I don't disagree with her taking the children either, it's surely not going to do them any harm?
I grew up in a sports household - Dad loved all sports but played cricket every hour he could; he was good, Notts wanted him but in those days you needed a private income. Instead he played in local leagues, and won every cup/shield there was.
I was there when he played in the team picked from all the local ones against a county side (3 times), and when his team won the annual league.
He would wake me up at 4 in the morning to listen to the radio with him when England were playing the Aussies at cricket - we heard Cassius Clay fight Sonny Liston, all sorts.
And if he'd played for a 'proper' county, or for England, I'd want to know why I wasn't there when he'd played for England, or they won the Ashes