Whingeing Aussies?

The headline writer in The Australian today (20 October) is clearly on a mission to secure a posting as Chief Minister of Propaganda. An article by Malcolm Conn, describing the events of the third day’s play from Mohali was headlined as “India’s verbal barrage as Watson fights lone hand".

What makes this headline even more disgraceful is that Watson is later quoted in the piece as saying it was nothing more than “friendly banter”. How that sort of direct quote can be turned into a headline that talks about a ‘verbal barrage’ is laughable, especially from a newspaper that purports to be a serious broadsheet.

The online version of the same article has a much more sober heading, presumably because the international audience that might access the Internet would see through the shameful jingoism that the hard copy readers in Australia are expected to stomach. The full article can be seen here.

This is the sort of rubbish that is served up as intelligent fare for cricket followers in Australia, trying to follow a gripping Test match between two evenly matched teams. The hypocrisy is breath-taking. I have never seen a similar headline in the last 20 years when most of the verbal barrage, distinctly ‘unfriendly banter’, has been dished out by the Australians. Even when opposition players, clearly not as sanguine about it as Watson and Lee clearly were, complained about being verbally intimidated, no one ever really described it in such negative language.

Take for example this quote from today’s article: “That India felt it necessary to so strongly verbal the Australians when so far in front suggests how desperate they are to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy”.

Contrast this with everything Watson says in his interview and the actual footage from what took place. That little excerpt could well be re-written to say “that an Australian journalist felt it necessary to misrepresent the facts when so far behind suggests how desperate we are to find something negative to write about India when they are clearly on top”.

I watched every ball of that absorbing middle session when Lee and Watson battled it out against some high quality bowling and it was nothing more than competitive cricket between grown men who clearly knew where to draw the line. There were smiles all round and nothing appeared to get out of hand. Why Rudi Koetzen and Asad Rauf felt the need to intervene to calm things down remains a mystery. You don’t often see that sort of intervention when Australia is serving it up. Why intervene now? Watson himself actually said it was “enjoyable”.

Earlier in the Test, another news report made much of Koetzen’s umpiring blunder when he failed to call for the third umpire to rule on Sourav Ganguly’s stumping on the first day. No mention whatsoever of the Watson lbw yesterday off Ishant Sharma. Obviously umpiring errors that favour Australia are not worthy of mention. Tell the masses what they want to hear and don’t let the truth get in the way of a good propaganda story. That will ensure the loyal readers keep coming back for more!

The Australian cricketers themselves (Sydney 2008 notwithstanding) are usually more than happy to engage in friendly banter. They’re not the ones complaining about Test cricket that’s played hard and fair. As cricketers who are prepared to dish it out, they are equally capable of taking it on the chin when the tables are turned. In fact, I don’t think that tactic really works on Australian cricketers because it makes them fight even harder but that’s not a can of worms I want to open up again!

It will be interesting to see the local headlines in Australia if India wins this Test. Perhaps there won’t be any headlines at all – we might get full coverage of Bangladesh’s unlikely (probable) victory over New Zealand instead. After all, if the newspapers don’t report it, we can always pretend it never happened!