How about usage of the word "bastard"? Or mentioning Lara's ****? That's personal abuse of the latter sort, I'd imagine.
I would imagine too. And I don't think they are the kind of comments you go and have a "beer after the game". Which is what Sunil was referring to. I am fine with saying the Aussies want to keep things on the field where the two parties can get together in the end and have a beer over, but definitely not things as serious as that. But largely, Australia's sledging is not abuse of the 2nd kind and usually of the 1st kind mentioned. As for the kind like the ones above, a lot of test nations have such controversies onfield.
What I mean was that Australians have used racial abuse in the past themselves. It's pretty well known, that fact. And the policy has always been that it should be kept on the field. Many players have talking about being racially abused in games in Australia - sadly the policy of "keeping it on the field" meant that there were no official and specific charges brought out against anyone. Now all of a suddenly they accuse others of something they've been guilty of in the past, and the policy of keeping it on the field doesn't apply anymore. Fine, but people're gonna look at the past, and get pretty enraged.
They have, like Lehmann and were punished for it rightly. However, these are not the kind of statements Australians want to keep on the field or the ones where you can leave behind and have a beer later with the opposition. Gavaskar has equated two different kinds of personal abuse and you've mixed them up.
There is no double-standard. I have never heard Australians say racial abuse should stay on the field.
That's just insular and arbitrary then. What McGrath chose to say was vulgar, distasteful and arguably homophobic. But somehow that's ok, but insults against wife are not, because of some arbitrary policy within the team that Sarwan would know nothing about? And there's no doubt that the Aussies DO use foul language. Is that ok too?
No it isn't. It's policy for the team to not behave so insultingly and those remarks equate in seriousness. Just because these happened to be different doesn't make them okay. It just proves that even Aussies have stepped outside of their policy to keep the game competitive but clean.
Yeah, I am okay with foul language.
Now that's just bullcrap.
You're not getting the point. The kinds of comments which Gavaskar refer to about Aussies keeping on the field are not racist or overtly personal. These comments are common. The racist comments, like Harbhajan's, ARE NOT COMMON. Hence there is no correlation.
More Austrocentricism. If you call someone a bastard, for many of the subcontinentals, you can't have a better after the match either. In fact, I'm certain that many of the Pakistani players don't drink beer either - it's against their religion. But the Australians wanna keep acting as if the whole world's their backyard and they'll stick with their internal policies when playing whoever, and if there's a problem, well then that's too bad.
You cannot call someone a bastard in the subcontinent. It's not part of the culture there. Yet, it has to be tolerated because it's a part of the Aussie way. If you honestly can't see how one-sided this is, I don't think there's anything else to say.
Actually, I know exactly what you're talking about with regards to using 'bastard' against sub-continental people. They get furious, as I've experienced and don't take it in a mate-ship/jokish was Aussies do. Which is why the ICC should probably clamp down on the seriously offensive stuff said.
HOWEVER, that is in no way relative to what Gavaskar/Grieg were trying to say by making it out as if what Harbhajan said and what the Aussies 'usually' say are the same. They're absolutely not.
No, it shows that homophobic remarks are not given the special status as racist remarks are, and we're back to 'gotta keep it on the field' policy. I'm certain that Harbhajan must've gotten a lot of **** for his turban in the past. He didn't report it. Because he was supposed to cop it - keep it on the field.
How are you sure at all? Stop with the petty and false accusations of Australians doing/saying things they haven't. There are enough examples of stupidness to choose from so you don't have to be 'certain' about anything.
Really, I'd doubt Harbhajan would let something about his turban go as Sikh's really wouldn't take that any different to how Symonds took being called a 'monkey'.
It is a pandora's box which is open now and the ICC will have to choose one way or another. Not everything said can be 'kept' no the field. Certainly no racial/***ual/religious/etc comments. And I have never heard Australians advocating these kinds of comments be kept on the field for there even to be a double-standard.
If it was threatening, then Lee would've reported it. But he didn't. So it can be safely assumed that he didn't go anything abusive/illegal.
What? Maybe Lee didn't think it as a big deal like Symonds did. But you were saying maybe Symonds made a homosexual remark about him in which Harbhajan shot back with
"monkey". To which common sense would dictate that remark much more severe than getting tapped with a bat. And if anything, Harbhajan would use that as a mitigating factor (provocation) in appeal. The fact that he didn't is your made-up story and yours alone.
For me, get the **** off him is fine, but there's every reason to believe it was more than that, considering how ugly the whole thing got. Let's not once again be naive to think that it was something PG13 with incidental foul language.
If it was more, it would be used as a mitigating factor. Common-sense. Harbhajan hasn't said Symonds said anything that bad, all he has done is denied saying anything himself. Don't assume something that really you have no proof of nor does it really fit.
They've been dishing out racial/homophobic abuse and it's been kept on the field. that's what I was talking about.
Rubbish. They've had incidents like other test nations have, but it certainly has not been apart of the Aussie culture to do things like that and 'keep it on the field and have a beer after'.