It was a dark and stormy night. That’s a lie. It was a mild and unseasonably warm night and I was almost asleep, lulled away by Heidi Klum’s and Niki Taylor’s voiceovers on Bravo.
Then, something insane happened; I received a reality-bending email. But first, some unnecessary prattle back story.
From age 0-3.5, I had a much-adored stuffed bear, like most children my age. Unlike most children, my bear was named Babu, which totally proves that kids born here in the early to mid seventies might as well have been popped out “back home”. Anyway, Babu was wonderful as a confidante, hugging partner and drool-catcher…until we moved to San Francisco. Somewhere between Southern California and Northern, Babu disappeared, never to be seen again.
Last night, dazed and confused by exhaustion, I checked my email one final time…and did a sleepy double-take. There, in my inbox…Babu. The only justification I can offer for thinking what comes next is, um, Benadryl. “My Babu reached out to me from beyond!”, I gasped, and he did so via GMail no less:
Hi Anna,
It’s the biggest story happening in Indian Cricket and you are not covering it….that’s not right 🙂
Feed your cricket hunger with the story. I’m not sure if you are aware of the suspension of an Indian cricket player over racial abuse. This has created a cricket war between India and Australia. and YOU should write about it.
It has high drama, fight for honor, millions of dollars at stake and the big Indian ego Vs Australian. Australian media is supporting India as well 🙂
Link, link, link and link.
Well, I didn’t wanna vote in News tab and wait….hehe.. 😀
~Babu
Babu, after absorbing tears, snot and Lord knows what else, this is the least I can do.
All right people.
The cricket post I have received eleven requests for (not counting the above-pasted, impassioned plea from my bear) is up next.
India’s cricket team stayed in its hotel in protest Monday after one of its players was penalized for allegedly using a racial slur during a match against Australia.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India plans to challenge the “the unfair decision” by the International Cricket Council to suspend Harbhajan Singh for three matches because it said he made racist remarks to Australia’s only black player. The Indian board said it will “suspend its operation until the appeal is disposed of.” [IHT]
What the hell is going on, you might be asking. No? Well, I was asking…this is a lot of story for a blogger of little cricket brain. Apparently Indian cricket player Harbhajan Singh called Australian player Andrew Symonds a monkey. Symonds is black.
Admittedly, “monkey” would not qualify in the top hundred racist insults. Ian Botham used to revel in the nickname “Guy The Gorilla”. When all is said and done, we are all simian primates. But the word “monkey” had form, as everybody knew that Symonds had supposedly suffered such insults last year from Indian crowds. So case proven, the Indian spinner was guilty as charged. The Indian board should stop its posturing, accept what must be a galling reminder that it is the International Cricket Council that still runs the game, and get on with the tour.
Do not delude yourself, though, that in punishing Harbhajan cricket is punishing a sinner. It is punishing a victim. It is punishing a player who, it might be concluded, mentally disintegrated. Remember mental disintegration? It is Australia’s nauseatingly self-congratulatory phrase for sledging. And it worked. It worked so well that Harbhajan cracked and Australia have not stopped bleating about their shoddy little victory ever since. [Guardian]
Sledging is a cricket term for undermining players by talking a lot o’ tatti. Insult someone enough and they crack, not that I would know a damned thing about that.
Match referee Mike Proctor held a four-hour hearing at the Sydney Cricket Ground after Australia’s 122-run victory and ruled that the case against the India spinner was proved.
“I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Harbhajan Singh directed that word at Andrew Symonds and also that he meant it to offend on the basis of Symonds’ race or ethnic origin,” Proctor said. [IHT]
Beyond a reasonable doubt, eh?
“Unfair allegation of racism against our Indian player is wholly unacceptable,” said board president Sharad Pawar, who is also a senior government minister, in a statement. “The game of cricket is paramount but so too is the honor of India’s cricket team and every Indian.” [IHT]
Warning: cricket neophyte about to type.
The second test match of the tour = drama. Captain Kumble (that’s fun to say!) called the Aussies out on being dirty bastards while his team rolled their eyes the fifth time the umpires made a stupid and unfair decision.
