April 23, 2004

A Cricketer's Conscience

Good on ya, Stuie! I admire the stand that you have taken in deciding that you are unavailable to be selected for the upcoming Australian cricket tour of Zimbabwe.

For the uninitiated, I am talking about Stuart MacGill, the Australian leg-spinner who has taken over 100 wickets in Test cricket and has acted according to his conscience in excluding himself from selection for a tour to a nation which has clearly allowed racial discrimination to influence it's selection process.

As Peter Roebuck has pointed out in the Sydney Morning Herald, the non-selection of a coloured player in an English team to play against South Africa 36 years ago was sufficient for cricketing nations around the world to boycott South Africa's involvement for many years. And, in essence, what is different now? Nothing. Except perhaps the huge amounts of money at stake. And the fact that the ICC is in charge of such political matters these days.

It's all very well to argue that sport and politics should not mix but there comes a time when certain injustices cannot be ignored. It's a shame that individual players are having to take the lead when the international cricket body should have the courage to act ethically when there is a clear need to do so.

Posted to Cricket, People, Personal, Politics, Social Justice by Keith Pitty
Comments

While I deplore injustice of any kind, I am very wary of hypocrisy too. The ECB were quite happy to host Zimbabwe, but they don't want to tour (the host makes most of the money). There are also many other countries in the world where bad shit is happening, but there is a focus on Mugabe cause he isn't our friend. I don't know whether moral relativism is appropriate or not, the whole thing makes me quite uneasy, but at the end of the day I think the best thing we can do to show the ZCB that what they are doing is bad for cricket is to go over there and absolutely annihalate them. Finish a test in two days and win by the biggest margin ever. They'll be begging to have their best team on the park then.

All that being said, I certainly do applaud McGill for his stance. He is being true to what he believes and his action must carry some risk to his career, so it is brave as well.

btw. I am in London aty the moment, arrived on Sunday at lunchtime. Checked in to my hotel in Hampton Wick, went round the corner to a big park behind the hotel, saw a game in progress, got talking to the guys, and I've got a game on Saturday! Hope the weather is ok...

Posted by: Jed Wesley-Smith at April 30, 2004 12:48 AM

it's a shame that Stuart is not touring,but I support his decision anyway.If it is gonna affect your career why bother once you have got the option.It would be nice to see Australia back into cricket with a good team because they haven't been in cricket for a while.

Posted by: aneera at May 16, 2004 11:24 AM