When rehabilitation expert and the Jewish (what else would he be?) Sir Ludwig Guttmann initiated the first Stoke Mandeville Games (the precursor to the Paralympics) for British war veterans in the late 1940s, I don’t think he imagined that, two and a half decades into the 21st century, the Wimbledon Wheelchair Tennis Championships would offer a record £82,000 in prize money for the winner, while more than 12,000 paying spectators filled Court No. 1 at the All England Club to watch Japan’s Tokito Oda lift the trophy after defeating local star Alfie Hewett.

This is very different than when I played wheelchair tennis – and this is merely 10-15 years ago – when professionalism was only emerging. Prize money was modest, we usually used it to upgrade ourselves to single hotel rooms instead of sharing, and the very few spectators were usually in one way or another, forced to be there. In the good cases it was school kids. In the weird cases it was Chinese prisoners. It’s a long story I’ll have to tell another time.

I also doubt the legendary Dr. Guttmann could have pictured the brutal wheelchair basketball player market that takes place every summer between seasons. Across Europe, clubs scout players, make offers, negotiate contracts and compete with one another during an increasingly........

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