Poor behaviour setting standards for youngsters

The following is a more formal article written as school work, hence the extra information rather than my usual linking:

Footballers, let’s face facts, are lousy role models. This week they proved that further, as bad boy Brendan Fevola added another rap to his already long list of misdemeanours, when he ‘opened fire’ in a different way, urinating on a nightclub window, on his way home.

Fevola was hit with a slap on the wrist, with a bunch of threats and a fine being sent his way, which looked even poorer compared with Geelong bad boy Steve Johnson’s behaviour last year, when he was suspended for 5 weeks, told to train with the reserves and banned from drinking alcohol for an entire year after being arrested for public drunkenness in Johnson’s third alcohol related incident. In Johnson’s case, the message got across, as he was named in the All Australian team, and won himself a Norm Smith medal for best on ground in the Grand Final, and a premiership medallion with his fellow Geelong players. In Fevola’s case, it failed to discourage others.

Just 6 days later, Richmond captain Kane Johnson found himself around the corner from his house, decided he was busting, and unzipped his pants and urinated outside his local police station. This time, Johnson offered to impose a suspension upon himself, which his leaders accepted.

The mere fact that players, who happen to be heroes for many children and adolescents, are walking around urinating in public places is bad enough. Then consider the fact that some of them see fit to do so around the corner from their own houses instead of returning home. Then add to that the location on Johnson’s ‘accident’ being a police station. And finally, you have the fact that two of them did so within a single week. What does this all come to? Bad examples.

Fevola’s history, along with several others, is less than squeaky clean. Household names such as Johnson (both Steve and Kane), Fevola, Farmer (former Melbourne forward Jeff, now with Fremantle, who has been arrested three times for assault, and once for smashing a car window), Whitnall (ex-Carlton skipper Lance, who was involved in a highly publicised family feud), Gehrig (St. Kilda veteran Fraser who once allegedly urinated, of all places, on a woman), and several members of the West Coast team; former star Ben Cousins who has been arrested for drunk driving and running from a booze bus, and found himself in heat for fighting with team-mate Daniel Kerr, for alleged involvement with underworld figures (along with fellow Eagles player Michael Gardiner) and for taking illicit drugs; Daniel Kerr, who has been arrested 3 times for assault twice and for forging a prescription, and he was also found to be having a conversation with a convicted drug dealer regarding a ‘big bag of horse chaff’ (recorded words), have all been in trouble with the law. Additionally, Michael Gardiner (mentioned above for involvement with underworld figures), and was later involved in a car crash and also implicated in the Cousins booze bus incident. In fact, there were more than 25 controversial incidents in AFL during 2007. More recently, former North Melbourne legend Wayne Carey was arrested in Los Angeles for assaulting police officers, and Collingwood forward Alan Didak was questioned over involvement with the arrested Christopher Wayne Hudson, accused of being the ‘Melbourne CBD shootings’ gunman in late 2007.

The list goes on forever, and several sexual assault charges have popped up recently. The truth is, no one expects footballers to be perfect. Why should we? They are just human beings after all! The point, however, is that they are too far from it. As much as teenagers try to deny it, they are very impressionable. Many point to parents as major influences, but most of them are doing their best and failing because kids are more likely to listen to those in positions that they wish to one day be a part of. Kids see adults as trying to shoot them down, to control them and to hold on to them, whilst 20-something year olds are the sum of most of the party teens’ short term aspirations, and many teenagers look at inconsequential punishments for things such as taking illicit drugs to mean that it’s possible to drink, sniff and kick (footballs) all in one career. If Ben Cousins can do it, why can’t I? The fact that Cousins was later sacked was a win for football’s reputation.

In a time when the government is trying desperately to curb the drinking binges that youngsters have been going on frequently, the rolling door of alcohol(and drug)-related incidents is a backwards. Footballers need to start taking accountability. It’s one thing to say that footballers are just humans and can’t be role models but it’s another to allow them to break the law. No one is asking them to stop having fun, but allowing them to make asses of themselves in violation of state and capital law is not exactly reasonable.

Footballers need more education, and harsher penalties. A mandatory ‘strikes’ policy must be implemented: whenever a player is found guilty of an illegal offence, he must be penalised. Otherwise, the sport’s integrity will be lost further, and kids will continue to get the wrong idea. Punishment is not just about inconvenience for offenders; it’s also about setting an example. Why should teenagers, at a tender age of innocence and misunderstanding, be expected to take accountability for themselves, if the mature adults can’t be accountable for themselves?

Footballers need to stop acting immature and start acting like what they are: adults. Forget being a role model for kids for a minute, and just act like a lawful human being. Do it for yourselves, if not for the others who are following your lead. Then maybe we can get some responsibility coming from us misguided teens.

Meanwhile in the West...

For a blog that is barely being read, it seems a bit strange for me to write three posts in a single week, but these wayward kicks (hence the blog name) keep presenting themselves!

