Ritchie apologises for luncheon comments

Well, I guess the good news is that surely CA cannot book that moron again for any speeches.

Vas, certainly I'm in 100% agreement with what you say! For all my disquiet on CA's role in this (hopefully isolated) case, I agree that they have made some progress in being more inclusive and trust they'll continue on the path of inclusion.

As you can tell by name Quality, I am not of an Anglo or European background. But even as a migrant, I grew up loving the Australian cricket team, as the team had my heroes in the Waugh brothers, plus players like Warne and McGrath that all young people can emulate in the backyard. CA's attitude towards this is slow, but is indicative of the old white boys club that has controlled the game on our shores for so long. However, that mentality is changing slowly. Thankfully, Usman Khawaja's selection was not a token gesture, and has inspired Muslims across Australia that they can wear a baggy green one day. Of course, countries like England and South Africa have been far quicker to embrace a multicultural aspect to their team. However, one will argue England had centuries of colonial persecution to make up for, while South Africa's coloured quota policy was clearly a mark of tokenism as a result of apartheid. Australia will one day shed its image of the white boys club, but it takes time. For the time being, I will be happy if they keep bigots like Greg Ritchie confined to the sidelines where they belong.

Vas, while agreeing with your sentiments, the real issue to me is not Greg Ritchie because it may be too late for Ritchie to change who he is. As geoffo suggested the really sad thing is how Cricket Australia (and/or the State Associations), a board with a pretty poor history of engaging with ethnic groups and indigenous Australia compared to other sporting bodies, didn't have the judgement within their organisation to realise that allowing Ritchie to spout his nonsense at their functions reflects badly on them and makes the sport appear uninclusive to the public. There really should have been alarm bells ringing in CA about this a long time ago, as it was it took bad media publicity to move them into action.

The depressing notion is that in the eyes of someone like Greg Ritchie, is that a player like Usman Khawaja is less deserving of his place in the Australian team merely because he is a Muslim (who are not Ritchie's "favourite people of choice"). I don't know if anyone noticed last year, but when Khawaja played for the Test team in SL and SA, he was wearing the away kit that has the VB logo on it. As a Muslim, alcohol or the promotion of alcohol is haram (forbidden), but Khawaja chose to wear it anyway. Not sure whether that is because he either is a non-practising Muslim, or he did it to not ostracise himself from his teammates. Point is, he showed more willingness to try and bridge that gap, while an idiot like Ritchie only serves to try and separate it again into a stupid idea of "us" and "them". With the Aus government yesterday approving the permanent visa application of Melbourne club leg spinner Fawad Ahmed (a refugee escaping persecution in northern Pakistan for promoting Western values such as education of girls), hopefully the team can be a mix of colours based on merit, and ostracise bigots like Ritchie to the sidelines.

The fact that this bloke has been invited to 500 lunches with the racist garbage that he sprouts is the most depressing thing of all.

Exactly Vas. Ritchie just doesn't get it. Just because he made a crude gag at a sportsmen's lunch 20 years ago, doesn't mean it's ok now (or even then). I spend a lot of time in Sth Afrrica. In Australia, we do not have an equivalent for the k-word. It is an appalling word that no paper would even put into print, such are its awful historic connotations. Ritchie's inability to realise that (esp when he uses it for "comedic purposes") is quite pathetic.

Ritchie's apology minus PR rubbish: ******* "I have spoken at sporting functions for nearly 30 years. I've been doing the same material over and over, and if people want to be offended by that, then that's their choice, not mine," Ritchie wanted to say. "If I offended anyone in my speeches at the Brisbane Convention Centre last week, or at my two speeches at the Gabba and the two subsequent very short phone calls with journalists, I am extremely sorry that you can't take a xenophobic and racist joke with a pinch of salt.” In addition, Ritchie added that he wished Cricket Australia to return him to the speaking circuit. "I mean, really. What's happening to Australia these days when you can't racially abuse someone?" *** ALL COMMENTS ABOVE ARE INTENDED AS SATIRE AND ARE IN NO WAY TO BE TAKEN AS OFFICIAL FROM GREG RITCHIE OR ANYONE AT CRICKET AUSTRALIA ***