Australia - a point to ponder ... (28 January 1999)

28 January 1999

Australia - a point to ponder ...

Channa de Silva

The recent controversy which occurred at the Adelaide Oval Australia, during the Sri Lanka vs England cricket match has become the talk of the town among cricketing nations.

Adding to this controversy, one of Australia's leading newspapers 'Herald Sun' journalist Robert Craddock has been misinforming the public about Sri Lankan cricket.

Here are some statements which the journalist made in his article published on Monday, January 25, 1999. "Yet the Sri Lankans have bluffed the cricket world into thinking they are the sweet and innocent battlers in world cricket. It's a myth perpetuated by commentators who are forever rambling about these happy ever smiling little fellows ..."

"Many teams don't enjoy playing with the Sri lankan cricket team ..."

This is part of a damaging article which has frustrated the Sri Lankan community living in Australia.

It is irresponsible on Robert Craddock's part to have written a four-page article full of scathing remarks and statements which he has obviously never bothered to verify.

I feel this is a ploy to divert world interest away from Australian cricket which has recently been involved in numerous scandals.

Firstly, the infamous bribery scandal involving Shane Warne and Mark Waugh which they swept under the carpet for four years. (They, however were quick to criticise two Pakistani players who were involved in a similar incident!).

The end result; the Pakistani cricketing future doesn't look very bright, however, Shane Warne and Mark Waugh are currently enjoying captaincy and vice captaincy, respectively, of the Australian cricket team.

Among many acts of hooliganism by the Australian cricketers, one that borders racism is revealed by the following quote extracted from the book, "An Autobiography - Hitting Across the Line" by Sir Viv Richards.

"Without doubt, it was to be the hardest, meanest cricket tour that I have been involved in and it changed my whole concept of Test cricket. Until then I had believed, however naively, that Test cricket was the ultimate sports of gentlemen. The Australians smashed that view wide open. Forewarned or not, it came as a total surprise to me to come up against a team that contained so many aggressive people. It was a kind of a nastiness that I have never encountered previously, not just in cricket but in life in general. The force of their hostility was nothing short of frightening.

"We had to take so much! The verbal abuse, in particular, left our team completely stunned. West Indian people are, in general, milk good-natured folk and we had anticipated an atmosphere of friendly rivalry. But, as soon as we wandered out on that field, we had to face their taunts. It id not prove easy to concentrate when someone was snarling at you and saying, 'You f*** off, you black bastard!'. "

Having read the above extract, it is quite clear that it is in fact the Australians, that, other nations do not enjoy playing cricket against! However, the Australians seem to have a very short memory, when it comes to distasteful incidents of their cricketing past; Javed Miandad-Dennis Lillee incident and Trevor Chappells' under-arm bowling incident, just to mention a few.

So it is probably in the best interest of the Australians that they quit throwing stones at others when they themselves live in a very delicate glass-house! The can of worms that could be upset would not be very pleasant for Australian cricket.

Channa de Silva is a former Observer staffer, currently living in Australia.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)