For the 3rd time in 2 years, England’s Marcus Trescothick has bailed on a tour under unusual circumstances. On two of those occasions, including this week’s departure from the England side on the eve of The Ashes series with Australia, stress was cited.
Not only is The Times’ Simon Barnes sympathetic, but he’s surprised Trescothick isn’t being pilloried for his absence.
Perhaps the remarkable thing about the Trescothick Affair has been the near-total absence of recrimination heaped on Trescothick. The above two paragraphs look not only absurd but inhuman. Almost universally, the response has been sympathetic and compassionate.
It represents a dramatic change in attitudes not only to mental problems but to sport. Phil Tufnell met a very different response when he had a breakdown on the Ashes tour of 1994-95. He trashed his hotel room, went into an extended crying jag and was taken by team-mates to a psychiatric institution.
He discharged himself, bought himself a lager and packet of fags and went back to the team-room with the memorable words: œAll right then? Despite its ludicrous side, this was a dark night of the soul by anybody™s reckoning. The cricket authorities fined Tufnell £1,000 for going through it. That™ll teach him to have a breakdown.
Tufnell was used to a certain amount of consideration. But at the hour of his greatest need, cricket treated him in a manner that now seems shocking. It really wouldn™t happen today. Trescothick has been treated with compassion even by his opponents: there has been no pommy-poofter-can™t-take-it stuff. Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, made some generous remarks.
All of this shows a remarkable change. Once again, sport has dramatised a change in society, a change in our culture, a change in the way we see and understand life. A person ” a man, a sportsman, that is to say a professional toughie ” can suffer mental problems and excite not contempt but compassion.
Well, yeah. As long as they’re not Ron Artest, Terrell Owens or Barrett Robbins.
The whole problem of the stress English players face when playing against Australia comes from the fact that Englishmen tend to be too diplomatic and sporting to say what they really think about Australian cricketing tactics. Sporting philosophies are different in the two countries with the result that the attitude to winning and the way players conduct themselves on the pitch are different. True, English sport has always had its snooty cliques, which the majority of Englishmen despise as much as the Australians do, but for us it is really sport, a game played essentially for pleasure or to give pleasure with true sporting conduct at its core.
When England plays cricket with any nation other than Australia, it has always felt to me that this decent sporting approach has been present and shared by both teams, no matter how competitive the game. However, with Australia it is very different. There seems to be nothing the Australian cricket team will not do to win a series, a game, even a personal confrontation. (Observe Shane Warne throwing a ball close to a batsman’s head when he was not on top of the game in the first test).
In recent years I have found it harder and harder to respect Australians as sportsmen. There are certainly Australians who are good at bowling and striking a cricket ball, but do they really ‘play cricket’? Are they sportsmen? I say not. Some of the test match sledging of the last 30 years has just gone too far. It is just nastiness: a vulgar sign of bad character and in a game that is used as an emblem of good sporting behaviour, I would call it cheating. That’s without the aggressive claims to umpires about non-existent catches which, during wicket-keeper Marsh’s era at least, to me, were out-and-out schoolboy cheating. But then the rabid jingoism that throws reason to the wind grows from it and to cry cheat at match time would be like calling ‘hypocrites’ inside a massed hoard of Taliban.
Sledging along the lines of the Australian model is cheating because not many non-Australians would be as unashamed to speak to a fellow sportsman, either to his face on the field or through the media before or after a game, and walk away still thinking himself a man. This is where Australian culture differs from others. But the Australian cricketers and their big-headed followers, as well as some Australian followers of rugby will, as long as they are more than one, sledge pure nastiness on the pitch, in the commentary box, in the press and in bars all over the world where they are protected by the rules of the game, the laws of the country, and most of all, by the sporting code of the people they attack .. and still walk away thinking they are respected as men. That type of verbal abuse, where there is no means of response available that would be considered acceptable for someone who we used to call decent and honourable, or even ‘a gentleman’, is most common when a scheming woman, spoiled child or otherwise ‘defenceless’, and therefore secure among the honourable, person abuses a stronger and more honourable individual. We all know this is going on, but amazingly, we are somehow unable to bring it out in the open. The Australian so called ‘sports’ fan has really latched on to this social anomaly without the slightest sense of shame.