Yesterday the West Indies cricket board announced that it would avoid being so overbearing as to block its three best players from staying in India rather than returning home to help the national side fend off Australia. Congratulations Donald Peters (CEO of the West Indies Cricket Board), you have won my bozo of the week. In fact, you have won yourself a nomination for a more significant all time bozo award. In a week that Jeff Fenech announced he was going to come out of retirement, Anthony Mundine scheduled yet another fight against Sam Soliman, and Wayne Carey put himself on the front cover of a tabloid magazine to admit a drug problem and to apologise to the public, in an attempt to slow down his incredible knack of losing all the respect he had about about a month or two ago, Dr. Peters (which has me thinking about entering one of those free instant diploma scams since it clearly does help) wins the cake.

Now that we've got that incredibly irrelevant rant/newsreel out of the way, let's just recap. The Indian Premier League is a franchised competition where independent business buy teams and players for millions of USD, all to play in a month-long Twenty20 carnival. Now of course, you may be thinking to yourself, 'but that's not cricket, I thought that cricket was the only world sport to actually care about its international game rather than just cash!" Stop right there, because the IPL (Indian Premier League) organisers had it all worked out! The IPL will NOT take over international cricket, because all the cricket boards would have to sign a no objection form to clear players to participate, especially during international games! So Dr. Peters, congratulations on making this agreement obsolete, and for being a complete idiot while you're at it. Let's review why he cleared them to play:

One option available to the WICB is to refuse to allow the players to go - they need No Objection Certificates from the board before being allowed to play abroad - but that is a route he does not want to go down. "I have the NOCs for the players, and I have to release the players, but I am not going to not release the players because they would go anyway," he told The Gleaner. "Given the amount of money involved, it certainly destabilises the infrastructure of cricket. It's not fair to the players, and it's not fair to the national teams. But this is capitalism at its best, free market enterprise at its best, and we now instead of crying have to find a way to make it work, so that we win, and they win. But right now we are losing."

Let's sum it up for you Dr. Peters since you've failed to get the message: Tournament rules dictate that no players can play without permission from their board. You don't want your players to play, but you're clearing them anyway because they'll go anyway. Dr. Peters, did you get your business degree at the same place that Wayne Carey got his latest stash?

As for the long term implications, I'm glad to read that Dr. Peters has expressed a desire to rectify this problem, and is aware of it. He must have been partying with Collingwood staff recently, because the Pies know all about complaining about problems that they created themselves. Had the Windies blocked Gayle, Chanderpaul and Sarwan from playing in the middle of the Aussie tour, and the three players decided to go anyway, the IPL would have been forced to either boycott its own rules, or to turn away the players. In the case that they had chosen the former, it would have caused a split of the boards, which would have looked something like India v Every other test nation, because we all know how much international sides of all sports love it when their players threaten to boycott international games for domestic commitments, in which case the ICC would have been forced to take action against the league or players, and the entire problem would have been avoided permanently, because no matter how far the ICC is willing to bend over backwards for India, it's unlikely that they would have opposed a motion where 9 members vote for it and 1 votes against.

Instead, Dr. Peters has opened a Pandora's Box and has sat on his hands while it threatens the very fabrics of international cricket. Oh well, at least when we look back in 20 years' time at the death of test and 50 over cricket, and of international cricket, as an even shorter 10 over match makes Twenty20 look boring and as the Indian Premier League is as even as the English Premier League in soccer where the poorest sides always lose and the 'big 4' win everything, we can at least comfort ourselves with the fact that our cricketers are now making more money than they ever possibly needed. Maybe they'll even donate it to charity. One only wishes that it wasn't up to the players to do that, and instead up to the multi-billionaires living in the middle of overpopulated countries with high poverty and disease, instead of going to a bunch of guys who hit leather balls with willow bats for a living.

Bring on the new world order!

Pakistani pullout was sensible

It seems that every man and his dog has an opinion on whether Australia should have pulled out of its tour of Pakistan or not, so I suppose it's only fair to give mine.

Critics have come from far and wide, arguing about the precedents that the Aussie pullout will set, and of course the obvious fact that Australians will be safe. Perfectly reasonable, us Australians are loved worldwide at the moment, aren't we? Only last year Al-Qaeda threatened to bomb Australia, and what better way to advance their cause and seem more serious than to kill off the pride of the country, its cricket team? Surely they thought that through a little more!

Imran Khan was the latest in a long line of critics, the Pakistani cricket turned sex symbol turned politician throwing his hat into the fray, repeating what everyone else in Pakistan has said. He blamed Pervez Musharraf for the political instability; that's a surprise, dictatorships rarely end in fighting and uprising, do they? On the other hand, he made a more interesting point:

"People feel the Australians are unjustified in pulling out, but Australia's decision is understandable as everything that happens in Pakistan is magnified to larger proportions abroad," Imran said. "Australians don't live here and they don't know that bombings are not aimed at sportsmen but terrorists' targets are specific. No one has ever targeted sportsmen in Pakistan."

