Australian cricket tackles racism…
…proclaims the headline on the BBC News website with a picture of Jimmy Saville (aka Victor Flowers) and the Barmy Army in full swing.
Cricketing authorities in Australia have announced a new zero-tolerance policy towards racism in the stands.
They have threatened offenders with lifetime bans from their grounds.
(Taken from the BBC Website)
However, in this ‘zero-tolerance’ policy, it’ll still be OK for the Aussies to refer to English fans as poms. Apparently Cricket Australia spoke to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission to check if it the term pom would be considered a racist term and the answer was no because it’s origins lay in a historical term (prisoners of his majesty) which has no relevance to today’s society.
With that in mind I suggest that when the Barmy Army descend on the cricket grounds of Australia that they refer to their hosts as Former United Colonies King’s Wayfarers In The South.
Tags : England, Australia, Cricket, The Ashes, Pom, Racism, Barmy Army
November 6th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Re - racism, the feedback that i have been getting from some Aussies on my myspace page is that Monty & Sarg are going to be on the receiving end of some very intense verbal most of which will be of a racist nature. I am going to the 4th and 5th Tests and i only hope that the stewards do their jobs and do not turn a blind eye to it otherwise there could be trouble.
November 6th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
Hi Wayne,
I’m pretty certain from what I’ve read that the Aussie authorities are going to be pretty strict with regards to racist chanting. I know that there were a number of reported problems following the visit by South Africa so I do hope that they’re good to their word and clamp down on racist chanting. There’s no place for it.
Hope you have a good trip - I’m dead envious! I hope you get a chance to stop by whilst you’re Down Under and drop us a line here to Flintoffs Ashes!
Cheers,
Mike