The low levels of morality in cricket and sports

[EnterTheVoid]

If it takes you effort to dig up some obscure examples, my point would stand proven. It would be blatantly obvious to anyone that sports like chess, golf, squash, and a lot of Olympic sports are renowned for their sportsmanship, but I admire your efforts to give a clean chit to your fellow Aussie in the garb of everyone does it.

Give me some assurance you wont resort to your customary flip flops and I will find you examples where competitors caused comparable damage to their sport as McGrath did to cricket. McGrath admitted his fault so the part about me trying to prove he is innocent are a pack of lies and you know it.

[The Outsider]

Give me some assurance you wont resort to your customary flip flops and I will find you examples where competitors caused comparable damage to their sport as McGrath did to cricket. McGrath admitted his fault so the part about me trying to prove he is innocent are a pack of lies and you know it.

Sure go ahead - examples have to be related to abusing the opponent on the playing field and not something like taking drugs in case you are trying to slide out of this one.

[EnterTheVoid]

Sure go ahead - examples have to be related to abusing the opponent on the playing field and not something like taking drugs in case you are trying to slide out of this one.

From previous experience, my faith in your assurances are at an all time high of ZERO percent, but true to my word, I will provide some examples. Give me some time.

[The Outsider]

From previous experience' date=' my faith in your assurances are at an all time high of ZERO percent, but true to my word, I will provide some examples. Give me some time.[/quote'] The only one you are fooling is yourself by making an assertion that every other sport has as poor a record as cricket as far as respect for the opposition on the playing field is concerned.

[EnterTheVoid]

Wait and watch

[thevortex]

In theory, sree_india, what if you do find similar and even more boorish examples in other sports too? Will that help defend Mcgrath? Which other sport has a 'Spirit of the Game' in its constitution? Which other game is known as a 'gentleman's game'? These things count for something, right? What Mcgrath did is indefensible, I am afraid.

[EnterTheVoid]

Vortex, McGrath admitted his guilt, what is there to defend ? Every sport has it's bad apples that degrade it's reputation but Shwetabhs rants only seem to be limited to cricket, why ? I want to show this behavior is not just limited to cricket but comparable instances can be found in other sports.

[achilles]

This thread and first post in particular is one of the most aptly put description of sledging I've read from a fan for a very long time. Kudos to you Shwetabh. And a word of advice - "Don't defend what you've written. Everyone knows you are right. You don't need to have a conversation to prove yourself right".

[thevortex]

Perhaps other sports such as football do have this and more. But what would be the point in bringing them up? That is what I wanted to understand.

[achilles]

^ Precisely my point. Ban the darn sledging. We are better off seeing the players just staring at each other coz a few teams just can't behave themselves.

[Sooda]

Its kind of the nature of the sport too, how many other sports have a player (batsman) standing effectively stationary with opposition players (fielders) all around him giving them that glorious opporunity to sledge and 'disintigrate' footballers are running at each other most of the time, and even if someone does say something to an opponent on a football field they will/can only do so if the ball is a long way away - and it is not going to effect the performance of the person being sledged as he does not have the ball(unless of course you do a Zidane) Tennis players CAN annoy each other by say taking ages between points- some do that with the AIM of aggravating (Radek Stepanek springs to mind) by and large though it dosent happen. And I am not sure if this counts as undsportsmanship as this thread defines it anyway. They can hardly cream insults at each other across the net- though that would be funny. Those are the only two other sports that I follow closely enough... Point is- if other sports had in the way they are played, that kind of window for sledging, who's to say it would not happen...? Its not like footballers are thoroughly nice chaps (or nicer than the McGraths of cricket) and hence they are not as unsporting.

[dragonfly]

A hypothetical example - There is a research scientist job opening at a top university and by some fluke I am among the 2 shortlisted candidates who have been called to give a seminar. My rival is really good but I feel I can "mentally disintegrate" him. So when he is in the middle of his lecture, I ask him, "Hey, how does your thesis advisor's d!ck taste like". After that the university hires me because I managed to mentally unsettle my rival during his talk, never mind that he was more deserving. If modern cricket has to move towards true professionalism, it has to move against amateur and backyard notions like sledging and abusing. That's the mantra of the professional world, the job description is to play cricket and showcase your skills for which you are getting paid, not for treating your fellow professionals with contempt. Sadly, abuse and sledging are robbing us and deflecting attention from a lot of cricket.

great POAST. Will Read Again!!

[fuub]

Cricket is a gentlemans game in the professional sports arena. I would only really start to care if we ended up with brawls... please dont even try to compare Sulimen Benn and Johnson pushing each other with some of the brawls that occur in ice hockey, baseball, NFL, Soccer, Rugby, Aussie Rules, even Basketball has seen them. Yes sledging can be bad, Mcgraths comment was disgusting. But if the whole thing was kept off the mics then perhaps they could have resolve their problems privately and no one ever needed be offended, children need not wonder if Sarwan knows what Laras crown jewels taste like. Any environment with competition + money seems to eventually bring out the ugly side of people given enough pressure. Alot of people say ugly things here and there isnt even anything at stake.

