Fradam

… is the game of cricket. Or at least, that could be the future of it here in Australia.

Only those away from mass media would have missed what is one of the biggest rows in the history of the sport. Allusions have been made to the racial scandals of years gone by, or even to the controversial bodyline series. I’m not going to draw comparisons to events gone by; let’s not sully their relative purity by linking. Nor does the fate of the tour, or Singh’s ban really measure largely in the scale of the bigger picture.

Cricket, one of the true “gentleman’s game”, is now on the brink of disaster. When a man’s word on the field is questioned, when their integrity must be examined and analysed; that is when the innocence of the game has truly been lost. The 2nd test in Sydney, may well have witnessed that passing.

Symonds’ decision to simply stand his ground, with full knowledge that he was out, is a blatant slur against the code of honour in the game. If you know you’re out, you should walk. Sure, if there’s doubt or uncertainty, it is a good idea to wait for the finger to go up, but in this case, there was no thought of that. The nick was audible in the grandstands and in the commentary box - but just not to the umpire. The bad umpiring here was the difference between India winning, and a tie. Spilt milk it may be, the gall of the Australian team leadership to stand behind Symonds’ decision to stay at the crease was disappointing. Where is our oft-hailed sportsmanship, if not here? Is this not the moment where it is meant to shine? What kind of example do these cricketers set for the youth of today by their actions?

“That ain’t cricket”? - that ain’t the half of it! Young Sharma, the 19 year old Indian who went on to witness Symonds save the innings for a collapsed Australian lineup, went and shook Andrew Symonds’ hand. At the end of an innings which should never have been, he still had the right spirit about him and congratulated his opponent. How Roy could look him in the eye with any semblance of honesty was beyond me.

As for the final day… Dravid being dismissed as out; an example of the Australian team’s over-eagerness to appeal absolutely everything. Even when the bat is on the other side of the pad, quite clearly nowhere near the ball… the Aussies felt the right thing to do was pressure the umpire into making another bad decision. Full credit to the team once more, really great showmanship there. I’m left almost flabbergasted, considering Cricket Australia, the players, and the team are quite happy to sit there and say “we played in the right spirit”, when quite clearly, they were not.

The sheer irony of the Australian team to be the one complaining of copping abuse on the field is almost too much. The long tradition of sledging, very often using words and ideas deemed to be offfensive to the given competitor, is part of the mantra when one joins the slip cordon. If there’s something that bothers me more than sheer outright dishonesty, it is hypocrisy. Being a hypocrite, especially on the public stage, is just asking for trouble. Look to see Australia get bitten back hard for this.

The question is now, what to do to fix things? 31000 SMH readers (60% of all respondents) felt Ricky Pointing should be given the boot. Brendan Nelson thinks we should get off his back. I’m not sure where change need to start from, but I feel a united front from the top going down, recognising that whilst umpiring can be poor, it was not helped by the approach the team took to the game.

Perhaps starting with that, both teams will be in a position where they can sit and discuss what honour means to them.