Watching the Ashes over the last few weeks, it is heartening to see that the game is returning back to the old principles of fair play and sportsmanship.
England v Australia games used to be plagued by abusive sledging and bad feeling between both sides, which often spilt off the field.
Now we see opposing players smiling and chatting to each other and shock horror, even sharing beers in each others dressing rooms after the days play.
Whatever next?
Having played cricket for many years I now see similarities between the friendly, sporting club cricket I used to play and the test matches we are now watching.
Batsmen are actually walking without waiting for the umpires decision and admitting to dubious catches going to ground.
Compare this behaviour to the overpaid, prima donna footballers gracing our fields this season. With their constant abuse of the referee, diving, getting opposing players sent off and generally cheating to gain an advantage.
Maybe these so called professional footballers should sit down and watch a days play.
They can certainly learn something.
Hats off to Ricky Ponting and Michael Vaughan and their teams for conducting themselves in such an honest and sporting way.
3 comments:
i wonder if it has gotta do with the difference in educational and socio-economic background?
Years ago maybe, but the likes of Harmison and Flintoff come from 'normal' backgrounds as opposed to what used to be a public school domain.
I think a lot has to do with Ricky Ponting changing the behaviour of the Aussie team. It's good to see, but you wonder if that is why they've lost their edge.
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