By Spiro Zavos
December 21st 2009 @ 5:43am
Related coverage
Shane Watson and Sulieman Benn are modern ‘flannelled fools’
Shane Watson celebrates a wicket - (AP Photo/Gautam Singh)
Rudyard Kipling wrote memorably about ‘the muddied oafs’ of rugby football and the ‘flannelled fools’ of cricket. The cricket part of the description sums up the behaviour of Shane Watson and Sulieman Benn in the Perth Test between Australia and the West Indies.
I have played and watched cricket for more decades than I care to remember in my anecdotage but I don’t recall a more obnoxious display of banshee exultation as that put on by the screaming Watson when he dismissed Chris Gayle in the second innings of the Test.
Watson’s arched body, primeval screaming, and his mad-eyed and contoured face, red and tight from over-the-top braying at the departing figure of the bemused Gayle, was an unforgettable and unacceptable image of the very ugly side of modern cricket.
If Gayle had turned around and whacked Watson across the ankles with his heavy bat I reckon that the applause would have resounded around the world.
It is nonsense that Watson was fined only 15 per cent of his match fee for his idiotic and potentially explosive (in inviting a ferocious re-joiner) behaviour.
At least Sulieman Benn has been suspended for a couple of matches, something that should have happened – at least – to Watson as well.
You had to feel sorry for Mitchell Johnson and Brad Haddin being punished for reacting to Benn’s mad-cap behaviour. It seemed to me that Johnson actually tried to get away from Benn when the West Indian was trying to put him down in a rugby tackle while he was trying to take a run.
Haddin’s gesture of pointing his bat at Benn after this incident seemed to be the epitome of restraint, in my opinion, given the unacceptable provocation Benn was intent of providing to the Australian batsman.
Both Benn and Watson have taken sledging to a level of aggravation where something really awful, perhaps a fist fight, is going to take place on the field when a player is provoked beyond his endurance.
This brings into the discussion the whole sordid business of sledging. Its defenders say that it is part of the game.
This is, of course, nonsense.
Up to the 1970s the only sledging you heard at cricket matches was from the crowd. And this form of sledging, as we know from the immortal Yabba whose bronze statue is placed in the seating at the SCG, was humourous and perceptive.
When Douglas Jardine wiped some flies from his face at the SCG, Yabba called out: ‘Jardine, leave our flies alone!’.
It was Ian Chappell, unfortunately, who brought in the tactic of sledging opponents to Test cricket. I say ‘unfortunately’ because Chappell was a terrific captain and batsman, and aside from the sledging, a dynamic force for good in Test cricket.
When, say, Richie Benaud dismissed a batsman, there was at most a quick clap of his hands and sometimes the quiet handshakes of his players. That was the way up to the modern era. Greg Matthews was one of the pioneers of over-exuberance when getting a wicket.
But now Watson has gone well beyond this. And has been given, at best, a slap on the wrist.
The next time someone behaves in a similar fashion the umpires should immediately ban him from bowling again in the innings, using ‘the spirit of cricket’ injunction as a justification.
As for the incessant sledging that leads towards the unacceptable Benn-like behaviour of physically engaging with an opposing player, the only remedy is to ban it entirely.
Stop the players from talking to each other, and you will stop the sledging and the chances of more Test players behaving like the two flannelled fools of Perth: Shane Watson and Sulieman Benn.
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Tragic said | December 21st 2009 @ 8:48am | Report comment
I’ve stopped watching cricket because of the likes of these fools. I recall countless incidents of childlike responses to ‘out’, and ‘not out’ decisions alike, and no longer feel the urge to turn on, for it would be an indirect endorsement of such embarrassing behaviour – typified by Watson’s “ha ha” 9 year old display that I caught in the news. It makes the Peter Roebuck style of cricket writing as a gallant and epic battle misplaced, as if it belongs in an era a couple of decades ago.
I haven’t stopped listening to the cricket on the radio though. At least the commentators haven’t become childish, and conduct their work with dignity, character, humour and insight. They must feel cheated that the sports stars they are covering have lost all of these traits.
kordova said | December 21st 2009 @ 11:17am | Report comment
is that the only reason you’ve stopped watching?
peter roebuck is reactionary to the extreme and mostly ends up with egg on his face…
Dave01 said | December 21st 2009 @ 11:41am | Report comment
This is a good article comenting on the amount or times Roebuck spends telling people what they “must” do
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/english_musted/
“……Beginning with Roebuck’s previous column, we now commence this season’s most exciting sporting challenge: THE GREAT PETER ROEBUCK SUMMER RUN MUSTER.
