A charming comment directed at Jimmy Anderson from the Australian cricket captain Michael Clark, during the heat of the most recent Ashes Test series.
The quote suddenly came to me during another fantastic confrontation between the marvellous New Zealanders and a rejuvenated England. The competition is intense, challenging and demanding for all the players. Yet the game is played with a great deal of mutual respect and in an excellent spirit. Top level sports at it’s finest.
Enjoy the spectacle while you can. The snarling, ugly Aussies are about to hit town and it’s not going to be pretty. Unfortunately, for David Warner he’s not going to have the fragile (clearly troubled) Jonathan Trott to bully and intimidate, but hey, I’m sure he’ll go seeking for another vulnerable victim. He may even pick on one of our youngest players, maybe Joe Root, who has the physique of a teenager and the demeanor of a choir boy……oh hang on, I’m a little slow here, he’s already punched the England player in a nightclub incident….
It’s quite amazing how the cricket authorities and game in general, have come to accept such repugnant behaviour. Sure we have laughed merrily at humorous examples of sledging, which has been part of the game for many years. But being on the end of a number of series defeats has pushed the Aussies over the line deemed acceptable. I guess it’s just tolerated in the cricketing world. All part of testing your opponents mental strength and part of a systematic approach to identifying a weak link in a players make up.
But can you ever imagine a situation where tennis ever went down such a road? If a player went down with cramp during a long five-set game, can you picture Nadal shouting out, ‘hey Roger, hope your ankle’s broken…’ . Or maybe on the final green in The Masters; Rory and his caddie sniggering after an opponent missed a five foot putt for a par….’lost your bottle have you Jordan?’
Is just the way certain sports have evolved. I fear for the way rugby players have started to over dramatise contact with opponents to win penalties and the way leading players are constantly questioning the decisions of officials. Is a dangerous path to go down and the danger is that it’s an irreversible trend once momentum sets in
I’m looking forward to the Ashes this summer. I hope it’s tough, uncompromising cricket, with moments of great tension. But I would love the spirit of the game to be upheld, just as it has been during the England v New Zealand games. Somehow, when the pressure is at it’s greatest, the Aussies will return to type.