While England may be trailing in the overall scoreline at the end of two Test matches, they might have just jumped ahead in the psychological warfare that is a long Test series.
After a rain-hit yet absorbing five days at Lord’s, there is hardly a time to sit down, take stock and ice your heads until your back out in the middle at Leeds on Thursday.
The players are out here to play. Steve Smith is back dominating world cricket with his bat and his many different leaves and swats.
Pat Cummins is bowling like the world’s No 1 Test bowler. Stuart Broad is doing what he does in English conditions and take wickets for fun and Ben Stokes looks like he is making up for lost time making a stamp on this series after missing the last one own under.
How can the Aussies bring back that winning feeling without Steve Smith? (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Jofra Archer has also finally arrived on the Test scene, waltzing in and bowling rockets and taking on the role as the new enforcer in the England team like a duck to water.
So while the cricket is great and we’re set for a whirlwind few weeks with three Ashes Tests and a county game crammed into the next four weeks, there’s just one element to the whole series that continues to linger.
It was there all the way through the World Cup, been a feature at both Edgbaston and Lord’s and will no doubt be there again at Leeds, Old Trafford and then back at The Oval.
It is often said that live sport is the greatest reality TV and the banter and byplay between competitors and spectators add to the narrative of the battle that’s taking place.
Booing is part of sport. We sit in the outer and its the first thing (other than possibly an expletive) that comes out of our mouths to voice our disgust with a particular decision.
Or when a player that has performed an act of treason in swapping clubs or may have been involved in foul play during a previous meeting, it’s just a natural noise that rings around to voice disgust or how we feel about it.
It’s ok to boo. It’s ok to jeer and it’s ok to label someone as the villain. But these things can tip over the edge within a matter of choice moments.
During that brilliant spell of bowling, such as the one that occurred during the middle session on Saturday Afternoon at Lord’s, we had one of those moments which risks marring the remainder of the series.
When Steve Smith courageously walked back through the long room and back out onto Lord’s to resume his innings, the reception he received was expected, yet a the same time distasteful and borderline disgraceful.
Expected because he is Steve Smith – the pantomime villain. He is one of three bad boys on tour and the best batsman in the world and the one person who is standing in the way of England taking back the little urn.
Why? Because he is so good. Not to mention recent history and actions that will live with him forever. But to listen to the reception he received when he walked back out to bat from a section of the Lord’s crowd has the ability to mar what is turning into a phenomenal Test series and an Ashes series that will be remembered forever.
Australia’s Steve Smith. (Photo by John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)
You know its escalating to extremely distasteful levels when not only Prime Minister of Australia and the British Sports Minister come out and slam the behaviour.
Considering some of the things Scott Morrison has been caught participating in at Sharks games that’s pretty surprising coming from him. But when a member of the most exclusive Cricket Club in the world gets thrown out and temporarily banned because of his vile language and abuse in a room that claps and cheers, then we have a problem.
The booing is nowhere near the nature of what the Australian football community did to Adam Goodes – i.e. how they booed him away from the game and into early retirement – this doesn’t have the same racist undertones to it.
Smith will continue to bat on and the likes of Cam Bancroft, Dave Warner and the rest of the Australian team will be subjected to the fun-loving nature of the English crowds, the UK public needs to be aware that as much as they want to give it, and it is perfectly fine to do so, there is a line and a threshold of knowing what is acceptable – and what is not.
Sport is not universally positive and nor should it be. Just like any form of entertainment, there’s a mix of emotion bubbling away.
It’s raw and often unfiltered. Some of it is positive and some of it is not. If you want something that’s absolutely cheerful, respectful, polite, wholesome and happy, go do something else because that’s not what sport is.
So while booing and jeering are acceptable, there is a line.
The Australians and particularly the banned trio of Smith, Bancroft and Warner know what’s coming when they arrive at Leeds.
The jeers and the cheers from the parochial England crowd and the clever songs and barbs from the Barmy Army will be there and it all adds to the theatre that is Ashes cricket and live sport. But the responsibility is there with the public to ensure that this latest episode of disrespecting an act of courage has the ability to snowball and paint innocent people in bad lights.
James
Guest
Im sorry but Australia boos as much as England and for goodness sake the coach of Australia publicly called Broad a cheat and said he hopes Australian crowds give it to him. And there was not one complaint on here when that happened so get off your high horse. Smith IS one of the biggest cheats in cricket history and a coward for not doing it himself, he is also the best batsmen in the world deal so just with the fact he will get booed.
Cari
Roar Rookie
I have played cricket at a fair level and on some County grounds purely as a bowler, I was a rubbish bat. If my captain had rubbed fruit gum juice on the ball and thrown it at me he would have got it back. The ball has to be gripped dry not slip out of your hand on release. Ask any bowler.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
Yes, those English 'hypocrites' eh? I seem to remember the COACH of the Australian team demanding that crowds 'make Stuart Broad cry' everywhere he went on an upcoming Ashes tour for the 'sin' of not walking. Something no Aussie with the exception of Gilchrist has done since the dawn of time. If there is another example of a team's coach trying to whip the crowd up to abuse a visiting player, I can't think of it.
Nick
Roar Guru
But Warner personally abusing (still without any offer of an apology mind you) of Quinton de Kock and family for an hour was fine? no - of course the English or anyone shouldn't be having a dig at third parties like Mrs Warner...and it's wrong to fight fire with fire. But - Australia haven't reconciled the fact that their actions started this. They have to acknowledge their part to play in the silliness of this all.
