Australian coach Darren Lehmann has had enough.
Not of losing (although I’m sure he feels he’s already had enough of that) and not of media attention on his players (although again, there’s been more than enough of that as well in since he took over the side in the lead-up to the First Test).
No, Lehmann has had enough of Australians fans being too nice towards their bitter rivals, and has urged Australians to give England hell as they approach our shores next summer. And in his mind, the vast majority of that attention should focus around Stuart Broa d—the man at the heart of the “walking” scandal at Trent Bridge.
“From my point of view, I just hope the Australian public give it to him right from the word go for the whole summer and I hope he cries and goes hope,” Lehmann said via Triple M.
“I just hope everyone gets stuck into him because the way he’s carried on and the way he’s commented in public about it is ridiculous.”
“I hope the public actually gets stuck into him.”
For most of Australia, the notion of making Broad’s life in Australia a living nightmare doesn’t seem all that difficult. After watching him single-handedly cost us the First Test and completely swing the momentum of the Ashes back to the home team (which as we’d soon see was pivotal in their retaining of the urn), picturing Broad as public enemy number one this summer really shouldn’t be that difficult.
However, there’s an underlying aspect of such a task that is far more difficult than just bagging Broad from the boundary line to the broadcasting box.
To get under the skin of the English, we’ve got to stand by the Aussies.
Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking — Dan, of course I support the Aussies. They’ve my team. They’re my country.
Then if that’s the case, we need to start acting like it.
Supporting the Aussies means more than just cheering them when we’re playing well. Supporting them — to the extent that Lehmann indirectly desires — means standing by them when they’re struggling. It means not allowing the Poms a single sniff of disunity or disapproval towards the 11 men on our screens.
England shouldn’t be able to pick up the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald or The Age or the Brisbane Times after the First Test and read that the Australian team is unravelling and fragile once more.
Regardless of what the outcome of the match might be; supporting our team and our country means not getting stuck into our own players like we would our opposition .
We can’t heckle Broad, and Warner. It simply won’t work, and it won’t get under the skin of the English like Lehmann hopes that it will.
To borrow an analogy from Queensland’s eight-year dominance in State of Origin, Caxton Street wouldn’t be such a difficult road for the Blues to travel down if every time Queensland lost a match, their own supporters turned on the team.
NSW wouldn’t have lost every series for the past eight years if playing in Queensland wasn’t such a difficult ask due to the environment that was created for them.
And while I’m not for a moment suggesting that one state’s fans are “greater” or “better” than the other, what I am saying is that that is the environment we need to set for the English when they come this summer.
Make them uncomfortable; make them think they can’t divide us. And then watch those 11 men out on the field do the rest.
Maybe it will work, and England won’t feel at all at home (which is somewhat ironic in light of the Commonwealth). But it will only work if we follow our attempts to “give the English hell” with a similar criticism and disapproval spell.
That doesn’t mean that we can’t point our shortcomings and try to address our failures. It doesn’t mean for a minute that we can’t put players under increased pressure when their performances aren’t up to scratch.
But what it does mean is that, at the end of the day, we back our players to the hilt. Both you—the reader—and I—the media—need to start there and figure out how to curb our criticism in order to best create a nightmare summer for England. And once we do, then we’ve got to go all guns blazing.
Stuart Broad shouldn’t be able to walk into a bar this summer without copping it from every direction. Though, then again, it’s not like he’d walk anyway.
94 days, England. We’re waiting…
laura
Guest
Couldn't agree more!
laura
Guest
Well said!
Daniel Eyre
Guest
LOL the day Broad moans about something that occurred a month before and blames losing the entire game on it, you can compare his sportsmanship to Lehmann's and other bad sport Aussies...
JimmyB
Guest
Fair enough mate, you're right it's a funny one really. In the cold light of day you can say that both are acts of cheating, but it seems anyone who has ever played cricket at the highest level only considers Ramdins act actual cheating ( except Michael Holding ). Go figure.
Hutch
Guest
Not at all ... it was not my intention to defend Ramdin. Lets assume, Broad knew he hit it and Ramdin that he lost control and regathered. The point I was trying to make is two players were happy to defer to umpires and let them make the decision. One player is deemed to be a "cheat" and punished the other not. Rightly or wrongly i find it very difficult to separate the two. There is no law forcing a batsmen to walk (is his right to stand and wait for the umpires decision) and as far as I'm aware there isn't a rule that prevents a fielder from asking the umpire to make the decision whether a catch was clean/fair. I think its the ICC that is at fault and if you going to enforce "spirit of cricket" parameters and boundaries need to be set and the sanctions/punishments standardised.