The most blatant was an appeal that would have put Symonds out after just 30 runs in the first innings.
Symonds has freely admitted he should have been out. He went on to score 162 runs not out and was later named man of the match. [IHT]
We’re not alone in our hot tub of displeasure:
Several Australian newspapers agreed Monday that India should have won the second test, and criticized the behavior of Australian players during the test. [IHT]
I think what is pissing so many people off is the double-standard which is so evident in this unfortunate situation, the hypocrisy.
The problem is that Australia’s dividing line is not a reliable division between the morally upstanding and the indefensible. Australia’s dividing line is repugnant, enabling the condemnation of the likes of Harbhajan whilst legitimising obnoxious behaviour that cricket should have had the bravery to root out a generation ago.
Racism cannot be countenanced. But it is a rum old world that bans a man for three Tests for calling someone a monkey, yet allows the sort of boorish behaviour that allows first slip to drone to a batsman that he is shagging his wife, or that convinces any fast bowler with half a brain that personal insults every time a batsman plays and misses are essential for any cricketer of spirit. As long as you are careful not to refer to the colour of his skin.
It needs to be remembered that Harbhajan’s assault did not come without provocation. Before he was abused as a monkey, Symonds had been indulging in a phrase or two out of the corner of his mouth. Australia and Harbhajan have been at each other for years. But Australia have been obsessed with “reverse racism” ever since Darren Lehmann, their batsman, became the first international player to be banned for the racial abuse of Sri Lankan players five years ago. They have been intent upon revenge and now they have gained it. [Guardian]
What I found interesting is how Harbhajan Singh’s outburst might have been overlooked (vs. becoming the subject of 5,000 blog posts and news articles) had Aussie captain Ponting not whined about it to the umpires, thus drawing attention to it. That’s classy.
Well, Ponting may have won this pathetic, wee, jeer-worthy (no! sledging-worthy) battle but after everything I’ve read online, he has lost far more, most notably respect and credibility because of it. Well-played. Idiot (note: must be pronounced the way Naseeruddin Shah did in Monsoon Wedding, kthx bai).
Good thing with Cricket is that India gets a rare chance to be the sugar daddy. A sign of things to come?
unacceptable in a Western context. Perfectly acceptable in India.
No – it is an insult. Quite like a Carlton supporter calling a Collingwood captain ‘a wanker’. One insult is not more offensive than the other.
149, so the cricket world can be caught between the machinations of the ICC and the BCCI and their power struggles. Hurrah.
[must.get.back.to.work]
There’s no concrete proof that Harbhajan called him a monkey…only say so of the Aussies. He could have just been calling him ‘tere maa ki…something or the other in Punjabi.
Its also interesting that Bucknor is of Caribbean descent , and he refused to call Symonds of West Indian out (…even when he was blatantly out) who is also of Caribbean descent, even though he plays for Australia.
Tell me that the monkey slurs are an import from European racist fans and has just been picked up in India as of late due to an increase in TV consumption and I will be closer to accepting the “racism” angle.
It is by no means accepted in Europe, teams get fined and sometimes banned from playing games on the home turf. The thing is actually only seen in Spain and occasionally in Italy. You would never ever see it in UK, France or the Scandinavian countries.
flygirl – I know. Was just bantering with you. In any case it is good to other Aussie Desis posting. I am at work but no work 😉 – most folks are still on vacation.
154 Right, yeah, they are all in it together [/sarcasm].
Bucknor has been a totally useless umpire for nearly ten years now. He should have been retired long ago. And Richie Benaud is beyond senile.
Interesting set of articles in “http://www.theage.com.au” Opinion section. Sorry if the link coding wasn’t right…
I was going to say the same thing, but these chants are also distinctly racist. They are 100% intended to be racist. Let’s assume Singh DID call him a monkey. Even if he didn’t mean it in a racist way, I think people should be aware of the context of their comments. I’m not going to call someone of Chinese/Vietnamese/Indonesian/Malaysian descent a monkey or goon, even if I’m talking about their 3 Stooges-like behavior (not appearance) because I understand that it has an offensive context.
Dude, you are being a total asshat.
