Sports Journo's in Australia

LilBoy BigTown

As much as you admire the Australian cricket team for how they have shaped the cricketing world over the last 10 years or so, the reporters covering cricket in Australia are a laugh.

Pick up the Sydney Morning Herald or The Australian or the Telegraph and go through their articles on the 2nd days play in the current Mohali Test and you will know what I mean.

For example, read this http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/cri...750399179.html piece from Will Swanton in SMH.

Read his very personal and intimate attack on Ganguly. I can understand if the criticism is on cricket, but his description of Ganguly, the greatest ever Indian captain, the man who has scored a fantastic hundred in the ongoing game, has been around for nearly 15 years, has played over 100 Tests and scored in excess of 7000 runs. Swanton's coverage of Ganguly reads more of a criminal rather than a cricketer. Mind you, this from a guy who's a cricketing nobody, not a speck of dust on Ganguly's shoes.

His total contempt and humilation of Ganguly speaks volumes about the standard of sports journalism in Australia.

Lets move on to The Australian and their cricket reporter Malcom Conn (aptly named for he does read like a con man). For weeks now he has struggled to find anything good about Indian cricketers or their cricket.

To me he is the worst guy going around covering cricket, his articles simply refuse to paint a fair picture of what's happening in the game. For example, in one of his recent stories, he writes a full 2 paragraps on Ganguly's reprive by Rudi Kurtzen when he didn't call for a stumping review. He wonders aloud why the Indian's didn't cry foul on the umpiring howler when they did so last year during the Sydney Test.

The one eyed fanatic that he is, he conveniently forgets writing anything about all the decisions that have gone Australia's way, like how Ponting was plumb lbw 2 balls prior to being finally dismissed in the similar manner, or when Hussey was awarded a life when he was struck on the pads of Zaheer Khan and the ball was clearly heading into the stumps. I can probably come up with atleast half a dozen calls that went Australia's way.

And then there's not a good word on any Indian player, not even tendulkar. Even his mammoth going past 12000 runs were shown cold shoulders. That was revolting.

Tendulkar is so far ahead of any of the current Aussies that its not funny. And yet, all Malcomm Conn could write about him is his painful and laborious journey towards Lara's records.

Ganguly is 'Lord Snooty', Dravid is a old, frail and a setting sun. Tendular's is a creaking and ailing body and so on.

There was a time when English press was the worst of the lot, that crown now nicely sits with the Australian journos.

Perhaps a crushing defeat in the ongoing Test would put some senses in their empty brains and they could then perhaps turn the knife on their own players who have hardly been setting the night skies of Mohali alight.

julesa

that's just the nature of journalism and a reflection of aussie culture. australians don't act nice towards people just to be polite, as asians are relatively more likely to. they value more, speaking what they think.

there were plenty of compliments in the australian papers about Sachin's achievements, widely regarded as perhaps a class above Sourav's.

australians, like Indians, will tend to judge people by their own standards. i doubt there are many Indians who accepted, by Indian standards, Shane Warne's boorish behaviour. likewise, Sourav's reported walking out on his team in 2004 (from the SMH article) would be unforgiveable by Australian standards - almost tantamount to treason.

much is made of the cultural differences between the Australian and Indian cricketers. in australia, playing to win is the cultural norm and it is not expected that you should show respect or civility to your opponent, particularly on the pitch. that is obviously not as well accepted in India, where the Australian players seem to be widely regarded as arrogant.

vandy

Aust Sports Media behave a lot like the Aust cricketers and will
never change their Arrogant & Biased behaviour.

However in saying the above, it was refreshing to see the aust
media slip into the aussies after the now famous Sydney Test, I
don't think they had any choice really.

Would like to hear Malcolm Conn's rantings after the Mohali test
Especially after Ganguly's century, Suck Eggs Mr conn.

Cheers

vandy ( currently cruising through the western Ghats in Kumily area)

julesa

incidentally, adam gilchrist talks about the same topic as the one i raised in the post above:

LilBoy BigTown

Jules, Gilly has got it all wrong. At the end of the Sydney Test it were the Australian cricketers running around and punching the air, which is fair since it was an emotionally charged atmosphere.

However, Gilly is building castles in the air when he says Tendulkar didn't shake hands with them. In fact, it was the Indian team that waited to to greet Ponting and Co. Kumble and Ishant Sharma waited for the Aussies to come out, they waited in vain as not one Australian turned up.

Either Gilly has a short memory or this is just another stunt by a writer trying to promote his book.

julesa

i don't think that was fair. as i recall it, a lot of australians felt it was bordering on unsportsmanlike behaviour. i personally didn't like it, although you're right that it was emotionally charged and they were reacting to that, rather than trying to provoke the indian team.

the key point is that the australian way of playing the game, right or wrong, is to be very tough on the field, but friendly off it. whether that makes them arrogant is in the end, a matter of opinion.