[yoda]

Vortex, McGrath admitted his guilt, what is there to defend ? Every sport has it's bad apples that degrade it's reputation but Shwetabhs rants only seem to be limited to cricket, why ? I want to show this behavior is not just limited to cricket but comparable instances can be found in other sports.

To me, it is not a question of whether someone in any other sport has ever used foul language and resorted to absolute low class behavior towards an opponent. I am sure there are bad apples everywhere. Question is how many sport tolerate such BS and let the players get away with it without controlling it? This in a sport where a player can't even show an iota of displeasure towards an umpire regarding a decision, yet can say all the crap he wants to another player and even get physical as needed. I don't blame the assies or anyone else who resort to such low class behavior, rather it reflects poorly on the ICC. Take the recent Mitchell Johnson head-but case recently. In a sport like the NBA (US basketball), he would have been ejected from that game immediately and possibly banned for more games. Here he gets away with a partial match fine.

[EnterTheVoid]

COP THIS SHWETABH !!!!! [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s651jrL6fh8]YouTube- aussie rugger tips[/ame] --

During a 2001 clash with the North Queensland Cowboys, Hopoate, in an attempt to unsettle several of his opponents, inserted his finger in three players' anuses, the first occurring during the seventh minute of play. At the conclusion of the match the matter was immediately referred to the rugby league judiciary where a case was put forward from both sides on 28 March. Hopoate claimed in front of the panel of judges that he was simply attempting to give all three players "a wedgie"[3] with his fingers, denying he had done anything wrong and that he was "a great believer in what happens on the field should stay there"[4]. The three victims in the case, Cowboys players Glenn Morrison, Peter Jones and Paul Bowman all disagreed with the reasoning put forward by Hopoate and his team. Jones stated, "It wasn't a wedgie. That's when your pants are pulled up your ****. I think I know the difference between a wedgie and someone sticking their finger up my bum."[5] Bowman stated that he was "disgusted" and "couldn't believe it."[6] As a result of this incident, radio comedy duo Roy and HG referred to Hopoate as 'Stink Finger', until he began his professional boxing career when they changed this to 'Stink Fist'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hopoate#Controversy ----- If you do a runner and don't return, its all right, I understand :hysterical:

[achilles]

Don't shout!

[The Outsider]

COP THIS SHWETABH !!!!!

-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hopoate#Controversy ----- If you do a runner and don't return, its all right, I understand :hysterical:

Errr..... that's an incident from Rugby, is it not? I think you need to read some of my earlier posts again to look for examples in the sports you should be googling away. Or hone your reading and/or cognition skills.

[EnterTheVoid]

Errr..... that's an incident from Rugby' date=' is it not? I think you need to read some of my earlier posts again to look for examples in the sports you should be googling away. Or hone your reading and/or cognition skills.[/quote'] You provided a rude, crude analogy to which only a crude - er, ruder - er incident with irrefutable incident would do justice. To my understanding, players don't appreciate having someone else stick their finger up their ar.se' so please champion your ethics there, where its more needed.

[The Outsider]

You provided a rude, crude analogy to which only a crude - er, ruder - er incident with irrefutable incident would do justice. To my understanding, players don't appreciate having someone else stick their finger up their ar.se' so please champion your ethics there, where its more needed.

Ok.. please don't waste my or your time any further. It's pretty clear for anyone reading this thread in what sports I was looking at this analogy for and mentioned it clearly many times - sports like golf, chess, squash, majority of Olympic sports etc. These sports were mentioned explicitly on many occasions and you come in here with an example from Rugby, to prove your point. Even someone like me who has no interest in Rugby, would have guessed such incidents would have happened in Rugby. Champion my ethics in Rugby - this is a cricket forum and I don't even follow the damn game! I would much rather look at higher examples being set by other sports and try to emulate them rather than look into the gutter and feel good about cricket.

[EnterTheVoid]

Even someone like me who has no interest in Rugby' date=' would have guessed such incidents would have happened in Rugby. Champion my ethics in Rugby - this is a cricket forum and I don't even follow the damn game! I would much rather look at higher examples being set by other sports and try to emulate them rather than look into the gutter and feel good about cricket.[/quote'] Its a matter of principle. You claim that no other sport would tolerate such behavior to which the example I provided categorically refutes. Since the very title of your thread laments about the lack of morality of cricket and sports, its only reasonable to expect that after making mincemeat of ethics in cricket, you reciprocate the gesture to other sports. So, whats stopping you ?