Is it ever right to cheat in sport? That’s the question I was asked and I’ve held my hands up!

Let me put it in context before I get another barrage of abuse from people that don’t know me.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked if I would go on TV for Good Morning Britain to talk about parents races at sports days in schools.

Having aired now, I have been the subject of some derision from complete strangers and widely applauded from others.

What I was asked, was would I cheat to win the Dad’s race at sports day and I admitted I did last year and I would again.

Was it such a bad thing? Am I setting such a bad example to my six year old daughter? Is this really the crime of the century?

These along with many other questions have come my way in the past few weeks.

Last summer, having helped out at my daughter’s school’s sports day, I like many other Dads lined up not wanting to be embarrassed and breaking with tradition, the school insisted we all did a dash with a bean bag between our knees.

This is where I may well have had a slight advantage. I was wearing shorts and had got trainers on. I also realised it was a little easier to run with the bean bag between my thighs and not my knees.

Needless to say I managed to beat some guys almost half my age by employing my less than honest tactics, but who cares? No one complained, no one argued and most importantly, everyone had a great time.

Isn’t sport meant to be fun so as to get more people involved?

If sport was boring and dull, everyone would soon give it up that’s for sure. Every day I seem to read statistics about how obesity is on the increase and we are all leading sedintry lifestyles, so wouldn’t it be better that we encourage children to enjoy sport and not pressure them into having to be a winner?

I’m all up for competition at the right time and kids have to learn there are winners and losers in life, but I feel the best way to go at primary school is to go out and participate with a smile on your face.

That’s what the teachers and parents races are all about, so why can’t we extend that to the kids races?

It’s all about embracing kids into sport from an early age and if they go away having had fun, they will be more inclined to want to do more.

I’m certainly not condoning that we teach them to cheat, but they need to learn that they might be able to gain an advantage by bending the rules.

This is where there is a grey area and even I must admit I would be less than impressed if one of our Olympians had won gold by cheating.

I’d never condone drugs in sport, full stop. My opinion is that anyone caught taking drugs should be banned for life.

This is where there is a clear distinction and professional sport needs to be cleaned up.

Saying that, I watch a lot of professional sport and there is an awful lot of bending of the rules. How many Premier League football games are played where players delay things to watch the clock tick down or sneak an extra few yards forward to take a throw in?

Feigning injury, taking a dive, moving the ball at a free kick when no one is looking, are all forms of cheating, but they all still happen.

How many batsmen have refused to walk when they know they have nicked the ball to the wicketkeeper? How many bowlers appeal for an lbw when they know the batsman has clearly hit it?

I wonder how many golfers have given their ball a swift right foot out of the rough having strayed off the fairway.

We’re never going to clean up sport completely and the more money there is involved, the more the temptation for someone to go that extra mile and see if they can gain an advantage.

Tomorrow afternoon I will lace up my trainers one more time and stand there on the start line, look at those around me with a smile on my face, safe in the knowledge that I will most likely be beaten, but will have fun cheating along the way!