The rules are simple. Roebuck earns one run for each mention of “must” in his columns, with two bonus runs for a double mention in the same sentence and a bonus three should he manage a triple-must. “Must” in a headline is four runs and, in the unlikely event Roebuck directs a “must” at someone other than an Australian, he will earn six.
Will Roebuck strike a sparkling 50? Might he make it all the way to 100? Or will he bumble along to a mere 37, his first class average? Place your Run Muster estimate in comments. Contest to close the day after the final international match. There will be a prize.
Roebuck’s score so far from two columns: an impressive 12……”
Tragic said | December 21st 2009 @ 4:20pm | Report comment
Admittedly no, there are other reasons. But this is the primary reason. I enjoy the chat on the radio and detest the image-consciousness of the Australians on the television. Perhaps they forget themselves in the heat of the moment despite this consciousness. Other reasons include the boredom I have experienced listening to the commentators on tele, the over-reliance on the pictures and graphic gimmickry, and the gut wrenching commercials and branded nationalism (which no sport is free of). I also like to do other things when I listen to cricket – something that is a little more difficult when its on the tele.
Tragic said | December 21st 2009 @ 4:30pm | Report comment
Oh and Roebuck – I mention him because his writing style would often be something akin to the over-dramatic re-telling of an epic myth – something that befits neither the actual circumstances nor the era. His commentary is good on the radio though.
Tom said | December 21st 2009 @ 8:36pm | Report comment
I couldn’t believe his sanctimonious bleating on the radio about the Benn/Johnson/Haddin incident though. He was seemingly outraged Haddin got away with a lighter punishment than Benn, completely ignoring the fact that Benn started it, and as he himself pointed out, Haddin pleaded guilty whereas Benn did not.
Hugh Dillon said | December 21st 2009 @ 8:49am | Report comment
Spiro, my understanding (from some Sydney grade cricketers now in their 60s) is that Bobby Simpson introduced the nasty, hard-edged sledging that Ian Chappell & co developed into an art form and that the word “sledging” was coined on the 1964 tour of England captained by Simpson. I was told the etymology of the word but have now forgotten. It was an ugly development, of course, because Australia with players of the calibre of Lillee, Marsh, the two Chappells, Walters, Thomson, etc etc playing as mutes would still have dominated anyone else in that period.
Sadly, it showed that those people had little respect for the history and culture of the game. Keith Miller, in his marvellous book, Cricket at the Crossroads, wrote glowing tributes to his good friends Edrich, Compton, Godfrey Evans etc — they had all fought during the war and they all saw cricket as a game, not the form of war it has become, much less a form of politics by another means.
Manners and courtesies change over time too. I remember once seeing film of Jimmy Laker taking some of his 19 wickets in 1956 at Leeds (?). Each time he took a wicket the batsman would walk off without looking as though he had just received news of his mother’s death, the in-fielders would stroll up for a quiet word of congratulation and a modest handshake and Laker would scratch his mark on the turf again while he awaited his next victim. These were all men who had gone to war and had cricket in perspective, even on such an extraordinary occasion. Half of them probably had MCs, DFCs and Mentions in Despatches back in their wardrobes and didn’t need to behave like bipolar chimpanzees to prove their virility.
But a demonstration of pleasure in taking a wicket or scoring a ton canalso be a sign of respect for your opponents and the game. It’s all a matter of respect in the end — for the game especially. A pity Watson and Benn forgot that. Gayle summed it all up in his comments on Watson. What a put-down: “I didn’t expect any better from him…”
Rickety Knees said | December 21st 2009 @ 11:27am | Report comment
Good post Hugh.
War in many ways is a male rite-of-pasaage that pyschologically shifts a boy into being a man and better prepares him for the rigours of life. Many of the behavioural problems seen in modern male sports stars is that they have not made made the pyschological shift into manhood. You only have to look around and see many emotional juveniles wandering around in adult bodies in the wider community. The sad thing about this is their lack of ability to cope when life does get tough which often leads to substance abuse and/or depression and can lead to suicide. Suicide is the biggest killer of men between the ages of 15 and 50 and that does not include single driver deaths.
