I generally like and agree with Daniel Ladlaw's articles. But I have to disagree with his claims in this article. If the culture is the reason for the kind of behaviour Australians exhibit on field, why is this not the case with earlier Australian teams? I think the main reason is that this team got away with unacceptable behaviour once too often for whatever reasons. Any sensible person could understand how differently Australian players were punished compared to teams from other countries (especially the sub-continent) for the same type of offence. I am pretty sure that strong punishment has a deterrent effect on on-field behavious. It is time for ICC to make sure that codes are applied uniformly across all teams.
The idea the article suggests is totally absurd. If Aussies by culture tend to sledge and be bad boys on field let them do it in their own league. Even though they are the current world champions, nobody can accept their behavior. Cricket when played on the international level has to be played to the rules of the game. There is no exception for any one team, however good they are. When you come to play, play by the rules or else please do not play. Who gives a damn about your Aussie culture. If everbody else starts showing their own cultural traits on the field imagine the results that would cause. It does not matter if you are Glen McGrath the great bowler for the great australian team or some noneity from Bangladesh, if you are playing international cricket, you are subject to the rules. The ICC should not be so cowardly. Imagine the punishment that would have been meted out to Indian players if they done this. Remember the South African incident, when 6 indian players were suspended. Boy, that was nothing compared to what McGrath did, but all he gets is stern warning, which he will brush away and start doing the same thing all over again. Aussies have to be punished!!!!
Well, Mr. Laidlaw is entitled to his opinion and he does have a point. But when Australia plays international cricket they have to judged by what the majority of the cricketing community considers good/bad behaviour. According to majority of the opinion , so far as I can gather, the incidents of sledging the Australian team typically gets invloved in are not acceptable behaviour on a cricket field.
Australia can keep doing what they like and the ICC, umpires et al must keep doing what they should i.e. punish such behaviour whenever it occurrs.
Dear Mr. Laidlaw, Understanding 'Why the Aussies can't not sledge' is irrelevant. I could go on and on about 'Why the Indians can't not over-appeal' or 'Why the Pakistanis can't not tamper with the ball', which is again equally irrelevant. The 'REAL' problem is, when the Indians and Pakistanis are constantly being penalized for their actions(and justifiedly so) the Australian counterparts 'ALWAYS' go scott-free. Call it racism, high-handedness or any other kind of bias, it is grossly unfair and should be stopped. If this is allowed to go on, I clearly forsee a split down the middle of the cricket world's governing body.(That would again be very unfortunate because then, India would only get to play Sri Lanka and Bangladesh!)
This article is silly, bordering on being stupid, very unlike other articles by Mr. Laidlaw. Granted, the Aussies are laid-back, casual, and so on. But going by the same token, Indians are explosive when pushed to the brink (as Gary Sobers writes in his book). So, should the Indian team have surrounded the Aussie team and beat them up after losing the WC Final? Because it's in their "culture"? International sportspersons have to be aware of what is globally acceptable, and what is considered insensitive. This is called Professionalism, where you are supposed to leave your emotions out of the job you are doing. Aussie behavior was deplorable; let's not come up with stupid excuses to justify it.
Unfair Play may be more like what is required. That way, Aussies would win not just the actual trophy in any tournament they win, but this as well - hands down!
I have read a lot about the whole issue and it was pointes out repeatedly that, the asutraliams don't sledge out of malciousness or it is just part of the culture.
That is OK with me, what is not. 1) The ganguly, schewag and other players punished for over appealing and the aussies go unpunished just because it is part of their culture. 2) When aussies sledge it is considered as part of their aggressive play, when any asian player, just not Indian, show any sort of aggressiveness on field, the action is considered to harm the image of cricket. 3) When aussie ask question to umpires on their decision, they are just enquiring, everbody else is arguing with the umpire so it is wrong.
