From pariah to messiah.
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JKLever
mynah
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Zat
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Red
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From pariah to messiah.
by Red Fri 09 Jan 2009, 05:02
The Aussie media is becoming just a tad sycophantic in response to Sooky's summer here.
From pariah to messiahPeter Hanlon January 9, 2009
HASHIM Amla was still drifting into a state of misty-eyed awe yesterday, painting a Cleopatran scene as he recalled South Africa's cricketers fussing over their captain like chambermaids — fastening pads, attaching armguards and offering soothing words of encouragement.
"It was quite a lovely time in the changeroom," Amla said of the prelude to Graeme Smith's attempt to save his country from defeat in Sydney. "Although we've lost the match, it was just a very warming experience for the whole team."
There has never been any doubt as to the regard in which Smith is held by his players; as coach Mickey Arthur reiterated yesterday, the respect he commands is immense. "He has an aura about him — when he walks into the room, people listen."
What has been remarkable as this watershed series has unfolded is Smith's reinvention in the eyes of a hard-marking local audience. "I can't believe I've come around to liking this bloke," is a sentiment heard in living rooms and front bars as often this summer as, "drop Hayden".
Three years ago, as a 24-year-old novice captain determined to assert himself against an opponent not given to putting out the welcome mat, he came across as an arrogant prat. Or perhaps even the less-savoury four-letter word Smith used when asking Darren Berry if that's what he thought of him as the two got to know each other on Indian Premier League duty last year.
Berry, Shane Warne's right-hand man with the championship-winning Rajasthan Royals, for whom Smith opened the batting, had met South Africa's captain only once, interviewing him at a Docklands function during the Australia v World XI experiment in 2005. "I thought he was a bit smug, a little bit arrogant," Berry recalls.
When they hooked up in India last year, the conversation soon turned to how Australians saw Smith. "He said, 'The perception's not good, is it?' " Horrible, was Berry's reply.
Less than a year on, Berry rates Smith among the most genuine, down-to-earth and honest men he has met in cricket. His last Australian experience, Berry says, taught him that false bravado and churlishness were not only out of character, they neither did him nor his team any good.
"He knows he was given the captaincy too young, that he didn't listen to anybody and said, 'I know I can do it, I'll show you'. He didn't have the life experience to cope with captaining an international side," Berry says.
"He said to me in India, 'Chuck, when they made me captain I just wasn't ready. And the best way I knew was to just stick my chest out, and when Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath had a go at me, the South African way is to have a go back'."
It was a recipe for disaster, the tourists losing the three-Test series of 2005-06 comfortably and a bullish Smith alienating himself from opponents and watchers alike. That he was already off the Christmas card list for detailing the nature of Matthew Hayden's sledging in a 2002 interview makes the transformation all the more noteworthy.
Berry says the insecurity born of trying to prove himself is gone, allowing Smith's caring personality and dry, clever sense of humour to dominate.
Royals team meetings were bookended by Warne, with Berry and the psychology guru Jeremy Snape filling in the middle, and Smith a constant source of knowledge and amusement. "He always had, number one, some input from a cricket point of view, but always some humour to add to it as well. It was a really nice balance," Berry says.
"In India, he was outstanding for the young kids in the team. The opening partnership he had with Swapnil (Asnodkar), the little right-hander who slogged them for us, he was like a big brother for him. He was the ideal person to work with — a caring, understanding, empathetic person, all the traits that have made him into a wonderful captain that his team certainly follows. I'd say he's one of the most misunderstood blokes in world cricket."
Arthur agrees that Smith was misjudged on his last visit — not only here, but by many in South Africa — but insists that has never been the case within the team. He, too, has been warmed by the reception afforded not only the captain, but all in the touring party.
"To win over the Australian public you have to do something special," Arthur says. "The respect he's received and we've all received has been very, very rewarding. Australians have warmed to us, but also like the brand we're playing and like what the team stands for."
