The Hindu : Sport : A summer of grabbing the moral high ground

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

Sport

Sport

A summer of grabbing the moral high ground

Of all talents, Australia's greatest remains its desire, writes Rohit Brijnath

IT might have been a relief to Ricky Ponting that Mahela Jayawardene did not actually catch him on Sunday, and that the Sri Lankan apologised to him for claiming so, because it's not as if this captivating, excruciating Australian summer of cricket needed further stirring.

Ponting contends players should take a fielder's word and walk, a righteous idea no doubt, except of course he didn't. Were it not for Mahela's mistake, we might well have wondered if nobility is conveniently sacrificed for a team in strife.

But it's been a summer of grabbing the moral high ground, and in between a confirmation that Australian cricket, despite its somewhat subdued majesty, still reigns. Racism has evidently surprised us, though cricket crowds are but a reflection of the societies we live in, and across the world attitudes are hardening, divisiveness grows and suspicions of each other articulated.

This is true of Australia as anywhere else, and Asian nations and beyond, who find comfort by alleging racism every time they feel affronted, are as culpable. For every `black' so-and-so, how many `gora' this-and-that do we reply with?

This hardly excuses the behaviour at Australian grounds, and to dump all `kaffir' calling at the feet of South African expatriates and to shrug it off as merely a minority is disingenuous.

Both the Australian captain and his board have sternly warned such name-calling is unpardonable, and all nations must follow suit. In football, racism, not fought powerfully enough, is now endemic in some European leagues. Recently a swastika was hung on Italian terraces resulting in members of some football teams being asked to spend time with Holocaust survivors. Cricket must be careful.

Daily persecution

Australians condemn racism, but have been less moved to halt the bullying of Muttiah Muralitharan. Not that crowds elsewhere are bastions of decorum, for bottles have been thrown in the West Indies, golf balls in New Zealand and matches played in empty stadiums in India. Still the daily persecution of the Sri Lankan in a mostly generous sporting nation is unrivalled in cricket.

Rudeness has been exempted too easily as freedom of speech, a blithe explanation that would not stand if Shane Warne was met with cries of `drug cheat' every ball, every day, for weeks, by 60,000 at Indian grounds.

The insistence that `well, he chucks' will not work either, for again it is an ascending of that dubious moral high ground, suggesting all athletes, even Australian, who are viewed as cheats, liars, posers, are given similar treatment. Hardly.

To say Murali must cop it like a man, that this is a tough land of tough words, is all too glib. Furthermore, when Ponting takes furious umbrage over some gentle teasing by Phil Tufnell, it suggests anyway that sledging is fine only when it goes one way.

Narrowing margin

But none of this should obscure the compelling response from the Australians to the Ashes. There has been some testiness, as if snarling on the field is the route to rediscovering their mojo, but their drive to reassert themselves has been worth watching.

Australia has slipped, eventually it had to, but the margin between it and the rest remains significant. A team unsure of its one-day openers, its fast bowling confidence slightly punctured, its absence of spin cover obvious, has still won all seven Tests and 12 of 16 one-dayers. Of all talents, Australia's greatest remains its desire.

Ponting, with 944 Test runs at 85.82 this summer, is the finest practitioner around of the batting arts, owner of a pull shot museums might vie for. He is a wounded captain and thus a dangerous one, and it is this team's collective pride that England will confront later this year. It will be, too much for them.

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