I always loved Keith Miller when asked about the stress of playing for Australia ” stress mate is having a Messerschmidt up your arse” – Keith was a WW2 fighter pilot
Dave01 said | December 21st 2009 @ 11:36am | Report comment
Richie Beanud seems to be pretty excited to get this wicket
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuDuBAKp1xQ
I read somewhere that clebrating wickets started with him
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhxIxIefwp8
BennO said | December 21st 2009 @ 11:55am | Report comment
It looks like Simpson juggled that catch a little, but the batsman was almost walking before Simpson had even landed on the ground. sigh. The good old days. And to be fair to Richie, it was a pretty amazing catch.
MrKistic said | December 21st 2009 @ 8:53am | Report comment
Haddin, who wasn’t involved in the incident, turning around to point his bat down the pitch and have a go at Benn was in fact unnecessary provocation – nothing at all to do with restraint. Johnson was unfortunate to be caught up in it and can be seen trying to avoid the whole mess. Haddin was incredibly lucky not to have been fined a lot more and perhaps should also have been suspended given that he went out of his way to get involved. His continued willingness to get involved in these incidents, on top of his excessive appealing and outright cheating against NZ last season, doesn’t suggest that anyone should feel sorry for him at all.
jake said | December 21st 2009 @ 9:16am | Report comment
Couldn’t agree more. Haddin and Watson are simply upholding the long and fine tradition of Aussie cricketing boorishness. No need to lament the loss of other such luminaries as Hughes, McGrath, Slater, Warne, and Hayden in this regard.
Jameswm said | December 21st 2009 @ 9:19am | Report comment
Slater?
Fisher Price said | December 21st 2009 @ 1:01pm | Report comment
Recall his abuse of Rahul Dravid in 2001?
Sportsmouth said | December 21st 2009 @ 9:43am | Report comment
Ok, Watson was over the top, but unless he’s been reprimanded before for a similar incidents then give him a slap on the wrist and say bad boy, if it happens again give him both barrells.
Haddin, excessive appealing? Well you can’t tell me he’s the only player in world cricket who realises that the best way to get a player out is to ask the umpire, regularly! Cheating, ever appealed for something and gotten a wicket, when it probably wasn’t out, but looked close? If he’s a cheat so is every cricketer who has appealed when it wasn’t out.
MrKistic said | December 21st 2009 @ 9:49am | Report comment
It’s true, if you don’t appeal you get nothing, it’s just those where it’s clearly not out and he still has a go. The cheating I was talking about was the whole gloves in front of the stumps incident in February – probably best not to bring that up again in hindsight!
Campbell Watts said | December 21st 2009 @ 12:03pm | Report comment
Mouthy,
Taking the bails off with your gloves in front of the stumps and claiming he was bowled IS CHEATING!!!
Chris said | December 21st 2009 @ 9:56am | Report comment
Watson did not deserve being banned for matches – yes he was over the top and obnoxious and perhaps should have lost 50% of his match fee. Gayle was a big wicket – everyone in the ground and watching the match felt it – I was pumped when they got him so I can’t say Watson’s reaction was totally out of context.
If Watson was so bad, how about the whole West Indies team carrying on like a bunch of cowboys hollering over dismissing a clearly injured Ricky Ponting at the end of day 3?
I personally don’t mind strong individual reactions (think LIllee), the team based ones are the obnoxious ones – if you recall the most memorable test of the last 10 years – the 2nd Ashes least in 2005, the universal memory of that was the Flintoff comforting a gutted Brett Lee – but the ugly part of that was the England team carrying on as a group.
Fisher Price said | December 21st 2009 @ 12:59pm | Report comment
NOT in his face they didn’t.
Andrew Logan said | December 21st 2009 @ 9:59am | Report comment
BTW….want to know where Watson learns this rubbish? Check out Ponting, partially obscured standing behind the stumps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-CHR_o8l4c
Warren said | December 21st 2009 @ 10:16am | Report comment
Andrew, that’s a great call, spot on.