Winning is one thing, but leaving such a mark clearly moved Arthur. "I think it's hugely important. You want to be remembered for the cricket you play, but you also want to be remembered for the team and people that you are. That, for us, is unbelievably important."
Many whose opinion of Smith has flipped 180 degrees have seen qualities in him they like to see in themselves; the national stereotypes are not too far apart, a point Amla underlined yesterday when he said his captain's courage in batting on Wednesday evening showed "the typical South African spirit".
Berry was driving at the time, listening on the radio, and knew Smith would bat — maybe even as far out as 20 overs from the end if the ninth wicket had fallen. "He's not the fittest athlete in the world, but he's one of those hard-nut, cricket-tough people."
Strip back the hyperbole and it was no less than would be expected of any Test captain — especially one so adamant that his team would not lose the dead rubber after winning the series, as it did in England only months earlier. The truly amazing thing, says Berry, was the reception he received. "I've never seen an Australian crowd give a standing ovation to an Australian captain as he walks to the wicket, let alone Graeme Smith! I think it was a great moment in sport."
The last word of this unexpected love-in goes to Hayden, who Smith so infamously "dobbed on", reporting that Hayden greeted him in his second Test innings with the tirade: "You know, you're not f---ing good enough. How the f--- are you going to handle Shane Warne when he's bowling in the rough? What the f--- are you going to do?"
Yesterday, Hayden likened his toughness to that of his great mate Justin Langer. "Graeme I think has had an amazing strength about his personality over a long and distinguished career. As a Test opener to average over 50 — respect. And to do that as captain of a side which has been through its troughs and is now enjoying a peak, again — respect."
With CHLOE SALTAU
From pariah to messiahPeter Hanlon January 9, 2009
HASHIM Amla was still drifting into a state of misty-eyed awe yesterday, painting a Cleopatran scene as he recalled South Africa's cricketers fussing over their captain like chambermaids — fastening pads, attaching armguards and offering soothing words of encouragement.
"It was quite a lovely time in the changeroom," Amla said of the prelude to Graeme Smith's attempt to save his country from defeat in Sydney. "Although we've lost the match, it was just a very warming experience for the whole team."
There has never been any doubt as to the regard in which Smith is held by his players; as coach Mickey Arthur reiterated yesterday, the respect he commands is immense. "He has an aura about him — when he walks into the room, people listen."
What has been remarkable as this watershed series has unfolded is Smith's reinvention in the eyes of a hard-marking local audience. "I can't believe I've come around to liking this bloke," is a sentiment heard in living rooms and front bars as often this summer as, "drop Hayden".
Three years ago, as a 24-year-old novice captain determined to assert himself against an opponent not given to putting out the welcome mat, he came across as an arrogant prat. Or perhaps even the less-savoury four-letter word Smith used when asking Darren Berry if that's what he thought of him as the two got to know each other on Indian Premier League duty last year.
Berry, Shane Warne's right-hand man with the championship-winning Rajasthan Royals, for whom Smith opened the batting, had met South Africa's captain only once, interviewing him at a Docklands function during the Australia v World XI experiment in 2005. "I thought he was a bit smug, a little bit arrogant," Berry recalls.
When they hooked up in India last year, the conversation soon turned to how Australians saw Smith. "He said, 'The perception's not good, is it?' " Horrible, was Berry's reply.
Less than a year on, Berry rates Smith among the most genuine, down-to-earth and honest men he has met in cricket. His last Australian experience, Berry says, taught him that false bravado and churlishness were not only out of character, they neither did him nor his team any good.
"He knows he was given the captaincy too young, that he didn't listen to anybody and said, 'I know I can do it, I'll show you'. He didn't have the life experience to cope with captaining an international side," Berry says.
"He said to me in India, 'Chuck, when they made me captain I just wasn't ready. And the best way I knew was to just stick my chest out, and when Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath had a go at me, the South African way is to have a go back'."