If I’m understanding your transliteration, melbournedesi, “maine ki kya?” would translate to “what did he [you] say to me!?”
Just the thought of this is terrifying!
I accept that there is a high level of anti-African racism in India and I don’t give a damn about India’s cricket rep, so what motivation do I have to be disingenuous ?
I have heard of it being used angrily at backpacker type whites, but I request more context from someone who grew up in India. And Symond’s, a mixed race man, appearance is dark skinned but not particularly African from the pics that I have seen. I would say that his features tend to the Europoid type that racist Indians and Bollywood favors. Is this the phenotype that is going to elicit the racist taunts that elude other people with African ancestry ? Could it be the strange lip balm or the dreads ? I’m not trying to be obtuse here, I’m seeing questions from other commenters I have not known to be racist so I think it warrants some more consideration before accepting the racism conclusion
MD, I am a Lankan supporter (and fellow Melbournite). We’ve been there, done that, and we didn’t abandon a tour for it, which is why I don’t appreciate this approach. But i had to laugh when I heard that Hair was supportive of Bucknor, the lamb.
Camille – why is a ‘racist’ offence a more serious one than one that questions your ancestry. To me both are insults. Australians have been the best sledgers around. Link below explains this a lil better. As I said earlier, if you dish it out you must also take it.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22637737-5001505,00.html maybe of interest.
louiecypher, I meant that the attempted clarification by the Indian spokespeople was, b/c they failed to take the context into account, sorry I ddint make that clear.
Camille, I do love your posts, here and in other threads…just had to say it
Fellow Melburnian – I must disagree with you on this approach. Walk out of the tour – Australia will come running with tails between their legs. There is a time to negotiate and a time to walk away. This is a good time to teach the bully a lesson. I would even support breaking off diplomatic relations. Note : Australia needs India more than the other way around.
No, they just use anti-Semitic slurs instead.
flygirl — thank you! Did you recently de-lurk? If so, welcome! If you have been posting, and I am a total jerk and just now noticed, then please excuse me while I remove my foot from my mouth 🙂
melbournedesi, how you determine what’s more serious depends on who you are. I care less about someone questioning my ancestry than someone using a racial slur, largely because racial slurs are tied to a horrific system of disadvantage and subjugation. While it is true that questionable ancestry could also pose a disadvantage, it doesn’t have the same systemic badness in it (to me). I agree that if you dish it you should be able to take it, but even when trading insults there has to be a line somewhere, don’t you think?
MD, you don’t find that in anyway over reactive petulance? This is just sport, in the end. If you want to deal with post-colonial power/race issues, there are plenty of other forums and markets. It will tarnish India’s rep, though not in the eyes of their fellow countrymen, of course. I’m glad to see subcontinental teams marking their ascendancy and dominance, but I don’t want to keep seeing sore losers combined with collapsible batting line-ups and bullying power coming to the fore. If Lanka had abandoned their tour(s) after the disgraceful Murali-baiting, I would have said the same.
Camille
You take an incident and generalize. Monkey taunts in Spanish games happen all the time and they are directed to black players. They don’t scream Yids in Premier League all the time, there are hardly any jewish players anyway, it is the club Totten Hotspurs that it is directed to.
Ahh but it is not just sport- tis a billion dollar business. Look at it in the context of a business deal – would you deal with Ricky & his firm if this were a business deal. I suspect not.
and Indians have a good rep now? in whose eyes – Australians / NZ / China ?
I have always been a firm believer in standing up and fighting for respect – an upbringing in the slum does that.
Folks who talk about India being sore losers forget that the Indian public turns on its players rather easily to the extent of stoning their homes. This is not the case now.
Camille, I posted once, long ago, but have only just de-lurked, sorry 🙂
MD India did have a good rep – at least a high degree of respect and practically fawning over Tendulkar. As good as you can get, here at an rate 🙂 Indians are not the only sore losers, and I have made perfectly clear. Also, in this context, I meant that I don’t want to see subcontinental teams – which you might recall also means Pakistan, SL and Bangladesh – using their voting bloc to bully the ICC into what pleases them to the detriment of the game, which is a very real possibility.
