An unnoticed implication of the recent unusual weather patterns was that for many of us in the cricketing community there were unfortunate implications. My team, for instance, was knocked out of the running for the championship due to our games being washed out.
While reminiscing about this with the current skipper of the team the discussion drifted on to the progress of the young 'uns in the team and some of the rather unsavoury events of the season, as these conversation usual do. The topic of sledging on the field by one of the clubs young ‘uns came up with potential disciplinary action being required.
This got me thinking about how much the conduct on the cricket field has changed in Australia over the years and yet, in many ways it's still where we were 30 years ago.
Close to thirty years ago, when I first migrated to Australia one didn't really see many sub-continental (or any non-Anglo Saxon really) on the cricket field. It was quite unusual for a team to have even one Asian on the team sheet. In this "white" world of cricket, I was the skipper of an all sub-continental team. Not a great place to be in when the stereotypical view of most Aussies was that we were a bunch of cheats.
We were playing in a high grade and had black and white (official) umpires. For a bunch of individuals who had previous played all their cricket in the sub-continent this really was a culture shock. Back "home" one cheered and encouraged your own players and never even contemplated directing comments at the opposition - it just would not be tolerated all the way from school cricket upwards. But over here it was completely different - not only were we battling the usual Aussie "win at all cost" mentality (to which I would add "never ever lose to a coloured team"), we would be bombarded with sledging mostly of a racial nature. That was the accepted norm for us and we usually never degraded ourselves retaliating.
I particularly recall an incident where one of my opening bowlers, faced with some racial slander from the opposition, gave it back to the batsmen. The battle continued throughout the over. This young (17-18yrs) strapping (6'4" - 6'6") Pakistani lad was from the school of hard knocks (schooled in Granville) and probably faced every possible racial insult/act thinkable (by Anglo-Saxons and they have a great tradition) through-out his schooling and most likely stopped the insults through terrorising and bashing up the cowardly little "whities" to pulp whenever he had the opportunity!
As the skipper of the side, in my wisdom(!), I decided that I would not tolerate such behaviour from one of my team members. So, at the end of the over, I asked him to leave the field and take a break until he had calmed down. His brother was in the team, and decided he would walk off the field as well, and so we were two fielders short (both our opening bowlers) for a few overs.
The incident was reported to the Penrith (yes, good ole' Aussie red neck territory - the guys still in search of Marie Antoinette's cake!) cricket council and resulted in a hearing. As the skipper of the side, I had to submit an incident report and attend the session.
There was I, expecting to have a rational discussion with individuals of at least some level of intellect - after all this was the mob that ran cricket for the district! But what I was fronted with was a bunch of old crusty relics whose only achievements in life was probably to poop in their pants when facing an enemy that they outnumbered 5-1 and out gunned 2-1 (we love to glorify these poor souls, but that's a story for another day!). I was clearly naïve to expect a slightly higher level of intellect amongst a group of people who were supposedly administering what was the national sport.
The conversation was rather dismal. We had the umpire saying to the panel that the comments made from the batsmen were no worse than the average slang that was used at any school bus stop. I must say I was rather concerned about the paedophile instinct of this old man (a national pastime) and I wondered what school bus stops he hung around! The panel were hardly able to string a sentence together let alone formulate logic that would produce a fair outcome.
The result was that my team member was suspended a couple of games and the opposition - the "white" boys - got away with nothing. Racial slurs were really a school boy conversation and were not considered out of the normal!
It was probably the first time ever in Australia that a skipper took action by disciplining his own team during a match and upheld the "culture" of the sport over and above winning. This was a concept that was way beyond the comprehension of the pathetic mob that was the panel and was seen as an admission of guilt and worked against my team member.
Our team successfully reached the final. But then decided to cheat (somewhat justifying the Aussie stereotypical notion of sub-continentals) by including players, using false IDs, in the final. I refused to have anything to do with it and after some convincing agreed to play the game but forfeited the captaincy. We justifiably lost the final.
The conversation then moved on to whether I would be playing the next year. Like many of the old cronies in the club, I too would front up season after season. He suggested that I should skipper a team the next year. I politely declined.
At this club, I have skippered the side on several occasions (and whilst not counting, I've never lost a game as skipper!) as a stand-by but never as the official skipper for the season. Whilst the club has improved it's tolerance to non-white members, the West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club still struggles to give them any form of authority. Whilst the player base must have anything between 25-50% sub-continentals most of whom are playing lower grades than they should, the management and captains are pretty much all white (I believe there is one coloured skipper and the background behind that was that a group of sub-continentals wanted to play together in a team). So, in effect what you have is the White Lords and their Indians!
In all of the teams I've played in the club, I had the greatest capability whether it was in the skills department, leadership and cricketing knowledge/experience and definitely in the intellectual capability. However, I was never considered to skipper a team because I had what the club considered unconceivable tastes in enjoying some culture. I would have to leave an hour or so early on around 3 or 4 days over a season to attend the ballet or opera! I was told by the club president that the team would not "respect" me. The reality has been quite different, skipper of otherwise, I have always been the most respectable player in the team simply because it didn't take much for the team to realise that on all fronts I was way ahead of the rest. And of course I have yet to come across a skipper that hasn't had to leave early or was away for some games. In fact that is precisely how I've captained some of the games.
Now whilst I play in the club simply for convenience, I don't really have any interest in the club anymore. What's worse is that it's probably one of the more diverse clubs in Australia.
The thing is that the intellect of the cricketing bureaucracy has not changed from the times of those nincompoops of the likes of the Chappells, Marshes (Rodney) and Lillees. If you look at the current administration we have a coach named Boof (short for boofhead - meaning dumb as!)which pretty much sums it up for him, a skipper and deputy who are just dumb and dumber.
The recent incidents in India, where the Australian cricket team were caught out systematically cheating is proof of their intellect. Clearly the leadership should note that they simply are not smart enough to cheat without getting caught out. And then we had the CEO of Cricket Australia attempting to back his skipper (who had already admitted to cheating) rather than doing the sensible thing of not commenting. Proving that he is no smarter!
So, all in all has there really been a change? Well as with society in general, while Australia is in denial about its racism, society is showing some resistance to being openly racist, although the current government seems to been wanting more of racism. The answer to the question is "Yes and No" the racism is simply more hidden. With time it will change but not because of a change in the Anglo Saxons but due to strength of Australia's migrant population.
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