Upfromdown
Guest
Well pretty similar behaviour in my books. Jack the lad, poor losers - the cap fits both
Daniel Eyre
Guest
I would've thought the Ashes would now be down the list of sports items because it is now a dead rubber and has been something of a fizzer of a series. Broad is a bit of a Jack the Lad. Let me know when he's a bad loser like Lehmann.
Upfromdown
Guest
Ha! Me too.... the first 10 times, then much like Oi Oi Oi it got boring
JimmyB
Guest
It made me laugh.
Upfromdown
Guest
And ditto in Australia JimmyB when football/rugby etc is on. Pretty similar behaviour all round
JimmyB
Guest
Mate, the football season has started and the Ashes is sewn up, I'm afraid cricket will struggle for headlines until the next series starts and even then you'll have to turn in a good few pages before you find the cricket.
JimmyB
Guest
Hutch are you honestly saying that Ramdin didn't know he had dropped the ball and then regathered it? Because if you are, I can't take anything else you say seriously however much merit it may have.
Upfromdown
Guest
We will have to agree to disagree. If Broad has not been petty, obnoxious and weak (both on and off the field) then who has been? But again, like I said, we can match one incident against the other if you like. My point is both (and all countries) are pretty similar and sport is important. As I write this (I currently am in the UK) the BBC news is on and the 3rd story is "how British athletes use military technology to conquer the world". I also noted the Ashes day one update was about 4th in the sports items last night - something that us Aussies are always accused of is pushing bad sports news down the bottom of the list.
Daniel Eyre
Guest
Sure, sportsmen are often in the spotlight for bad behaviour in England and all over the world. Sportsmen are often limited people who're extraordinarily good at one thing (that will one day expire) and not good at much else in life and often they have deep insecurity issues. But the fact is that Australian society really seems to put sport on a pedestal (whilst placing less importance on other things) more than most nations. And so many top Australian sports people are plainly bad sports. This is not the same as being bad behaved off of the field. It is a matter of acting in a petty, obnoxious and weak manner on the sports field. Gloating winners and surly losers. This outbreak from Lehmann is typical. Clearly he has not thought this statement through rationally and in a highly unprofessional manner that says a lot about him personally he couldn't refrain from. Whether Broad is a cheat or not is irrelevant, either way for Lehmann it was something not appropriate for so many reasons.
upfromdown
Guest
The barmy army will "eat them up" but most Australians do not really care. For whatever reason (we know the English have their football chants) Australians just don't do it. However saying that I was at the SCG test in the last Ashes series and the Barmy Army had 2 chants - the standard barmy army (clap clap clap) and the Mitchell Johnson (bowls to the left etc) song. It was hardly inspiring or clever.
JimmyB
Guest
Read my post very slowly Sandy..it's a joke. Geez.
Sandy
Guest
Read Will's post slowly JB...who is he calling a bell end? The "is also" in my response will answer your question.
Hutch
Guest
100% upfromdown ... sporting prima donna's/ bad boys call them what you like comes with professional sport and the obscene amounts of money some of the are earning. Listing good ambassadors or role models would be a far harder task than listing the poor ones they are spread across all professional codes and nations. I will add however that while I think Lehman's comments are foolish and unnecessary ... Broad while acting within the rules set a very poor example standing as he did and made a mockery of the "spirit of cricket" that the IPL bangs on about and is a very poor ambassador for how cricket should be played in general, I reference you to his and Cooks stall tactics at Old Trafford when they were playing for light or how he openly questioned and showed dissent to the 3rd umpires decision when he ruled Eng's appeal for a Warner caught behind not out in the same test. The fact that Broad has avoided sanction by the ICC but a wicket keeper (Ramdin) cops a 2 match ban for claiming what he thought was a catch is ridiculous, the umpires referred the decision to the 3rd umpire at the time and that should have been the end of the matter. How the ICC appointed match referee can then judge that a keeper diving forward thinking he made a fair catch and getting it wrong has acted in contravention of the "Spirit of cricket" while someone guiding it to first slip and standing hasn't stinks of double standards by the ICC !! Ironically a Broad who handed out the ban the same Chris Broad that refused to walk when given out in Pakistan during his own test career and then a Broad who then committed the crime.
swerve
Guest
Lehmann is obviously a fool for calling for Australian fans to give Broad/England a hard time. 1. It was going to happen anyway. 2. Generally in the wit stakes Australia comes a very poor second to England. 3. The Barmy Army make Australian Fan atics look like fools. By and large Australian fans in Australia are pretty fair and the boorish behaviour of the "Hadlees a Wanker" brigade do more damage to therir own reputation than any touring side. The Barmy Army will eat them up. oi oi oi
swerve
Guest
+1