It was a recipe for disaster, the tourists losing the three-Test series of 2005-06 comfortably and a bullish Smith alienating himself from opponents and watchers alike. That he was already off the Christmas card list for detailing the nature of Matthew Hayden's sledging in a 2002 interview makes the transformation all the more noteworthy.
Berry says the insecurity born of trying to prove himself is gone, allowing Smith's caring personality and dry, clever sense of humour to dominate.
Royals team meetings were bookended by Warne, with Berry and the psychology guru Jeremy Snape filling in the middle, and Smith a constant source of knowledge and amusement. "He always had, number one, some input from a cricket point of view, but always some humour to add to it as well. It was a really nice balance," Berry says.
"In India, he was outstanding for the young kids in the team. The opening partnership he had with Swapnil (Asnodkar), the little right-hander who slogged them for us, he was like a big brother for him. He was the ideal person to work with — a caring, understanding, empathetic person, all the traits that have made him into a wonderful captain that his team certainly follows. I'd say he's one of the most misunderstood blokes in world cricket."
Arthur agrees that Smith was misjudged on his last visit — not only here, but by many in South Africa — but insists that has never been the case within the team. He, too, has been warmed by the reception afforded not only the captain, but all in the touring party.
"To win over the Australian public you have to do something special," Arthur says. "The respect he's received and we've all received has been very, very rewarding. Australians have warmed to us, but also like the brand we're playing and like what the team stands for."
Winning is one thing, but leaving such a mark clearly moved Arthur. "I think it's hugely important. You want to be remembered for the cricket you play, but you also want to be remembered for the team and people that you are. That, for us, is unbelievably important."
Many whose opinion of Smith has flipped 180 degrees have seen qualities in him they like to see in themselves; the national stereotypes are not too far apart, a point Amla underlined yesterday when he said his captain's courage in batting on Wednesday evening showed "the typical South African spirit".
Berry was driving at the time, listening on the radio, and knew Smith would bat — maybe even as far out as 20 overs from the end if the ninth wicket had fallen. "He's not the fittest athlete in the world, but he's one of those hard-nut, cricket-tough people."
Strip back the hyperbole and it was no less than would be expected of any Test captain — especially one so adamant that his team would not lose the dead rubber after winning the series, as it did in England only months earlier. The truly amazing thing, says Berry, was the reception he received. "I've never seen an Australian crowd give a standing ovation to an Australian captain as he walks to the wicket, let alone Graeme Smith! I think it was a great moment in sport."
The last word of this unexpected love-in goes to Hayden, who Smith so infamously "dobbed on", reporting that Hayden greeted him in his second Test innings with the tirade: "You know, you're not f---ing good enough. How the f--- are you going to handle Shane Warne when he's bowling in the rough? What the f--- are you going to do?"
Yesterday, Hayden likened his toughness to that of his great mate Justin Langer. "Graeme I think has had an amazing strength about his personality over a long and distinguished career. As a Test opener to average over 50 — respect. And to do that as captain of a side which has been through its troughs and is now enjoying a peak, again — respect."
With CHLOE SALTAU
Red
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by furriner Fri 09 Jan 2009, 05:24
He deserves it.
He's got plenty of brickbats as it is, so fair play.
I like the guy, yeah.
He's got plenty of brickbats as it is, so fair play.
I like the guy, yeah.
furriner
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Henry
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by Zat Fri 09 Jan 2009, 06:05
Red, your anti-Smith bias is now on a par with horace's anti-SWaugh bias. That's not a good thing.
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lardbucket
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by mynah Fri 09 Jan 2009, 21:43
Come on Red, admit now that you're really in love with him... 
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by JKLever Fri 09 Jan 2009, 22:08
lardbucket wrote:Nice tits though.
Bet she's a 'vinegar tits' though...
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by Zat Sat 10 Jan 2009, 01:55
Red must either be a raging lesbo, or a bloke. There's no way a normal, straight woman would spend so much time on a cricket forum AND picking out pics of hot chicks.lardbucket wrote:Nice tits though.
