Hats off to Australia’s breathtaking contempt
In the Age Greg Baum looks at Australia's decision to wear a sponsor’s cap during their tour match in the West Indies and says it is one of a series of events that makes it hard to treat the Tests seriously.
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
In the Age Greg Baum looks at Australia's decision to wear a sponsor’s cap during their tour match in the West Indies and says it is one of a series of events that makes it hard to treat the Tests seriously.
All of the Australians are in the Caribbean and, unlike the West Indians, are not conflicted about who they are representing. They took the field against a Jamaica Select XI on the weekend wearing blue baseball caps bearing the name of their brewery sponsor. Plainly, they were playing not for us, but for yet another franchise.
This was a breathtaking contempt, not just morally, because of the campaign against binge-drinking, and not just aesthetically, because it made the Australian team look like a pack of Sunday afternoon pub players. Always, the baggy green has held special significance in Australian sport. As the commercial era dawned, it was the only thing Cricket Australia quarantined from the clutches of marketeers.
Peter English is former Australasia editor of ESPNcricinfo