BennO said | December 21st 2009 @ 12:01pm | Report comment
I’d like to see Ponting’s face before passing judgment on him, he might have been smiling at Watson (not sneering at Gayle) with some sort of in joke to stand still after a wicket. Or something.
But I agree, it looks pretty bad.
Mattay said | December 21st 2009 @ 8:43pm | Report comment
Look at his legs and the position his body is facing. Ponting is most definitely giving Gayle a send off and in my opinion his actions are worse than Watsons in that Ponting runs up to Gayle’s face, where as Watson appears to complete his follow through and do it where he lands.
Ponting’s hypocracy in his after match comments is also pathetic. Someone needs to pull him up on this:
“I know all the guys are a bit embarrassed probably, and know they’ve overstepped the mark,” Ponting said.
“It’s one of my responsibilities as the captain to make sure that guys aren’t overstepping the mark. This week when we get down to Melbourne as a group together it will happen in our first team meeting, we will go over some of the events of this week.”
Campbell Watts said | December 21st 2009 @ 12:10pm | Report comment
Pretty disgracefull all round,
Ponting has often struck me as a grumpy petulent player – but that was terrible even by his own standards! And he has the audacity to publicly tick off those players withour referencing his own sub-par behaviour.
Very poor form from an average-at best captain
But we’ve become acustom to poor behaviour from the aussies haven’t we??
Jim McDonald said | December 21st 2009 @ 10:26am | Report comment
Spiro, Years too late but your comment re Ian Chappell is absolutely correct. Such is the Chappell family legacy that when Adelaide upgrades the Oval ‘they’ should remove all traces of that family’s name.
For cricket fans unfortunately, the ‘Ugly Australian’ sobriquet is well earned.
Bunratty c said | December 21st 2009 @ 11:10am | Report comment
Completely agree Jim. Chappell’s continued insensitive boorish comments as a commentator should come as no surprise when someone posted that it was Chappell (Ian) who first instigated sledging! Can’t take the spots off a leopard it seems….
Bunratty c said | December 21st 2009 @ 11:15am | Report comment
oops, mentioned by Spiro above (viz Chappell)
Rickety Knees said | December 21st 2009 @ 10:49am | Report comment
On the money Spiro – Watson’s post wicket celebration of Gayle’s dismissal is the most boorish, juvenile and doltish behaviour that I have seen from a first class cricketer. From that point on in the match I was hoping that the West Indies would win just to teach these guys a lesson in humilty.
Australian Cricket is spiralling down into a mire and there is no end in sight with Ponting as captain, Hilditch as chairman selectors and Nielson as coach. Australian cricket will continue to regress as long as these three amigo’s continue to control the game.
Shahsan said | December 21st 2009 @ 10:55am | Report comment
What did you expect when you have someone like Ricky Ponting as captain?
This will only get worse, folks, and not just by Australia. And there is little anyone can do about it.
Darwin hammer said | December 21st 2009 @ 12:05pm | Report comment
How you can defend Hadden I’ve no idea – he inflamed the situation – he has become the most unlikable Australian cricketer in a very short time frame
Tom said | December 21st 2009 @ 12:26pm | Report comment
I totally agree that there was some very ordinary behaviour by a lot of players in the third test, and why Watson’s punishment is so much more lenient than Benn’s is a mystery to me, but it strikes me that the standards we set for cricketers are vastly different than for other sports.
I mean, if a defender in AFL turns the ball over and the opposition get a goal you’ll often see the opposition players get stuck into the defender. As far as I know, nobody’s been fined or suspended for that and I haven’t seen anyone calling for it.
Perhaps we should be careful not to get too dramatic when talking about player behaviour in cricket.
sittingbison said | December 21st 2009 @ 1:12pm | Report comment
it could be because he tackled, grabbed and tripped Johnson….
However I think Haddin Benn and Watson should all be stood down a TEST match (bugger the one dayers they did the crime in a test match). Also the Umpires should ban them from bowling for the rest of an innings – likewise it is because ‘chucking’ is deemed cheating and offensive that they are removed from the attack. This would quickly put a stop to it.
