Perhaps it’s the forgiving spirit of Christmas, but there’s still no outrage about the Pat Cummins first-ball bouncer that greeted and felled Jimmy Anderson in the Perth Ashes Test.
Maybe it’s because the personable Cummins can’t be cast as Bad Guy No.1, as the belligerent Jon Snow could be after he felled Terry Jenner in the Sydney Test of the 1970-71 Ashes series.
Or as the menacing Curtly Ambrose could be when he menaced and was typecast for the West Indies.
And Cummins could always fall back on the eternal defence “I was just following orders”, as he no doubt was with his ridiculous bouncer-laden first over on the final day of the Perth Test.
Bouncers on demand is the Australian way now they’ve got the unchallenged firepower, and it’s a long time since the fast bowlers’ union decreed no bouncers at tailenders.
Still, there’s got to be a classier, less dangerous way of asserting dominance over an England suffering mental disintegration, to use Steve Waugh’s words, and disintegrating without any need for the sledging Waugh was referring to as a tactic, though it’s used.
The Cummins exclamation point has been a long time coming, and it is an extra exclamation point.
The ugly Australian approach seemed to have reached it’s logical end, decades in the making, when Steve Waugh was the first football captain of an Australian cricket team.
Like a footballer who is well-mannered, well-spoken and kind to little old ladies but who suffers white-line fever when he runs over the sideline and on to the field, Waugh was a ruthless, belligerent and fearless captain on the field.
The image of his standing mid-pitch and toe to toe and arguing with the towering Ambrose is not forgotten.
And like that Jekyll-and-Hyde footballer, the articulate Waugh has pursued humanitarian good works and a creative life of writing and photography off it.
The footballer tradition has been continued in the unlikely form of Aussie captain Steve Smith, who looks like a 15-year-old playing with the big boys.
When Smith is 50 he’ll still look 15.
It was once said Peter Burge was the most representative of Australian players, who seemed to walk out to bat with an invisible Australian flag trailing behind him.
Smith seems to walk out to bat with an invisible trail of snot behind him.
At the crease, he seems like he’s constantly drawing back runny, adolescent snot.
He’s the kid who’s going to show the bullies, and himself, he can out-tough and outlast them.
And he does.
Beyond the ridiculous Bradman comparisons, he’s a freakish, unique stylist. Try holding the bat the way he does at home and playing offside shots. Wrist broken and point proven.
Criticisms of short-pitched bowling can be overstated.
There was more criticism of the fearsome West Indies quartets from without the playing ranks than within.
Dennis Lillee struggled to take wickets on the sub-continent. The West Indies quartets were just as dominant there where the bouncer wasn’t the same weapon on plum-pudding wickets.
The Australian fast-bowling attack has considerable skill.
Mitchell Starc can produce unplayable balls of several varieties; Josh Hazelwood is the closest to Anderson in style, with his ability to combine Glenn McGrath accuracy with seam and swing, but bowls 5km-10km faster than Anderson.
The difference is crucial.
Cummins has the makings, and can be much more than an enforcer but he’s being held back while not holding back.
The Australians have proven their superiority to the Poms, but it’s a hollow superiority when you can boast about terrorising seven, eight, nine, 10, jack.
Smith has proven he may look 15 but he’s better than all the bigger boys but it’s time to aim for something better.
Anderson might be one of the least-likeable of the bigger boys but that’s no justification for the short-pitched missile that left a literal mark on him.
It’s not cricket: that used to mean a lack of fair play.
Too many more balls like that marked with Anderson’s name, and Smith might ask ‘was it worth it? Is all fair in this war?’
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