Well now I’m sorry about the length of this comment, for those who do not have the mental stamina … but in a word: “grow up and play the game … stop cheating … be men … be sportsmenâ€. You are the wingers. You invented the word because wingeing is such a great part of the Australian bludger’s way of life. In England we have been so tolerant of Australians for so long out of some sense of paternalistic responsibility … perhaps going back to the critical bridgehead provided by the mother country essential to allow any kind of settlement in what was then such a harsh environment. Many of us even voted against the obvious wisdom of joining the EEC out of loyalty to you … it was a close vote. And for such an ungrateful infant.
Well you saw and felt in England last series how you took it just a little bit too far … do you feel our support now? Forget it … it is too late … the doors are closed. Australia is no longer close to the English heart. Go elsewhere for friends. Join S E Asia and take all their sporting trophies with the same nastiness, boast how good you are and see how long they put up with you. You seem to miss the point. Winning at sport is not everything. Diplomacy and international rules mean that we have to play you, but quite honestly, we prefer to play against real sportsmen.
Some disgraceful references have been made to Englishmen who have succumbed to the pressures of not comprehending how Australians can be so brashly rude without realising the lowly social category their behaviour puts them in within everyone’s heart. I will recall just one brilliant batsman, Denis Amis, who would surely have achieved greater batting accolades among true sportsmen without Australian abuse. The truth is, when an adversary is protected by the sporting rules or some other remote but respected authority and he oversteps the line, we walk away. We walk away from Australians and their mimickers everywhere and leave them to their own spite. It will be interesting to see how you deal with the growing class of ‘culture’ snobs among Australians. What happens when your Warnes and McGraths meet your fine Australian wine snobs and Opera House goers? Are you a land of equals now? I can see some spiteful internal battles to come Australia unfair … advance as far as you can, on your own.
We will never know if you could have achieved the wins standing toe to toe as true sportsmen, without the bitching! And before you winge that I don’t like losing … Englishmen are quite capable of losing like sportsmen … as long as we are beaten by sportsmen. But losing to Australia feels like spit in the eye from a street shark who wants your shirt …
seems like there’s no shortage of jingoism to go around on both sides.
then again, if my side had just been obliterated as badly as England were at the Gabba, I’d probably “prefer to play against real sportsmen,” too.
Agreed, “winning at sport is not everything”, and given England’s recent showings on the international stage for football, rugby union and cricket, you might want to keep repeating that mantra, over and over again.
Not the highest readership amongst ashes supporters here, I note! I guess it is a useful mantra for the less serious after losing when all around are slitting their wrists after a loss. The question is “Why does this keep happening?”. Australia have been amazingly consistent winners over the last few years. Also consistent are their constant personal attacks on opposing players. Is there a connection, and if there is, is it really necessary for true sporting champions?
it would be an understatement to say there’s not a ton of cricket traffic here, Bill, but then again, some of Kevin Pietersen’s lady fans occassionaly drop by to defend him.
I appreciate your correspondence and I respect your right to an opinion, so I apologize in advance for saying I think your take on this sledging biz is just a little quaint.
indeed, Australia do the business at cricket more often than not. But if the English are really so unnerved by the odd bit of trash talk, I think that’s a dent in their psychological armour, not that of the Australians.
I’m unconvinced there’s a connection. I think it has more to do with better players, better coaches, better selectors, etc. and actual performance.
are such uncouth tactics “really necessary for true sporting champions?” Probably not, but I’ll submit you can look around the entire spectrum of worldwide sports and find no shortage of examples of poor etiquette. Other than the Lady Bing Trophy, there’s not a lot of silverware for etiquette.
You’re not alone in watching your countrymen get their ass kicked in a game they invented, but clearly didn’t perfect (but at least England never hired Buck Martinez or Coach K. to lead their national squads!). And that’s what happens through the ages — these games are learned and loved around the world (well, some of ’em), and eventually, the students are schooling the teachers. . Cricket is a far richer game due the influence of the Aussies and if their ‘tude rubs you the wrong way, for fuck’s sake, just beat them (as you did two years ago) and get on with it. No country on earth has a monopoly on sportsmanship, or boorish behavior.
i neglected to offer any links to coverge of the last weekend’s 2nd test. Suffice to say, even Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning think England choked.
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/ashes2006-07/story/0,,1964929,00.html