At the risk of turning this into a Cricket Blog, Australian Tory has some comments on the supposed racism in Australian cricket, according to Malcolm Knox.
The inevitable comparison with the English team is an unfair one, in my opinion. England has long been the home of many migrants from the Indian sub-continent, the Carribean and Africa, which are traditional cricketing nations, due to the influence of the British Empire. It shouldn’t come as any suprise that players of African and Indian ethnicity would come to represent England, given the comparatively huge numbers of cricket-playing migrants there, compared to Australia.
The lack of Aboriginal cricketers at a high level (excepting Jason Gillespie) could be attributed to many factors, yet commentators always single out racism as the obvious cause. It should be noted that Australian Rules football plays a very significant role in this disparity, with many young sportsman faced with a choice between the two at age 14 or 15.
The AFL, with its salaries in excess of $200k+ a year, is a much more attractive proposition for any young sportsman faced with that choice. Shane Warne himself was forced into cricket, after unsuccessfully trying out at his beloved St. Kilda F.C. Luckily for Australian Cricket, the other fat kid trying out for Full Forward was Tony Lockett.
At the club level, Aboriginal cricketers are commonplace, as are those with Italian, Greek, and Eastern European heritage. A heartening sign is the increased participation of Asian players in the game – The best known being Richard Chee-Quee. Mark Wong, that lucky bastard, hit me for 57 from 8 overs 3 weeks ago. (It hasn’t all been bad news though – I’m second in the all-rounder table!).
The main hindrance to racial diversity in Australian cricket is a cultural one. A significant proportion of our migrants come from non-cricketing countries, and, as a general rule, do not take up cricket in the first generation. Racism obviously exists to some extent, but to suggest that players are being excluded from cricket teams on that basis is ridiculous in today’s times. In fact, I would suggest that the opposite is true, with many junior (and senior) coaches actively targetting minorities at a young age, to ensure that they aren’t lost to the competition.
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