You will win respect for battling well and defeating the opposing team, not for having a sook. Pardon me id this seems airy-fairy – i think that a thorough thrashing in games to come is a better way of winning respect.
I would say “monkey” is a slur used in India, not exclusively for black people.
If he would’ve said “kala bandar” then you have a case for racism/colorism/whateverism. Monkey by itself is a generic slur.
There are so many monkeys running free in India, and they are quite mischievious and cause alot of trouble and stress. Bandar is a common slur for people who are perceived as behaving like, well, monkeys.
Whoops, sorry guys!! Messed up the tags – the second para onwards was addresssed to MD who’s name has disappeared..sorry..
If an insult is based on what the recipient feels then we wont be able to talk. I remember in an earlier post, I called you ‘Massa’ and you blew your top. I thought I was being funny – clearly you did not. I also found the noose hilarious. Clearly, different standards apply to different folks. One solution is to go – say what you want as long as you dont touch me. The other would be total silence. We dont accept any nasty comments ( doesnt need to be racist) in the workplace why accept it in sports field – tis the workplace as well. The line is to be drawn by not saying anything – dont dish it out and dont take it. Silence on the cricket field would be great.
To me an insult questioning one’s ancestry is a cause for a fist fight.
167 · melbourne desi said
very good point. btw, my understanding is that match fee for a player of singh’s caliber is about 2.5Laks. So the guy stood to lose roughly $200K for his 3 match suspension. plus as a potential matchwinner, his loss impacted the overall pot that the players take home as per their match-winning incentives (you can bet your chaddies this got the players hot under the collar).
i just wish they would avoid getting people like sharad pawar making silly sounding statements like
the guy cant be a fool if he is presiding over a wealthy organization like the indian cricket board. surely he can see how limpwristed this sounds. get a lawyer to get medieval on the aussies. sue them for damage to the pocket book and then some.
when both are playing the same game by the same rules and have the same number of players. India and Australia are not playing the same game and tis 12 vs 11. (3rd umpire is ausralian) Does India need the respect of Australia – not at all. As I said earlier, the best way to treat a bully is either ignore him or be a bigger bully. India got beaten fair and square in Melbourne – no complaints there. But Sydney…. I believe Ricky Ponting’s (amongst other Australians) endorsement contracts have been cancelled in India.
I wonder if all this controversy was a big conspiracy to up television ratings….
EXTRA. Steve Chakna Bucknor fired. Bhaji to play while the appeal is pending. The show, or shall we say tamasha goes on. Anyone confused about monkey business, go here. Read Kesavan’s take on other issues as well. Good man. Camille, Flygirl is our old friend who usually visits cricket threads.
Karm, I’m fully aware of that. They direct that slur towards Tottenham largely because of its historically Jewish community-base. While the monkey-slur in Spain/Italy is meant in a vitriolic and specifically racist way, I’m just commenting that racist/identity-oriented slurs are not uncommon in the countries you mentioned.
MD, I blew my top because you effectively compared me to a slave master. Wouldn’t you find that offensive? I also don’t find nooses entertaining largely because I don’t think race-based lynchings are funny, either. On the level of offenses, I prioritize racist commentary as more offensive than being told I am the product of an illegitimate or out-of-wedlock birth. The reason I said it varies by person is because we clearly don’t have the same criteria for offense, not because I believe in some hippular-dipular offense definition.
Tottenham Hotspur are called ‘The Yids’ because they are traditionally seen as the Jewish club of England because they always had a massive Jewish following from the North London Jewish heartland. It’s actually Jewish and non Jewish supporters of Spurs who call themselves ‘The Yids’ with pride.
Twenty-five years ago racism was very bad in English football. You would have monkey chants directed at black players. As society progressed, and more importantly, black players became ubiquitous in the Premier League, along with massive anti-racism campaigns, and changes in society, it has more or less dissapeared from English sport at the top level. It’s seen as a massive disgrace now, just about the worst thing you can be accused of in the modern world. And that’s a very positive testimony to social campaigning and activism and the changes in British society. The problem lies in Eastern Europe, Italy and Spain, which are at the point that the UK was at 20 to 30 years ago in terms of racist chanting and abuse at football matches.
