DOWN WITH HOMOPHOBIA

The England cricket captain Joe Root has done cricket and society a great service in his measured reaction to a homophobic remark. The West Indian fast bowler who has been suspended for the insulting sledge — “Why are you smiling at me? Do you like boys?” — to which Root responded with “Don’t use it as an insult. There’s nothing wrong with being gay.” Root’s cool remark was picked up by the stump microphone in a match in St. Lucia in the West Indies.

The Indian cricket commentator Sanjay Manjrekar seemed to have got it completely wrong while saying in response to the event that the stump microphones should be switched off. Instead of responding correctly in putting down homophobia on the cricket field, the former cricketer wants to play the ostrich in the sand.

Tweeple were, quite rightly, incensed by this uncaring remark shorn of empathy from a leading voice in the game. Many took Manjrekar apart. But again that is not the point so much as the need to be seen being correct — and not only politically correct — in dealing with homophobia in the new age when gays have been given a gender equal status in society thanks to progressive judgments from the courts.

Social tolerance is the key and Nasser Hussain, former England captain, captured it right in saying “For me his 12 words as a role model will be in the end more important than a Test hundred.” Sport is a mirror of society and sportsmen must show far greater tolerance of samesex issues.