Myth of Baggy Green

HH_pink wrote:Oooh it looks like the big fat ugly ogre doesn't like little obnoxious weeds, does it?

Can an ugly ogre and donkeys ever be friends? Oh wait, they already are.

embee wrote:From Crikey.com


19 . Hard work ahead for cricket's thought police
Jeff Wall writes:



If Cricket Australia hoped its heavy handed response to mild criticism from Andrew Symonds would shut down his team mates as well, then it will have been disappointed.


On Sunday, News Limited’s Sydney and Brisbane newspapers advised readers that Andrew Symonds’ column would no longer appear – because Symonds was told future columns would have to be ghost written by Cricket Australia officials. That was after two earlier columns did not appear because of intervention by Cricket Australia.


Symonds originally drew the ire of CA because he dared to criticise, albeit quite mildly, it’s handling of player contract issues that had arisen after the formation of the IPL Twenty20 competition in India.


When Cricket Australia tried to change the column just hours before it was due to be published, the Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Mail refused to publish it. Apparently his column, and that of other contracted players, had to be "vetted" by CA before being published. The increasingly obsessive Cricket Australia management have extended that to actually writing the column for Symonds!


Today the games' thought police face a new challenge – and one senses it might be a deliberate one.


Yesterday Symonds close mate, Matthew Hayden, went on Brisbane radio and described Indian player Harbhajan Singh as "an obnoxious little weed".


And that was on the very same day Brett Lee described relations between the teams as wonderful!


The Indians, not backward in complaining, will go ballistic at Hayden’s comments. They have already complained about the alleged "bully boy" tactics of Ricky Ponting, Hayden and Symonds, and there have been suggestions the Indians might even pull out of this weekend’s one day final – hardly likely!


But Hayden’s comments raise an interesting question for Cricket Australia – it might be able to censor columns written by players, and even write the columns for them, but how is it going to control what players say in radio, television and press interviews? Or is it really only interested in using the power it has over players – as they are all contracted to CA and not clubs or states – when they criticise CA itself?


Relations between Cricket Australia and its contracted elite players have been on the slide for some time. But it’s not entirely CA’s fault – it is not long ago that the players wanted a reduced international schedule, now they want the schedule to be expanded so it can include the very lucrative Indian Twenty20 competition! What happened to the "burn out" players were complaining about?


But none of that justifies Cricket Australia’s heavy handed approach to what players can, and cannot, say. While the AFL and the NRL have heavy penalties for players and coaches who criticise referees and umpires, I see column after column in which players and coaches (especially in the NRL) express robust views on their games' administration.


This has not been a good summer for cricket administrators. Gagging players who dare to criticise the way the game is run is not making it any better.

embee wrote:

I think both sides should shut up and concentrate on the cricket, that's my point," commented Roebuck.

Spanky's Million Monkeys find the right keys

*Buckaroo* wrote:The interview

On Tuesday the Australians took the mind games in the current tri-series to a new level with Harbhajan Singh coming under a fresh attack from opener Matthew Hayden.

Hayden's remark calling the Indian off-spinner an "obnoxious little weed", has the potential to create more bad blood between the two teams. Here is a transcript of the radio interview that Hayden gave to a Brisbane radio station:

Radio host 1: Have you read the paper, the Indians are back into you blokes about being bullies?
Hayden: That's because they're losing every game they are playing out here at this stage.

Host 1: ... and because they've had a guy docked 15% of his match fee and they've got a wicket keeper...
Host 2 (cuts in) Why don't they just shut up and play cricket?
Hayden: There you go, that's the most logical thing I have ever heard this summer

Host 1: Were you charging Harbhajan Singh the other day and calling him 'mad boy' as you were batting?

Hayden: No, 'bad boy'. 'You bad boy'.

Host 1: That's offensive apparently in India?
Hayden: He took offence to that, I thought that was quite funny. I said mate you should be flattered it's a clothing range.

(Everyone laughs)

Host 2: We need to get to the root of the problem and see why they are all so sensitive? What's going on in their lives.

Hayden: I think it's been a bit of a long battle with Harbhajan. The first time I ever met he was the same little obnoxious weed that he is now, so... (more general laughter)

Host 1: That's what you got about him from every person who's had a dealing with him?

Hayden: The thing is, his record speaks for itself in cricket. It's a certain line that you can go to and you know when you push it - and he just pushes it all the time. That is why he's been charged more than anyone that has ever played in the history of cricket.

Host 1: Does (Ishant) Sharma come from the same school as Bhajji?
Hayden: Well I think he's just young and as I have said to him many times, mate you're 19, just take it easy. He says, but "I'm playing for my country" (mimics Indian accent). (contempt showing through here)Well we're all playing for our country but at the end of the day you're just 19, what about if you just worry about your bowling for a while. I actually like the idea of getting him in a ring. I like that, let's bring that one on!

skully wrote:And apologies to taips. I note that he made the Bill and Ben analogy on the "Oh sh*t" thread 4 hours ago.

Fark I hate it when work gets in the way of forumming!!

tac wrote:All would sound a lot more sensible than if Sreesanth telling told the interviewer that "Australia are shit Baggy Green was Cabbage" . . . .

tac wrote:Yeah, like CA would do anything to upset the only regular run-scorer and half decent slip fieldsman in the team.

taipan wrote:

skully wrote:And apologies to taips. I note that he made the Bill and Ben analogy on the "Oh sh*t" thread 4 hours ago.

Fark I hate it when work gets in the way of forumming!!

Us saffies are sharp.

tac wrote:All sounds a lot more sensible than Sreesanth telling the interviewer that "Australia are shit" . . . .