From: "Greg Ratcliffe" <gratclif-AT-ozemail.com.au>
Subject: Re: cricket
Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 09:53:08 +1100


Salil,

your knowledge of cricket and cricketers far exceeds mine, and I certainly
wouldn't try to defend Australia against charges of racism - we do have One
Nation, after all.

The question of quotas is very complex, but I would focus on the terms you use,
'minorities' and 'Australian of colour', in order to continue the discussion,
not to criticise anything you have said.

Who do you consider to be the minority groups in Australia? The various
non-Anglo ethnic communities? While I can't name any particular player, I would
not be surprised if some were of Italian/Greek descent, ie the descendants of
migrants (like every non-Indigenous person here). Do you include 3rd, 4th
generation migrants in the minority categories, or restrict the grouping to 1st
generation?

And what do you mean by 'of colour' - actual physically observable pigmentation?
Truly, we don't see any players identifying as Indigenous or even of Indigenous
descent, but that is not to say that there hasn't been some from the latter
category. (Pace everyone, I realise Indigenous people don't make this
distinction.) Everyone of Indigenous descent does not choose to identify as
such, and people of Indigenous descent do not necessarily appear as 'coloured'.

Before this Test Series began I heard that there would be a player 'of colour'
included in the South African line-up, but when I saw South Africa playing, I
thought that the 'coloured' person must have been relegated to twelfth man
because I didn't noticed any 'coloured' players in the team. In other words,
Ontong didn't appear to me to be any different in 'colour' to any other player.
A bit suntanned perhaps, but no more so than Mike Whitney, for example. (In
fact, if any player stood out as different, it would be Nanti Haywood with his
brilliant blond hair, but maybe he is just following the trend-setting Colin
Miller's penchant for dying his hair.) Nor had I realised that Herschel Gibbs
was a 'coloured' player.

But to focus crudely on physical appearance for a moment, the Australian
cricketer Andrew Symonds does not look like the usual 'white' Australian Test
Cricket player.

So, because we haven't noticed a player with dark pigmentation in the team, and
no-one has identified as Indigenous, doesn't necessarily mean that Dave Whatmore
has been the only Indigenous Australian Test cricketer. (And the same can be
said of ethnic minority groups.) I don't write this to refute anything you have
said Salil, but just to suggest some of the complexity of the issue here.

The absence of Indigenous players in Australian cricket has interested me for
some time, and it has also been put to the Channel 9 commentary team on several
occasions - this is Packer's crowd of retired cricketers, Benaud, Greig, Taylor
et al. During the lunch interval each day of the series they also present the
Cricket Show, where they interview players, present documentary style segments,
and answer viewers' email questions, offer advice to young players etc. It was
from them that I learned about the efforts to introduce Indigenous children to
the sport. Perhaps we could do something towards increasing public attention on
this issue if all the people on this list who are interested in this issue could
send the commentary team a polite email when the one-day series starts.

greg





----- Original Message -----
From: "Salil Tripathi" <salil61-AT-hotmail.com>
To: <postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2002 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: cricket


| Greg,
|
| You are right; the first Australian side to tour England was the
| all-indigenous side, in 1800s. They did beat England. But it was not called
| an official side. Ramachandra guha's Picador Book of cricket has a nice
| piece about the team.
|
| However, on quotas, the issue is not white standards v black standards. I
| don't mean to imply that black players have to rise to white standards. In
| WEst Indies, the issue is reversed. Other than Larry Gomes and Steve
| Camacho, one has to really try hard to remember the last time a white player
| made it to the team. Indians, from Kanhai, Kallicharran, and now
| Chanderpaul, have been able to break through the barrier. In H. Achong, at
| one point, a Chinese player played for West Indies.
|
| Similarly with other countries: Sri Lanka includes Muralitharan, a Tamil;
| India has routinely had minority players -- Muslims, Sikhs, even so-called
| scheduled castes, PArsis, and so on. PAkistan once had a reserve wicket
| keeper who was a Hindu -- Anil Dalpat, and Youssuf Yohana, the great
| batsman, must grate the nerve of some Pakistanis, when he does the sign of
| cross, to thank the Lord after scoring a century for Pakistan! England, too,
| has had many members of minorities playing for it.
|
| Australia has been the laggard here -- I don't want to impute motives here;
| I don't follow Australian politics closely. But Australia has had a long
| tradition of immigrant communities -- there are so many Sri Lankans in
| Australia. Surely, one of them could make it big? What about Martin Chee
| Kwee, a Chinese-Australian who I believe played for NSW? Indeed, the issue
| of indigenous population and their access to cricket is important, but in
| the intervening period, why is it that other than DAve Whatmore we have a
| problem coming up with the name of a single Australian of color in the team?
| I ask this with a sincere interest, not as a way of trying to portray
| Australia as racist.....
|
| Salil
|
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