Comments on: Symonds way off the mark, yet again

By: Guy Smiley

Guy Smiley — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:13:12 +0000

Savvas I wasn’t aiming for xenophobia in my post. There is no Australian ‘look’ anymore unless you mean aborigines. And not sure what Ron Bakir has to with sport.

Filbee you make a good point about Tanvir & Gul, Symonds would never have chosen those two as targets.

All up Symonds was probably just having a bit of a laugh and whilst I wasn’t personally offended by it and neither it seems was McCullum I am just sick of the term un-Australian. It’s a cop-out like and a lazy soundbite that continues to generate headlines. No problem with him having a few beers but his track record indicates that he does.

By: drewster

drewster — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:57:40 +0000

Aren’t we taking the “un Australian” slur a bit too far? After all we live in a multi cultural society and a democracy, So people are entiltled to their opinion and being Australian has different meanings to different people. A Queenslander bagging NSW in any sport has been going on for ages and McCullum was made an honorary ‘Blue bagger” for a day. The comments were out of line, No question about that, But if McCullum Doesn’t care about it why are we taking such offence to it?
We should all be laughing at Symonds (not with him) and saying “Symonds You Idiot”.
PS Would love to be a fly out in the middle if Symonds plays against the Kiwis in any of the one dayers coming up. I bet there will be a few “un Australian” comments thrown around then.

By: onside

onside — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:28:40 +0000

If you want to experience the essence of Australian values go to Schoolies Week on the Gold Coast.
Young people that go to schools often professing pragmatic if not spiritual Christian values spent a week
getting dreadfully drunk,dropping pills,and ‘hooking up’ (shagging for the uninitiated). The Salvation Army
run vomit tents .Attendants place extra long hairpins in the hair of young girls to keep it out of their face
when they spew in recepticles. All this with the tacit approval of parents that fund the ‘rite of passage’

The Australian sporting public often lament the lack of a ‘grog’ culture in some cricket teams from countries
with alternate values and morality systems to their own.

Lets not get too precious about Symonds.The cornerstone of Australian sport is alchohol. Its a drug.

Me? I’m a pony shandy off the horrors, and I wish I was young enough to go to Scoolies Week.

By: fillbee

fillbee — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:22:38 +0000

The McCullum thing is a little over blown since South Australia had Younis Khan and Sohail Tanvir (Pakistani test players) playing in thier team for more than one game and another Pakistani test player Umar Gul plying his trade in Western Australia.
Sorry Andrew, you made a very bad mistake.

By: onside

onside — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:04:21 +0000

And whilst people pontificate, Shane Warne ,the Grand Wizard of common decency
and family values laughs at us daily from the siteboards at all major cricket venues.
Sponsored of course by a brewery.Its hair raising.

By: Papa Romeo

Papa Romeo — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:05:08 +0000

It is dead-set unAustralian to say that use of the word unAustralian is unAustralian!

“The term itself has become so meaningless as to be all but useless.”
Almost.
Replace ‘has become’ with ‘is’ (and possibly ‘and always has been’) and strike out ‘all but’ and you have hit the nail very squarely on the head.

Can we move on now?

By: sunshinecoaster

sunshinecoaster — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:35:33 +0000

It does appear Symonds spends alot of time worrying about how to act Australian,look Australian and talk Australian,i guess the white zinc cream is another pointer to that,he wears it for games at night under the roof,not sure what all thats about.Maybe you have hit on something there Savvas,we know he wasnt born here so maybe there is something deep inside trying to prove hes a fair dikum aussie,either way he just comes off looking like a walking cliche

By: LeftArmSpinner

LeftArmSpinner — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:31:14 +0000

Symonds is in serious trouble, make no bones about it. drinking problems cannot be hidden. they have the habit of raising their ugly head at the most inopportune times. Team meetings, press interviews etc.

he needs professional help from someone who realises that cricket is just a game, and at the top level, only able to be played by players who are completely healthy in mind and body.Symonds in neither.

By: The Cougar

The Cougar — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:30:42 +0000

What are “un-Australian” looks, Savvas?
Should we all look the same? Perhaps we can clone a few Ricky Pontings, a few Shane Warnes and a few Glenn McGraths to play Test cricket for Australia.
Then we can then insert them with specifically designed sports cliche software, programming them all to give the same response to the same questions.
We can call them the Australian Test Droid XI.