The recent two-test match ban on Gibbs is an apt illustration of how the cricketing world reacts to racism. The cricket authorities call it zero tolerance.
The spectators were troubling Gibbs’ teammates and he did the right thing as any team-man (especially senior ones) would do by pepping his teammates up with a little language and attitude. In fact I have no idea what he said except that it was “a bunch of bloody animals” plus some more racist slur as they chose to call it. If team SA got fired up that way then good for them and those of us who are intellectually inclined can go on for hours trying to debate the positives and negatives of that strategy of inspiration.
What the cricket authorities miss out on is the fact that the same racist comments are bestowed upon the cricketers that belong to the non-white skinned humans category. And if it is zero tolerance then they should really look into this aspect more seriously than Gibbs shouting helplessly at a group of the spectators to his teammates.
When you see umpires standing mute spectators to Andre Nel’s sledging but reporting Sehwag for over-appealing, it is only natural that you think about racist tendencies. When Glenn McGrath walks upto Rahul Dravid at his batting crease and gives him a mouthful of something-that’s-definitely-not-exchanging-pleasantries and you see Dravid getting fined for not being able to control his players on-field, what else can be a reasonable explanation? When Darrell Hair accuses Pakistan of tampering with the ball and it is finally proved that the Pakis haven’t done anything with the ball, still Inzy is banned for 4 test matches. Darrell Hair calls Muralitharan for throwing even though he is cleared by the ICC and Murali is rested by Sri Lanka in order to avoid more confrontations. During the ugly fight between Ramnaresh Sarwan and Glenn McGrath, it was just a case of warning given to both the players because an Austalian was involved in the bragain. Otherwise, Sarwan might have been banned for I don’t know how many matches! What is the explanation for all these?
And where is the ‘zero tolerance’ policy of the cricketing authorities here? Munching groundnuts I guess. Even with the power shifting towards the Asian bloc, there has been no change in the racist attitudes of the ICC. England, Australia, SA (non-blacks part of this team, Gibbs is a non-white and that’s why there is so much of problem with him always. Even Greame Smith doesn’t support him most of the times!) and NZ can get away with murder, while anyone else who even gets caught running their fingers over the ball can be banned for ball tampering! Shame on you ICC!
It is overreaction by the ICC. If provoked anyone would do that. It is no big crime on his part. Calling Pakistani fans animals is an insult to animals. We all know how they behave. And giving this a racial tag is sensationalising a trivial issue by the media.
Arun:
I don’t think media is sensationalising a trivial issue here. It’s the ICC which is saying that this is a racism issue and wants to deal with it in that fashion.
But yes, I agree with you when you say it is an overreaction by ICC.
Thanks for your comment! :)
[...] Coming back to the real world (not the reality show real!) racism exists. Look at this post, now that’s real life. People want to be racist only to ‘certain ears’ and not to everybody. Sadly, on ‘Big Brother’ I guess the contestants forgot that they were being caught on camera like Gibbs was caught by the stump microphone. [...]
Read this article – http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/rsavpak/content/current/story/276685.html It is a sensitive, well written piece on why this incident might be viewed as a form of racism.
Adi,
Gibbs sems to be a white man,not a negro. Anyhow;the crowd was unruly and they too must be punished severely by Gibbs in The world Cup,when he plays the Pakistani ‘Throw bowlers’!
Arun:
You are right!Gibbs insulted the ‘bloody animals’ badly.
Murali Partha:
That was an excellent article. I think the author makes one point which clinches the issue as far as I am concerned, “Gibbs, the point is that would you have said what you said even if the spectators were white?”
Ganesh Kumar:
Yes, the crowd members must also be punished. I agree with you!