I saw the monkey taunts made by some Indian fans towards Symonds. They turned my stomach. They were prosperous looking middle-class Indians, not ghetto kids who had sneaked into the stadium who you might at least say were uneducated; and these disgusting individuals were enjoying their filthy little racist baiting. Having said that, they were ejected from the stadium and action was taken against them and the phenomenon. Totally unnacceptable. And the cricketing authorities in India have to be commended for that. As for Harbhajan, if he said that, I’m very dissapointed in him.
Meanwhile, just been watching NDTV’s coverage, and the level of jingoism and self-righteousness is incredible, hysterical, and quite frightening at times. Oh yeah, and the Indian media establishment is in massive denial about the prevalence of racism in India.
I just wish India had won the two tests, I can’t stand the Australian team, bunch of arrogant lairy sods.
If he would’ve said “kala bandar” then you have a case for racism/colorism/whateverism.
I’m pretty sure that no one in the Aussie team understands hindi, and that he said monkey, not bandar in the first place. Given that the Indian players actually are pretty good in English, I doubt they woyld ever say black monkey, since the color of a monkey isn’t used in the english language, not even when Indians speak it among each other.
Ahhh, this explains my ignorance. I rarely read the cricket threads because I know less than nothing about cricket 🙂
no – I dont. I was calling you a slave master – not a slave. If someone told me that X is my slave, I would think – hmm neat. Something on the lines – you are my bitch.. Camille – race is a big deal to you coz you were raised in USA. I was not and hence race is not.. Different upbringing – different reaction.
I actually think we’re agreeing 🙂 [I’m saying that I find issue X more offensive because of my context, but I understand this isn’t the same for you. Hence, Y could be more offensive in Australia than in India, etc., etc.]
second time in a week 😉 – pretty scary…..
The interesting thing that it was Sachin Tendulkar who insisted on the hardline stance on this. Had it been a bunch of blowhard Indian officials it might really be seen as the Indians throwing their toys out of the pram. But Sachin has more personal integrity and credibility than almost any other cricketer in the world, and I trust his word on this quite a lot.
[ link ]
pingpong, this is the second time in two days that you have compared your endowment to harvard’s. the gent doth protest too much, methinks 😉
MD, Well, must agree to disagree. This isn’t about Australia’s respect for India, but the behaviour of both teams and their approach to resolving issues, and about process. Fundamentally, in my eyes at least, about whether Singh called Symonds a “monkey,” which given the context was pretty damn poor form. It’s also about (I sound like ACA, I know) a disproportionate reaction to the outcome of these allegations. I don’t see the point of invoking national honor. I don’t understand why the main argument seems to be “how dare you accuse an Indian player of racism,” which is what the Indian camp sounds like. If Tendulkar sides with Harbhajan, all power to him, and onwards with the appeal. I see bullying from the Aussies in the way they play the game and call the shots, and I see bullying in the attitude of “if we don’t get our way, we’re leaving.” End rant.
Shodan, fair go, I used to comment on other threads…long ago, when Sepia was a callow adolescent…
I agree with you flygirl. The Indian media seem to collapse into this pit of jingoism and defensivness and hysteria. It’s very very ugly and stupid. By comparison Tendulkar and Kumble are models of quiet dignity and resolution. I especially trust Sachin. I believe his word.
Socrates, In Sachin We Trust. What a shame that we have to go through all this. What a dangerous precedent it sets.
Here’s an excellent article on it if anyone is interested.
===========
Continuing escalation is inevitable. If I called you an idiot, again and again and again, you would eventually call me a bloody fool. What would you think if I then staggered back in horror. “He called me a fool! He said bloody! This mustn’t be allowed!†That is what has happened.
Australia led the way in insults and now, claiming that an India player used a racist term, they are saying that rude behaviour on a cricket pitch is terrible, rotten, awful, mustn’t be allowed. If Harbhajan Singh did call Andrew Symonds a monkey as a racist insult, it is pretty nasty. As nasty as when Darren Lehmann, the Australia batsman, called the Sri Lankans “black c***sâ€. Many Australians defended Lehmann’s outburst because it was “in the heat of the momentâ€. It was pretty nasty, no matter what the moment’s temperature.