Fisher Price said | December 21st 2009 @ 12:51pm | Report comment
Haddin – restraint? Not sure about that. Even he admitted he was too animated.
nf_001 said | December 21st 2009 @ 1:08pm | Report comment
The only problem I have with Watsons outburst was that it was in the last innings of the series and didn’t allow the Windies the option to reciprocate his ‘enthusiasm’. Actions that add heat to the confrontation in test cricket only add to the theatre. Sure give them a slap on the wrist and take away part of their match payment but these battles within the match itself are essential to the game. It doesn’t need to happen every test but don’t deny that two test cricketers standing toe to toe, eye to eye ala Steve Waugh vs Curtly Ambrose and now Haddin vs Benn is not good viewing. Add in some sledging, well directed bounces. Marvelous. Watson just needs to pick the context for his outbursts, bring it on.
Campbell Watts said | December 21st 2009 @ 1:16pm | Report comment
Steve Waugh NEVER stood eye-to-eye with Ambrose….
Unless he was standing on a milk crate!!!!
Boom boom!!
sittingbison said | December 21st 2009 @ 1:21pm | Report comment
Sorry I disagree that is the “only” problem with his outburst.
Test cricket is a ‘test’ of character and mettle, where hard players must perform for 5 days. We all like to see players on the edge, it shows they care. Watsons celebration was the antithesis, graceless insulting and childish. Sure getting Gayle out was key but does not excuse that reaction. The guy has just scored one of the greatest centuries in test history, and Watson has not shown anything in his many opportunities to indicate he is anywhere near the caliber needed for test cricket. Show some class please.
mattamkII said | December 21st 2009 @ 9:06pm | Report comment
I have said on this forum before… I am a very very proud Australian who actually dislikes our cricket team because of the child like, spoilt bratt and pratt like attitude of Ponting and Co.
The footage of Watson and Ponting running in and acting like 7 year olds makes me sick in the stomach for my countries reputation.
whiteline said | December 22nd 2009 @ 1:27am | Report comment
Ponting, Watson and Haddin are all bogans. Bring on the day when we have a strong, educated and diplomatic leader, Mark Taylor style.
Dave01 said | December 24th 2009 @ 7:28pm | Report comment
“educated”???
No I don’t think it’s necessary at all to have a degree in surveying like Taylor, to captain Australia.
Alex Moore said | December 22nd 2009 @ 10:56am | Report comment
Certainly the game can no longer be said to be “the Gentlemen’s game.” Australia have certainly been at the forefront of it in recent memory.
Brett Lee’s heel clicking jumps after a wicket, is one example which infuriates me. But what about Andrew Flintoff’s hands in the glorious air celebrations? Or Akhtar’s runs around the pitch? Watson is just another version of this.
I think it comes back to players appealing. It’s one side of the game that is traditional but is now more an intimidatory measure. And don’t get me started in the new review system.
As soon as you have nicknames n the back of players shirts I’m sure it is the 1st sign of the Cricket apocalypse.
whiteline said | December 24th 2009 @ 9:21pm | Report comment
“Educated” doesn’t mean having a degree Davo. Steve Waugh hasn’t a uni degree but he has learned about different cultures and people, allowed himself to mix with a variety of groups and formed a rounded view on the world and life.
“Strong” – Has the qualities to abide by his staed principles and doesn’t kick with the breeze when it suits
“Diplomatic” – Has the capacity to see all sides of a story and act accordingly (India vs Australia series in 07/08 was a classic example from our great leader of a lack of diplomacy).
So there you go daveo1, nothing to do with whether you go to school at Bankstown High or Scotch College but a lot to do with what you make of yourself when the opportunity presents.
Dave said | December 26th 2009 @ 7:38pm | Report comment
Couldn’t agrree more about the disgraceful behaviour shown by Watson!!! What a T@#$$%!!!
I got no problem with celebrating a wicket but that was crossing the line!! I was embarressed for Watson… don’t worry Chris- most Aussies are good sports!!!
Isn’t it funny how karma works in the world…today Watson got run out when starring at his first century!!!!! I was runnung around my lounge room in fits of laughter and punching the air when he was given out…. a bit like how he acted when taking Gayle’s wicket..
Sportsmouth said | December 29th 2009 @ 8:42am | Report comment
So Dave,
you are no better then Watson!
Dave1 said | January 10th 2010 @ 4:52pm | Report comment
Your right
he does sound a bit like Watson.