SLICE OF LIFE
Cricket and black arm bands
V. GANGADHAR
V.V. KRISHNAN
Brett Lee at the Sydney test match.
I DON'T know if Brett Lee's late grandmother ever played cricket. She was in her 70s and I doubt if women's cricket existed at the international level during her younger days.
On the fourth day of the recent fourth and final cricket test match between India and Australia at Sydney, the home team wore black armbands. I wondered which former test cricketer had died and prayed it was not Keith Miller, my idol during the 1950s, an outstanding all rounder and a member of Bradman's great invincibles of 1948.
One of the Australian commentators mentioned the black armbands were worn as a mark of respect to fast bowler Brett Lee's grandmother who had died the previous day.
With due respect to all grandmothers including Brett Lee's, I wondered if this gesture was necessary. The South African team, during their last visit to England, wore black armbands as a mark of respect to Jacques Kallis' father. Kallis had left the team temporarily to be at the bedside of his father when he died. The gesture seemed to be catching in international cricket.
The dead must be respected and international cricketers must pay homage to their former colleagues. Indian players touring Australia wore black armbands during one of their matches as a mark of respect to Hemu Adhikari, a former test player and captain. I don't know why the gesture was not repeated for the grand old man of Indian cricket, M.J. Gopalan, who died in Chennai recently.
The New Zealanders, in one of the matches against the touring Pakistanis, wore black armbands to mourn the death of the oldest living test cricketer who had died earlier. He was a "Kiwi".
Some months back, the Australians showed the same consideration when former Australian left arm, medium pace bowler, Ernie Toshack passed away in Sydney. Toshack played with great success against the touring Indians of 1947-48 and was a member of the Bradman's great team, which toured England in 1948 and remained unbeaten throughout.
The sporting world appreciated such gestures. But is it necessary for members of the national teams to wear black arm bands and mourn the deaths of fathers, grandmothers, uncles, aunts and so on.
Did Steve Waugh and other members of the Australian team know Brett Lee's grandmother so well that they mourned her death in public?
During the India vs Australia one-dayer at Sydney, both the teams as well as the umpires wore black arm bands in memory of former Australian batsman, David Hookes, who was killed outside a Melbourne pub the previous day. This gesture was fully justified
There must be some rethinking on this issue. Deaths of family members are a matter of private grief and there is no need for a national team to wear black armbands. The fellow players and officials can express their grief to the concerned player in private and the matter should end there.
Of course, grief sometimes can be harrowing. On the New Zealand tour of South Africa in the early 1950s, one of the visiting players, Blair, lost his young fiancée in a train crash during a test match. Bravely, he went out to bat and the crowd burst out in sympathetic applause.
The situation was remarkable because Blair joined star batsman, Bert Sutcliffe, who had earlier been hit on the ear by a bouncer from fast bowler Neil Adcock and bled profusely. He resumed batting with his head swathed in bandages.
Sutcliffe embraced Blair and then savaged the South African bowlers hitting several sixes. But I doubt if the New Zealand players wore black armbands.
The final test match between India and Australia at Melbourne in 1948 was almost abandoned when news of Gandhiji's assassination came through.
But the teams carried on bravely, both wearing black armbands. The gesture was justified; when Gandhiji died part of India died.
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