Should Andy Murray have said ‘No’ to tweeting about the Scottish Referendum?

After receiving criticism and no shortage of Twitter abuse, Great Britain‘s Andy Murray this week apologised for tweeting his support for Alex Salmond’s now defeated ‘Yes’ campaign ahead of the Scottish Referendum vote, specifically the ‘way it was worded’ where he openly criticised the successful Better Together campaign.

But after the almost inevitable fallout driven largely by the British sporting public and media south of the border who feel betrayed after years supporting Murray at Wimbledon, during Davis Cup matches and at two Olympics, should he have got involved in the first place?

The quick-fire would be no as surely Murray, with a history of being quoted (or misquoted) making anti-English remarks and now a resident of leafy Walton-on-Thames, didn’t want to risk alienating and losing the support of the British sporting public. Hard won support after initially being caricatured as a screaming, on court tantrum queen and previous auld enemy baiting episodes, which include joking about wearing the shirt of England opponents Paraguay during the 2006 World Cup and claiming he would always support ‘anyone but England’ at the same tournament.

But as a passionate Scot – a survivor of the horrific Dunblane disaster no less – Murray is well entitled to an opinion about the future of the country of his birth. But with emotions and tensions running high on both sides of the border as voting D-Day approached, Murray was ill-advised to keep quiet for so long, only to tweet his support and take an open swipe at the ‘No’ campaign on the morning of the vote. Combining my day job working in PR and being a sports fan, I know what I would have advised him.

Which begs the question, did Murray take it upon himself to tweet, was he cajoled into doing so as a last-ditch attempt to sway voters or was his the joker card the ‘Yes’ campaign always planned to play on the morning of the vote? However it came about, Murray has surely learnt a valuable lesson about the potential toxic combination of sporting celebrities, politics and social media and will in future likely follow the more world-wise lead of Sir Chris Hoy (and the Queen) in staying diplomatically neutral.

What will a ‘Yes’ vote mean for British sport?

No, seriously. This is a legitimate question which has seemingly been forgotten and almost avoided amongst all the rhetoric about what a ‘Yes’ vote would mean for the pound, UK passports, border controls, military infrastructure, EU membership and bla, bla, bla bla Zzzzzzz….

(Bad) jokes aside, whilst not being sufficiently well informed enough about the implications of tomorrow’s referendum vote to offer a meaningful opinion on the political and social permutations, there would be a tinge of sadness if Scotland was to break free from the United Kingdom. Especially as a sports addict who has enjoyed – and on a few occasions had to endure – many memorable performances from Scottish sportsmen and sportswomen. Many of those on the BBC, though let’s not get started on that…

Putting the bleeding obvious Mr. Andrew Murray to one side – potentially destined to be called ‘Scotland’s Andy Murray’ in victory AND defeat from now on – in the event of a victory for the ‘Yes’ campaign, what will the British & Irish Lions rugby team call themselves? Will legendary, history-laden golf courses such as St. Andrews, Muirfield and Carnoustie still be permitted to host The Open championship? How would separate Olympic GB and Scotland teams cope without one another? And does this mean that ‘Andy’ could never again win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award?

Imagine for a second a British sporting history that didn’t include the achievements of Alan Wells, David Wilkie, Gavin Hastings, Sir Chris Hoy, Liz McColgan, Sam Torrance, Sir Ian McGeechan, Stephen Hendry or Duncan Ferguson. OK, maybe not the last one. It would certainly be much the poorer and only time will tell if a victory for Team Salmond will see the British sporting public continuing to watch, enjoy and celebrate Scottish sporting heroes in the same way they did before.

Quite possibly, maybe sport can be one of the few things that unifies the countries on this small island. Let’s just see what Friday morning brings.