"Aussie Cricket Team Too White" (1 Viewer)

[Planck]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/08/24/1251001857688.html

THERE is something obviously white about the Australian cricket team - and it's not just their kit. While England and South Africa have long tapped into rich pools of ethnic talent, fielding players with names such as Shafayat, Hussein and Ntini, the Australian team remains as solidly Anglo as in the days of Bradman and Miller.
"I have long asked myself: 'When is Australian cricket going to find its ethnic stars?' " Raj Natarajan, president of the India Sports Club and coach says. "The talent is there. Lots of young kids from India and Sri Lanka play at grade level but after that we don't see them because they are not given the same encouragement and training as an Anglo-Saxon kids."
Natarajan played first-class cricket in Bangalore before coming to Australia in 1988, when he began coaching. He says Australian administrators need to learn from football and rugby, which have embraced ethnic and indigenous communities. "The administrators can't get past thinking that anybody but a white Anglo guy with blonde hair should be in the team. And that attitude permeates every level, from national selectors to local clubs."
Cricket Australia disagrees, pointing to its Culturally and Linguistically Diverse program, the most notable products of which include Pakistan-born NSW player Usman Khawaja, and the Imparja Cup, a state indigenous competition played each February in Alice Springs.
"South Africa is a bit ahead of us here because they have had a policy of fast-tracking people of colour," says Damien Bown, general manager of game development for Cricket Australia. "We select people on merit. Besides, lots of Australian players have been from ethnic backgrounds, including Simon Katich, who is Croatian, and Jason Gillespie, who is Aboriginal.''
The absence of players from the subcontinent is "more culturally complex", according to Indian-born Australian women's team representative, Lisa Sthalekar. "Lots of Indians, Sri Lankans and Pakistanis play in the early stages of cricket but many of them drop out when it gets serious to focus more on their work. It's also the case, certainly in women's cricket, that a lot of Indians don't want to get any darker, and so they don't want to spend any more time in the sun than they have to."
Sthalekar, a former vice-captain of the women's team, grew up playing for West Pennant Hills. "There was no girls' competition so I had to play in the boys' side. And I didn't cop too much flack."
Suffan Hassan, 15, is in the under-16 city Emerging Blues development squad and trains four times a week. His parents are from Pakistan and he does not see that as a barrier to playing high-level cricket in Australia.
''My goals are to play first grade for my club, make NSW and obviously [play for] Australia,'' he said.

Obviously an attack on the great Anglo pasttime of Cricket.

Political correctness gone mad!

 

[tommykins]

Lol, and then you'll get someone saying 'Australian soccer team not white enough'.

All in all, a stupid stance, if the best of the best is picked, I don't see a problem with it. It's nothing unless you pay attention to it.

IIRC isn't the state teams (NSW,QLD etc.) full of 'whites' anyways? What other choices can the selectors make?

 

[tommykins]

welll i don't follow the cricket anymore but if an ethnic person is less skilled than another white person - i don't believe they should be picked solely because they're ethnic. you enter a competition to win, not lose.

 

[Cyrus the Great]

actually, umm there are a few ethnic players in the Under 19 Australian team. 1 Paki descent and 1 Indian....both I think play for the NSW state team.

look, the majority of ethnics that play cricket are of south Asian origins....and it would be very rare to see an import curry parent pushing their children to play cricket instead of hitting the books studying trying to get their kid into med school.

 

[Fish Tank]

welll i don't follow the cricket anymore but if an ethnic person is less skilled than another white person - i don't believe they should be picked solely because they're ethnic. you enter a competition to win, not lose.

Agreed

 

[Omie Jay]

gillespie is abo?? :O

 

[JonathanM]

The West Indies team is too black.

 

[Mu5hi]

gillespie is abo?? :O

I think half

actually, umm there are a few ethnic players in the Under 19 Australian team. 1 Paki descent and 1 Indian....both I think play for the NSW state team.

look, the majority of ethnics that play cricket are of south Asian origins....and it would be very rare to see an import curry parent pushing their children to play cricket instead of hitting the books studying trying to get their kid into med school.

Only one paki, plays for a state team, the one in the OP. Also agree with your second statement, most curry parents force their kids to hit the books.

I doubt their is any racism in picking the team, South Africa and England have sizeable population decented from the subcontiennt(3-5million). While i know for a fact their is 30,000 Paki population in Australia, not sure about other countries. People need to stop complaining and be good enough to get selected. If your good enough you will be selected.

 

[kaz1]

Stuart Clark is Anglo-Indian which sort of adds to the diversity.

 

[SylviaB]

Affirmative action in sport.

It's what is needed obviously

 

[Amogh]

Im not white and i think this is bs...
why bring race into sport
we're diluting the attention towards ACTUAL racially based issues by perpetuating such minor, pointless ones..
noone will care if too such whinging continues

 

[Crestwood's_G]

Lol, and then you'll get someone saying 'Australian soccer team not white enough'.

All in all, a stupid stance, if the best of the best is picked, I don't see a problem with it. It's nothing unless you pay attention to it.

IIRC isn't the state teams (NSW,QLD etc.) full of 'whites' anyways? What other choices can the selectors make?

what are you talking about? 95% of the soccer team is white :S...

but anyway...

its a case of people not wanting to assimilate and play the sport...

except richard chee quee...

name one famous asian-australian at anything really...apart from jeff the wiggle

 

[Bigboyjames lol]

edit.

 

[Pain]

what are you talking about? 95% of the soccer team is white :S...

but anyway...

its a case of people not wanting to assimilate and play the sport...

except richard chee quee...

name one famous asian-australian at anything really...apart from jeff the wiggle

Why doesn't Jeff count?

 

[thongetsu]

who cares about cricket?

 

[Crestwood's_G]

Why doesn't Jeff count?

no he does count...but he is too obvious...so is penny wong...

 

[Bigboyjames lol]

no he does count...but he is too obvious...so is penny wong...

you are a dumb cunt. please die

 

[Crestwood's_G]

you are a dumb cunt. please die

i will die...but so will you...dickhead haha

 

[pman]

The cricket teams not racist, its lineagist, you can't make the team unless your family has been involved incricket for generations, thats why it took so long to pick warner and why he's not on the test team, they picked hi cos they had no choice and no there stuck with him in T20

 

[mirakon]

Yeah and the Indian cricket team is too sub-continental.