There are a million complications in this row, to do with ever-rising Indian nationalism, ditto Indian prosperity, the changing centres of power in cricket and a million issues of culture, politics and self-worth. Such things are normal in international sport, part of its endless fascination.
The reason the row has got out of hand is not because of racism. It is because too soft a line has been taken on the practice of sledging for far too long. [ link ]
Melbourne Desi,
Just out of curiosity, have you ever played in any organized sports? Intramurals or even something loosely organized in the playground? I ask because India leaving the tourney is akin to a kid running home in tear with his ball and bat simply because the other team is mean, it comes off as very soft and not tough at all. I would rather see India win the tourney outright, after all, success is the best revenge, for example, Arthur Ashe or Jesse Owens (a black man winning at the Berlin Olympics in front of Hitler). I think that Indian success on the field would puff out the chests of the desis in Australia more than India heading home. The Aussies would have to admit that they got beat on their ground with the cards allegedly stacked in their favor. That’s what makes sports so great, David v. Goliath, with Goliath getting his ass kicked. Whatever issues India or desis may have with Australian arrogance or prejudice or their economic policies, there are probably better forums than a cricket match.
To leave would simply allow the Aussies to say that India doesn’t have the backbone to finish it out.
flygirl, I think you might like the article I linked to above. Especially the final sentences:
+++++++
Cricket should not have set racism as the final frontier of unacceptable behaviour; a line should have been drawn years ago at the point when banter becomes bitter invective. Cricket has been soft on a serious matter for decades and now cricket is in crisis.
Australia has long promoted mental disintegration; as a result, we are facing the disintegration of cricket.
No, it is – how dare you believe the words of the Aussies over the words of Indians. Aussies who have been shown to be liars and cheats on the cricket field.
Lets say that a servo stiffs you – do you need to work through the issues with the servo or just seek another servo. As I said earlier, cricket is no longer sport – it is a professional business. Billion dollar business. to paraphrase a great Australian PM both teams are saying – we decide who plays the game and how the game is to be played. India is in a much stronger negiotating position and should just walk away. Australia will then play cricket by India’s rules 😉
In fact there has been only one Aboriginal player in the last 20 years – Jason Gillespie. He is not on the contract list now. He was often mocked about ‘his caravan’. Cricket in Australia is an Anglo Saxon game – a narrower definition than White.
Jason Gillespie might be like 1/8 or less aboriginal, its like a few of my very blue eyed friends who had one great great great grandparent (some 5-6 generations ago) who was aboriginal and claim to be one coz its cool in left leaning circles. Jason Gillespie is like the Ray Martin (link provided) type aboriginal.
The point here is no one heard what Harbhajan said to Symmonds so it he said- he said, and if you go down that path it is easy to pick on strategic players and have them suspended by claiming racism without credible evidence such as a stump mike recording.
Cricket hasn’t gone on to attract non Anglo – Celtic people in Australia. The Europeans – Italians, Greeks, Serbians and others are extremely passionate about soccer. Same goes for the South Americans in Australia. The Islanders – Tores Straits, Tongans, Samoans, Fijians are into Rugby League/ Union and Aussie Rules. You also have Arabs and Indians play footy. Also rugby and soccer are seen as a way to escape poverty and working class outer city existence mainly in the large cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. While Cricketers come from a more rural areas or small cities with a mono cultural background. Glen McGrath is from Dubbo, NSW; Ponting from Launceston, TAS; Brad Hogg from rural WA.
Andrew Symonds is from Queensland. Queenslanders are commonly called Banana benders in New South Wales and they call New South Welshmen as Mexicans – south of the border. So now are bananas going to be racially offensive?
They are saying it’s all done to exactly this. Ponting is Harbhajan’s bitch. Bowled him five times for ducks. They hate him because he sledges them back. And if there’s one thing that this has proved, it’s that the Aussies simply don’t like it when it’s given back to them. Which makes them look utterly pathetic.