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by skully Sat 10 Jan 2009, 02:05
Unless, of course, as has been conjectured here before, Red is a rejected groupie.
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by Zat Sat 10 Jan 2009, 02:07
Just can't see it. The continual posting of hot chicks as avatars doesn't fit.
I suspect there's a male appandage dangling there somewhere.
I suspect there's a male appandage dangling there somewhere.
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by Red Sat 10 Jan 2009, 02:13
Zat wrote:Just can't see it. The continual posting of hot chicks as avatars doesn't fit.
I suspect there's a male appandage dangling there somewhere.
So does that mean that all the blokes in this, or other forums, who have blokes in their avatars, don't have the male appandage dangling there somewhere?
Stereotypes and generalised thinking are alive and well it seems.
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by Zat Sat 10 Jan 2009, 02:17
Sure they are.Red wrote:Stereotypes and generalised thinking are alive and well it seems.
Now go and fix your spelling error in the IPL thread title, There's a good lad.
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by Red Sat 10 Jan 2009, 02:32
Zat wrote:Sure they are.Red wrote:Stereotypes and generalised thinking are alive and well it seems.
Now go and fix your spelling error in the IPL thread title, There's a good lad.
Done. I'm not a lad though.
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by mynah Sat 10 Jan 2009, 04:08
Maybe it is just that Red and taipan have a lot in common?Zat wrote:Red must either be a raging lesbo, or a bloke. There's no way a normal, straight woman would spend so much time on a cricket forum AND picking out pics of hot chicks.lardbucket wrote:Nice tits though.
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by Guest Sat 10 Jan 2009, 04:57
Red wrote:Zat wrote:Sure they are.Red wrote:Stereotypes and generalised thinking are alive and well it seems.
Now go and fix your spelling error in the IPL thread title, There's a good lad.
Done. I'm not a lad though.
Honestly, I don't think anyone believes you...
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by DJ_Smerk Sat 10 Jan 2009, 05:25
So Reds a lad who...is from Australia but Loves South Africa, but hates Graeme Smith?
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by Blackadder Sat 10 Jan 2009, 05:28
Zat wrote:Red must either be a raging lesbo, or a bloke. There's no way a normal, straight woman would spend so much time on a cricket forum AND picking out pics of hot chicks.lardbucket wrote:Nice tits though.
Not that we are complaining about the pics selected.
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by Guest Sat 10 Jan 2009, 05:30
DJ_Smerk wrote:So Reds a lad who...is from Australia but Loves South Africa, but hates Graeme Smith?
Who knows... the web (s?)he has weaved is more tangled than a cats cradle.
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by DJ_Smerk Sat 10 Jan 2009, 05:31
I second that. Apart from the new Avatar...
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by Zat Sat 10 Jan 2009, 07:09
Might be an outrageously butch dyke.Clamson wrote:Red wrote:Zat wrote:Sure they are.Red wrote:Stereotypes and generalised thinking are alive and well it seems.
Now go and fix your spelling error in the IPL thread title, There's a good lad.
Done. I'm not a lad though.
Honestly, I don't think anyone believes you...
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by taipan Sat 10 Jan 2009, 07:10
mynah wrote:Maybe it is just that Red and taipan have a lot in common?Zat wrote:Red must either be a raging lesbo, or a bloke. There's no way a normal, straight woman would spend so much time on a cricket forum AND picking out pics of hot chicks.lardbucket wrote:Nice tits though.
In as far as we are both into SA chicks?
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by mynah Sat 10 Jan 2009, 08:38
Looks like it, judging from your avatars...
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Re: From pariah to messiah.
by lardbucket Tue 25 May 2010, 12:08
Blackadder wrote:Zat wrote:Red must either be a raging lesbo, or a bloke. There's no way a normal, straight woman would spend so much time on a cricket forum AND picking out pics of hot chicks.lardbucket wrote:Nice tits though.
Not that we are complaining about the pics selected.
especially the current one
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