Which brings me back to my original point that Australians are about as popular in the cricketing world as neo-nazism is to just about everyone else. Ignoring that fact, let's look at the overreaction issue. Bombs are going off in Pakistan. People's lives are in danger. There is political unrest. Magnifying an issue like that is all very well to criticise, but again, people are dying. Terrorists have assassinated the opposition leader. If there is anything here that isn't worth magnifying, let me know!

Of course Australia could worry about the precedent it is setting, but do we honestly think that what other people think and do is so important that we should risk our cricketers' lives for it? Even Andrew Symonds, the binge drinking tough guy who trained with the Broncos (although I never thought much of rugby league players) who is happy to go after streakers with shoulder charges, didn't want to tour their. In fact, he almost refused to go regardless of the outcome of the inquiry.

As far as I'm concerned, the only negative here is that players are too concerned about playing in the Indian Premier League during the cancelled tour's dates. But that's another story for another time!

From one silly season to another

Summer is a time for sunshine, picnics, parties and holidays. Sport is an important part too, but cricket is generally the break for Aussies from the rigours of football (whether it be AFL or Rugby) season, a chance to sit back, relax and enjoy some relaxing entertainment; can of beer in one hand, and an outstretched finger in the other, to soak in the sun and catch some runs.

So why is this night different from all other nights, ask those who have heard a lot of noise and a little of cricket. The simple answer is, this time, someone fought back. Not just in the cricket either, it would be one thing if Australia had just been outplayed on the field for the first time in 3 years, but the fightback also came off the field. For once, the foul mouthed Aussies had someone spitting in the other direction. It wasn't just whitewash predictions from the fast bowlers and stick it up their ass calls from the batsmen, because this time the opposition were not to be outdone, in fact quite the contrary!

Had it come out to just play cricket, India would have been respected greatly. Australia had not lost or drawn a test since 2005, but India forced them to suffer one of each in the space of 2 games, and then made the World Champions look like amateurs by winning the Tri Series finals 2-0 for the second year in a row. But it was one veteran spinner's war of words that dominated the tour, from the phantom 'monkey' taunt, to the constant 'I don't like them either' responses and cheap Indian pride stunts performed by the 12th Man (yes we're talking about Harbhajan again), not to mention the increasing amounts of spectators getting ejected. On face value, it sounds a lot like scenes from federal Parliament but this is cricket, the way the Aussies like to play it: aggressively. Their other favourite component is success, but we all know what happened to that one. However, India managed to drag themselves down to the Australian level, and lost a lot of respect as a result. Even youngster Ishant Sharma was seen puffing his chest and acting like a much more experienced bowler than he really is. All this isn't to say that the Australians are any better, they aren't, but that doesn't mean that India must try its hardest to be liked even less.

Despite the poor sportsmanship all round, some pretty good cricket was seen all round, but it wasn't enough to stop the sighs of relief erupting all around as cricket season finally came to a close, and football season made its way back in.

Though AFL's preseason is already completed, domestic cricket reaches its pinnacle this week when Victoria takes on New South Wales at the SCG in the final of the Pura Cup. New South Wales will celebrate the achievement of coming first by dropping its entire pace attack for three international players, including one who has played two matches all season for them, and taken one wicket all up (including a wicketless Pura Cup match). Now don't get me wrong, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Nathan Bracken (Michael Clarke is also coming back from international duty) are all fantastic players, but to drop the players who got them there in the first place is a big slap in the face for their hard working youngsters. "Get out there and play your best cricket, but no matter how well you play, you'll still be dropped if our Aussie internationals are available," seems to be the message. Mark Cameron was last year dropped for the Pura Cup final when Matthew Nicholson returned from injury, despite taking 5 wickets against Tasmania a fortnight earlier, and he will now be dropped for Lee and co. despite having taken 27 wickets this season at 17.51. Two years in a row the promising 27 year old has had his confidence shattered, which reminds me of the time Victorian skipper Paul Reiffel declared with Michael Klinger on 99 a few years back. It promises to be an exciting clash though, with the star studded New South Wales team taking on a more settled but less spectacular Victorian side.

Of course, no AFL pre season competition is complete without cries of not trying/caring, and a fair bit of controversy to back it up, but this year's reached new heights when Swans coach Paul Roos was accused by the AFL of deliberately throwing a match. Perish the thought! A team not trying their hardest? Now that's a new issue in football! Of course this is a bit more serious than a team not trying their hardest, but is less serious than a team tanking most of the latter half of the season.

Sanity prevailed of course, and Roos was found not guilty, but it didn't stop the conspiracy theories from Roos, who claimed that the AFL hates him, ever since they called the swans 'ugly ducklings' several weeks before they ended up winning the premiership. Apparently Andrew Demetriou and co are out to get him. Get a ticket and wait in line please Paul.