us.
All of which makes sport one of the great hypocrisy opportunities of modern times, lagging behind only religion and politics.
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Simon Barnes is a former chief sports writer for the Times; his books include A Book of Heroes: Or a Sporting Half Century.
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