Nick
Roar Guru
I'm Australian, I find the booing slightly uncomfortable. But we started this. And, Australia have never really come to terms with any of what's happened in the past or accepted their own actions have directly led to this. Asking the English fans to stop, but yet people seemed absolutely ok with booing Adam Goodes? We don't define the line.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
I just think that this incident in the back of English minds (and similar ones). But it does have to stop. It's gone on too long.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Like I said it was a petty example to use but it still shows some of the rubbish that England have had to put up with over the years. Darren Lehmann did make the comment on Triple M so probably not the best place for the head coach to have an interview. I didn't follow cricket at this point so cannot comment further.
Peter
Guest
:happy: It’s even more amusing when the English (I assume that includes Cari) seek to take the high moral ground by shouting “Look over there! But they! But her emails!” How about I grant you a bit of sandpaper and leave you to explain away an entire English team discovering they all loved the taste of Polo Mints, or their captain discovering he had A Pocketful Of Miracles? Did you even read the comment on the booing of Adam Goodes? Assuming you did, did you even bother to find out what that was about? If you did, how did you draw the extraordinarily long bow (there’s a reference a stout English yeoman might comprehend) that this inferred that Australian crowds are completely fair? Your comment is so laughable it should be sent to WADA for testing.
Gee
Roar Rookie
The English crowds have always been hypocrites, the Barmy Army especially are just straight up pigs. Go for your life against players but that chant about Warner's Mrs was beneath even those knuckle draggers.
Nick
Roar Guru
That's a subjective perspective. Objectively...the coach saying this on radio was poor form. And knowing Boof's track record, it was deliberate and intended. Until Lehmann comes out and accepts he was wrong, Australia are not really going to be able to get over this booing.
Gauss
Roar Rookie
Yep, you know things have gone too far when the Austrians need to get involved.
Cari
Roar Rookie
It’s amusing when Australians take the high moral ground. What do you expect when you’re caught hiding sandpaper in your pocket? And what about the sledging that got so bad the Austrian cricket board had to put a stop to it. Personally I don’t like the booing of any player but to infer that Australian crowds are completely fair is frankly laughable.
Gauss
Roar Rookie
Yeah, the Broad thing isn’t a meaningful comparison. Notwithstanding Lehman’s silly comment (wasn’t it on one of those inane commercial radio morning shows?), no-one took the Broad booing very seriously. — From memory it lasted for a couple of days in Brisbane, got a bit of a run in Adelaide and by Perth it had been forgotten about. So much so that Broad began deliberately provoking the WACA crowd, taking ridiculous breaks to change his shoes while batting and generally stirring them up. To be fair to Broad, it looked like he was having fun.
Gauss
Roar Rookie
The English crowd at the last WACA Ashes Test (and yes, the English dominate the crowd at WACA Ashes Tests) booed Steve Smith all the way to the crease. Not in a fun way, not even pantomime. It was hostile and ugly, and I was amazed that it was barely remarked upon at the time. That was back when Smith’s only “crime” was to be the best player on either team. So don’t imagine these people are booing because their delicate sensibilities have been offended. That’s just a convenient excuse.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
In England, Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith and David Warner will always be considered cheats (not my opinion but the general opinion - I've got over it unlike some of my fellow countrymen). But this is how it'll always be - the English hate the Australians and vice versa. Both sides will use anything they can to criticise the other. How about Darren Lehmann asking the Australian fans to make Stuart Broad cry in the 2013 Ashes series because he didn't walk after edging one to first slip? (petty example I know but still) Either way, it is a disgrace to see English fans still booing Smith after he was hit on the neck by Jofra Archer's bouncer. But there's nothing you can do about it. Some of us in England don't like the booing as much as you don't like it Down Under.
Ouch
Roar Rookie
people who abuse, are set in their views and no amount of learning will help them. Yep. Leave them to it. Any attempt to reason just brings it on more. It’s strange that an incident between South Africa and Australia and nothing to do with england (which the Saffers seem to have left behind) has been taken as a personal insult by the english.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Education is generally not the answer. Self-respect is. You've correctly identified the 'their set in their ways' attitudes. ---- Maybe Root could show himself to be a fair and honest competitor and step in say something. Oh, that's right he's a cheater himself. Drats. ----- How someone could boo Smith was beyond me. I think humans lose a little bit of dignity as time passes. I remember Graeme Smith coming out to bat with that injury and he was warmly applauded. ----- This reinforces the "find out what England do and do the opposite" imprimatur.
El Loco
Roar Rookie
Oh no, the line is back! Poor form by those spectators certainly, ultimately they have to live with themselves. Knowing that something truly terrible could have come out of Smith being hit, relief seems a more logical response (opposition or otherwise), but you can't account for everyone's instincts.
Paul
Roar Guru
This is a terrific article Jono and you've summed up how crowds can get involved in a game perfectly. The problem, as you rightly point out, is that dreaded "line". I'm sure millions of cricket fans would have been appalled at Smith being booed as he came back out to bat, but a significant few would have seen nothing wrong with it. Who decides where the "line" is? More to the point, how do those who have crossed that line get the message their behavior is on the wrong side of the line and won't be tolerated? It's easy to do in a controlled environment like the Long Room at Lords, but in the Stands.....? Education is the obvious answer but in my experience, people who abuse, are set in their views and no amount of learning will help them. Perhaps some gaol time or a hit to the wallet might convince a few, but sadly the rest are going to remain a problem.