"I was not depressed when they got me out. I have always taken my dismissals as part of the game"
About this Quote
Athletes are taught to treat rejection as data, not a verdict; Woolley is doing that in one cool, clipped sentence. “When they got me out” is cricket’s bluntest fact of life, and he refuses to dress it up with drama. No wounded pride, no romantic suffering. The move is tactical: by denying depression, he denies the opposition any psychological win beyond the wicket itself.
The second line is where the real self-portrait sits. “Dismissals” is both literal (out) and institutional (dropped, passed over, released). Woolley collapses those meanings on purpose, making a philosophy out of what could read as grievance. “Part of the game” sounds casual, but it’s also a claim about agency: if the system can’t be changed, you can still control your interpretation. That’s not optimism; it’s professional detachment, almost an early version of modern “process” thinking.
Context matters because Woolley’s era prized stoicism as masculinity and as sporting etiquette. Public self-pity wasn’t just frowned upon; it was seen as a breach of the game’s moral theater. So the line plays double duty: it’s emotional self-defense and a performance of the cricketing code.
The subtext is slightly sharper than it appears: by calling dismissals “the game,” he hints that selection politics and personal reputation are as much a contest as bat versus ball. He’s telling you he’s learned the rules, and he refuses to be emotionally fined for them.
The second line is where the real self-portrait sits. “Dismissals” is both literal (out) and institutional (dropped, passed over, released). Woolley collapses those meanings on purpose, making a philosophy out of what could read as grievance. “Part of the game” sounds casual, but it’s also a claim about agency: if the system can’t be changed, you can still control your interpretation. That’s not optimism; it’s professional detachment, almost an early version of modern “process” thinking.
Context matters because Woolley’s era prized stoicism as masculinity and as sporting etiquette. Public self-pity wasn’t just frowned upon; it was seen as a breach of the game’s moral theater. So the line plays double duty: it’s emotional self-defense and a performance of the cricketing code.
The subtext is slightly sharper than it appears: by calling dismissals “the game,” he hints that selection politics and personal reputation are as much a contest as bat versus ball. He’s telling you he’s learned the rules, and he refuses to be emotionally fined for them.
Quote Details
| Topic | Resilience |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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