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I have been a fanatical cricket follower since 1957 - a long time and though recently my fanaticism has waned and weakened somewhat, last night I sat up to watch the test match between Australia and South Africa into the early hours of the morning. While I nodded nearly napping suddenly I noticed the camera focus on the pocket and crotch of one of the Aussie teams - young Cameron Bancroft. In brief he was trying to scratch the ball on one side while keeping the other side smooth. This is the recipe for what is called reverse swing - the balll moves and the batsmen can be beaten. The action is illegal and is regarded as cheating. Everything Bancroft did was captured on the big screen. We all saw him loosen his belt and put the offending object used to roughen up the ball in his under pants. It was as if a naughty school boy was trapped smoking and put the joint in his undies. Well I thought to myself as I went to bed 'Will this be a bgi thing or a trivial thing?' My last post was about how we in Australia may be drawn into nucear conflict beause of the looming USA-China conflict. Given the coverage in the news, one would think that is a minor matter. But sport is of another dimension for Australians. It is the source of Utopian dreams and compensation for the shitty lives we lead. Australians take their sporting dreams more seriously than political reality. Transgressions are not easily forgiven and it looks like we have a major incident. The Australian Board of Control meets later on today and they will be forced, I think, to take action against the Captain, Steve Smith, who sanctioned the cheating. Money has flooded into cricket and it has destroyed what used to be known as the spirit of cricket - its ethos or ethics. Australia has led the way in the persoanal abuse of opponents and it would seem that generally Australian players are unloved outside of Australia. I keep thinking of Marx's great lines *'All* that is solid melts into air, *all that is holy is profaned*, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.' My comment on this has always been that we kick against the pricks and refuse to face with sober senses that our dreams are compensations and that capitalism ruins everything - even cricket, lovely cricket. comradely Gary _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
