From disaster to disaster
CRICKET CHEATS
TO all those comparing Trevor Chappell with the ball tamperers, I remind you that what Trevor Chappell did at the time was still within the rules of the game.
As for Shane Warne weighing in with his “holier than thou” articles, it’s a bit rich for him to be critical of the Australian team. I remember Warne and Mark Waugh, a current selector, giving privileged information to an Indian bookmaker in 1995 and, before the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, Warne being suspended for 12 months for testing positive to a banned diuretic that “mum” had given him. Cricket Australia lurches from one disaster to another, yet the management remains the same.
Bizarre game
SO the little Aussie superheroes are sandpapering balls to gain an advantage. What example does this set for the kiddies? I will never understand this bizarre game.
Hung out to dry
TOO late for tears now, Boof. You and Cricket Australia hung Smith and Bancroft out to dry at the first media conference in South Africa. series in South Africa, it would be best if Australia withdrew from the international cricket arena as future teams that tour overseas will now be subject to physical assault by cricket fans at whatever ground they play on because of what Smith, Bancroft and Warner have done.
Sheer hypocrisy
GET over it guys. A bloke rubs a bit of sandpaper on a red ball and we’re subjected to a news blitz and non-stop analysis and angst. These young men grew up with a PM who turned back Tampa, and subsequent politicians who perpetrate incarceration of innocent refugees to make a political point. Of course they are going to take on a culture that has taught them in politics and business that you do whatever it takes, and the end justifies the means. All this hype is sheer hypocrisy. cheat and lie about their expenses, the businessmen who embrace corruption with gusto, and the “men of god” who attempt to cover up their abuse of children.
How many of the “holier than thou” media commentators would be without sin. Very few. So let’s tone down the abuse and get the event, unpleasant as it is, into a more rational perspective.
He without sin
I FOLLOW the Mercury daily, and watch television news. I am more than familiar with the who is whom of sporting teams, and what team is currently on top.
It’s now time for Australia to wake up to itself and accept that when two teams play a match (in any code), there will be a winner or loser, albeit sometimes the outcome is a draw. To put such pressure on young men or women as is done to only ever win is us putting on the pressure.
Until we allow sport to be just a healthy activity, played for fun and enjoyment, and take the huge pay packets out of it, it is Aussies placing unbearable pressure on an Australian team to only ever win.
In closing, I write this on Good Friday and I quote: “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”
Young and dumb
WE can now include Australian cricketers with the likes of AFL and NRL players. Young, dumb and overpaid boofheads.
Captain going cheap
FOLLOWING the recent debacle in South Africa, expect a number of cricket items for sale on Gumtree.
Special kind of dunce
IT takes a special kind of idiot to allow the destruction of our native forests and pristine environment, the very things visitors come to Tasmania to experience
Bend it like the Libs
I LIVE in fear of the day when a Liberal politician gives a straight answer to a straight question. The shock may cause a fatal heart attack.
Mismanagement
DOES the Mercury Editor have a gnawing regret that he recommended Tasmanians vote for continuing mismanagement of the state?
Across the board
THE Editorial headline “Cheating is not on, ever” (Mercury, March 26) should apply, equally, to our current governments.