Nothing typifies an Australian summer than cricket. Clichéd? Yes but then again, every year without fail, I find myself glued to the TV set as Australia play at iconic grounds such as the MCG and SCG. However, while the Australian team has changed and evolved, it seems the fans and the coverage has not. Cricket still brings out the worst in Australians and the world is beginning to take notice.
An instructive example of this could be seen on the Friday edition of The Drum this week. As the host interviewed two Indian journalist/cricket enthusiasts, a trio of seemingly intoxicated Australian cricket fans noticed the TV cameras and decided to yahoo behind the Indian guests. Usually such idiots amuse themselves like this for 30 seconds or so and move on but not these clowns. Instead, they spent most of the 5 or so minute interview pretending to take wickets, be on the phone and generally disrespect the Indian guests. To their credit, the guests politely ignored the morons and made their points in a dignified manner. In fact, it was so bad, that every member of the panel roundly criticised the yahoos and admitted that such behaviour only shames our nation further.
Is this an over-reaction? Don’t people yahoo for the cameras everywhere in the world? Are we being precious just because they were Indian?
Regardless of your response to the above questions, the fact remains that this is a continuing symptom of Australia’s poor image overseas. Earlier in the week, another Indian player was reprimanded for giving members of the public the finger after probably copping more abuse while go-karting. That’s right: Australians can’t even leave a touring team alone when they are having a break from cricket. This followed another player being fined for doing the same to the SCG fans after they abused his mother and sister during the match.
Now, as professional sportsmen they need to be able to put with niggle and crowd interaction. However, we need to question the extreme abuse they must be getting to feel the need to respond in this way. Australians must not simply blame the tourists and claim they need to be more professional, we must look at ourselves and question what are we doing?
This incitement is not limited to the players. The travelling Indian press corps has had similar allegations levelled at them in the past week. One of the journalists broke a story of the WACA curators and staff partying on the test wicket the night before the game started. No big deal you might say and the Australian Cricket Board, WACA staff and Australian papers were quick to label it an Indian conspiracy and that the tourists were over-reacting. Moreover, they claimed it was a tradition.
They were wrong.
The tradition, as some Indian journalists discovered (notice the use of research and not simply mouthing off without checking facts), was to celebrate under the grandstand with a limited number of people. The reality was about 20 people on the ground, walking all over the pitch and looking more like a bunch of drunken teenagers then responsible adults. Moreover, the Indian journalists then had to refute claims that this was being used as an excuse for the team’s poor performance.
Once again, Australians let themselves down by jumping to conclusions and failing to be honest. All the Indian journalists wanted was an admission that the ‘celebration’ was not usual and that maybe it was inappropriate considering the test was on the next day. At no point did they claim it affected the team performance and they were justified by the ensuing investigation into the incident.
Then on the first day of the actual test, in which India again performed poorly, Australian batsman David Warner got into a verbal stoush with Indian bowler Sharma. No big deal in itself but it says something about the mentality of Warner that he can’t help but stick the boot in. India had already been embarrassed by their batting and he was embarrassing them with his ease of batting: why not simply let his whirlwind century do the talking for him? Australian players of old would have simply scored the century as their comeback, enough said.
However, James Brayshaw (part time cricket commentator and pathetic football caller with Channel 9) couldn’t get enough. He stuck the boot in further by continuing the sledging in the commentary box. He seems to forget that he is a commentator not a cheerleader for the Australian team. He is paid for his (cough cough) ‘expertise’ [I use the term very loosely because unlike the other commentators I can’t remember him playing an actual test match for Australia] in cricket and not his matey, jingoistic drivel that seems to spew forth from his mouth.
Thus, we have yobbo fans that feel the need to personally abuse players everywhere they go; journalists who can’t research and support lies fed to them by the WACA staff and Australian Cricket Board; and boorish commentators who would rather abuse the touring team then call the match as it stands. Sound familiar?
The reason is that it is a repeat of the last Indian tour of Australia. Headlined by “monkey-gate”, in which players were accused of racial abuse, and the “wild pack of dogs”, in which the Australian team pressured umpires unfairly in order to win the SCG test, this was seen as a low in Indian-Australian relations. Apparently, due to T20, these relations have improved but I fail to see any change.
In fact, this continued behaviour explains the poor reputation Australia has overseas, particularly in India. While their stations show coverage of blatantly racist behaviour towards their national team, we sit idly by and wonder why the numbers of overseas students keep dropping and our players are shunned in the IPL. Moreover, this footage makes its way around all of Asia thus reinforcing the racist reputation this nation has developed.
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