Socrates, thanks for that. But I would slightly modify the comment that:
Cricket should have not been soft on a serious matter, but was right to set racism as the final frontier. Well, duh, I guess. Why is no one even addressing the fact that whatever the behavior of the Aussies, they were right to bring such allegations to the fore?
Now that I have discovered that the buttons above are there to be useful, here are some interesting articles dealing with the situation:
Waleed Aly on the perceptions and power play
Phillip Pond General Disillusionment
I still can’t get over there being actual calls from the Aussie media for Ponting’s resignation!!
MD, for sake or argument, how dare you assume that all that the Indians say is true, particularly given their form on race and Andy Symonds? I’ve made it abundantly clear that I have no time for the Aussie team, but if such an allegation was made then the correct channels should be followed and I don’t think ANY country has the right to hold the game to ransom. And that’s what’s happening here. It all seems remarkably similar to the Aussie attitude following Lehmann’s ignimonious outburst.
and you still fail to appreciate that regardless, it is still just sport. your servo example doesn’t work here.
Ah Johnny Howard…how I miss you not…
Samir, the NSWelshman call us Melbournians ‘Mexicans.’ I thought that was one of those Sydney things 😉
cricket / field hockey at the district level. I still play cricket in the local leagues. Coming weekend is going to be a tough one for me with all the banter on the field. the other guy is not mean – he is just playing a different game. Toughness can be shown on the field or in the purse. India holds the purse-strings – take the money elsewhere.
cricket is the best forum. Sport is the only religion in Australia. Hit them where it hurts.
yeah and so. who cares what the aussies think about the cricket team. aussies still need to come to india to earn a living. I dont know about you – but I live in Australia and I dont give care. am glad to say that many desis I know would be happier if Team India went home. It is time to teach Australian cricket a lesson. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
I think I fail the Tebbit test 😉
bad spelling, I meant “ignominious.” I’m pretty sure it’s a real word.
MD, I think a huge proportion of Australia would fail the Tebbit test. We just fell short of that particular idiocy (all hail, Mighty Kev, etc)
Those are all excellent articles flygirl. I think the point that Simon Barnes was making regarding racism, he means that it all should have been nipped in the bud earlier, that it’s taken a controversy over this to bring the whole squalid nature of sledging to light.
Socrates, I read Barnes’ article (gasp! The Telegraph! who’da thunk it), and I love his opening para:
A tour of Australia tests cricketers to breaking point – and often beyond. It is not just the team who are against you. There is also the media, with their constant sniping, and the umpires, who favour the home side as subconsciously but indisputably as referees favour Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Time for Australia to take a looong hard look at itself.
Ok, I really am going back to work now. Really.
The best piece I’ve come across actually explaining that the October monkey taunts were probably not racial. Either way, if HS said it, it would be construed as racial since he was aware of the controversy in October. Of course, there is only one person’s claim that he said “monkey.”
By filing the counter-charge against Brad Hogg, the Indians have highlighted the cultural misunderstandings that are perhaps at the root of the entire issue. For Hogg, ‘bastard’ may be a nothing word, but it has drastically different connotations in India, where those born out of wedlock are considered children of a lesser God.
In the same way, monkey chants that were rife in the west in the 1980s – as a Liverpool fan, I can remember bananas being lobbed towards the great John Barnes, who was of Jamaican origin – and are still prevalent in Eastern Europe are hardly a factor in India.
The fans who mocked Symonds at various venues in India were almost certainly taking shots at his appearance and not his ethnicity. Having had West Indian cricketers tell me of being called “Black Bastard” by kids in Mumbai, I know just how nasty racist abuse can get at the Wankhede. “Monkey” may be derogatory, but it’s not racist in an Indian context. It can be equated to calling a corpulent player a Hippo in England or Australia. link
Have a good day mate.
Final thought from me, taken from Michael Epis’s article posted by flygirl:
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But the match was marred and entered the halls of infamy by the poorest of umpiring, Australian petulance — and Harbhajan’s Singh’s wrongdoing. If, that is, you accept the Australians’ version of events and not his.
But when the Australians stand at the crease when they edge the ball to first slip and appeal when the batsmen is clearly not out — well, why then would you believe anything they say?
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Goodnight folks!