Wimbledon victory not enough to justify knighthood for Murray

Andy Murray of Great Britain poses with the Gentlemen’s Singles Trophy following his victory in the Gentlemen’s Singles Final match against Novak Djokovic

If you have ears and/or eyes, you probably know about Andy Murray‘s thrilling and much talked about victory over Novak Djokovic in the final of Wimbledon last week. The victory dominated twitter feeds, facebook pages and actual human conversation for days. Everyone – from politicians, to rock stars, to writers on Sportskeeda – was talking about Britain’s first Wimbledon men’s singles champion for 77 years.

Predictably, even David Cameron couldn’t help but get in on the action. In the aftermath of the victory, the British Prime Minister came out and said something that, whilst pleasing to the majority of the temporarily patriotic British public, is actually quite silly.

Asked about the possibility of a knighthood for the young champion, Cameron responded by saying, “I can’t think of anyone who deserves one more“.

Murray, quite sensibly, offered a much more reasonable opinion upon hearing the Prime Minister’s endorsement. He told the BBC that: “It’s a nice thing to have or be offered but I don’t know if it merits that…I think just because everyone’s waited for such a long time for this [winning at Wimbledon], that’s probably why it will be suggested.”

Well done, Andy, because you’re right. People will get excited about the first British winner of the Wimbledon singles title in over three-quarters of a century. Emotions run high and that leads to silly suggestions from Prime Ministers that a knighthood is in order. But the fact remains that winning Wimbledon doesn’t merit a knighthood; not by a long shot.

Somebody wins Wimbledon every year; so despite what the British press would have you believe, it isn’t actually a miraculous achievement. It is impressive, of course, but not miraculous.

There is an over-hyped sense of accomplishment surrounding Murray’s victory simply because the nation has been waiting so long for it to happen. The fact that the male British tennis players who preceded him weren’t capable of winning the Championship does not mean that because Murray has, he now deserves to be knighted. That is a thoroughly illogical train of thought.

I don’t mean to take away from Murray’s accomplishment, which was obviously impressive and worthy of celebration. But it takes more, or at least it should take more, than just winning a high-profile sporting trophy to receive such a prestigious honour as to be made a Knight of the British Order. To be knighted as a sportsman, it shouldn’t be enough just to win, but to win and then give something valuable back to society.