Happy New Year to everyone and at last I have returned to keep the cricket discourse honest once again. Much has happened in my month off:
- Central Districts won the HRV Cup (NZ 2020 competition) and will go to the Champions League
- England choked and drew the test series in South Africa
- Australia beat Pakistan 3-0 at home (despite some troubles)
- Australia beat Pakistan 5-0 in the ODIs
It is from this final series that I take my first stance of 2010. The final game (in Perth) was disappointing on several levels including the awful conduct of one member of the crowd who tackled a Pakistan player (on debut no less) and should be banned for life from that ground. The conduct of stand-in captain Afridi was also dreadful, caught by several cameras biting the ball; after the match he was banned for two games which seems a slap on the wrist really.
However the most disappointing for me was the attitude on display by several of the Australian commentators towards the teams. At one point Mark Taylor lamented the 5-games-in-8-days work load for the Australians and suggested that they would enjoy the break - such an observation, while obvious, is accurate but appalling if you don't then apply the same standard to both teams! Earlier Ian Healy criticised the Pakistan team for appearing downcast and without the energy typically associated with their team (an attitude often employed by commentators of that country in a very down-their-nose manner but I have not time to cover the passive racism of Australian wicket keepers). The point is that surely the Pakistan team could be forgiven for appearing a little exhausted after long tours of New Zealand and Australia - they haven't been home since November - and yet 5 ODIs is somehow a marathon of work
Sadly this regrettable lapse in fairness by the commentators, for me, took some of the fun out of a very tight run chase. I would only conclude by saying that perhaps the workload has got to the commentators as well
On a more positive note, Bangladesh begin their tour of New Zealand this week and I expect them to be a whole lot more competitive this time around after a tough series against India
Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again
It's good bye for now
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