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The always wonderful Simon Barnes has another terrific column today on the England cricket team's pathetic behaviour:
The taunting of an opponent by leaving sweets on the pitch is pathetic. It destroys a spectator’s pleasure in the game. It certainly made me switch my allegiance to India. I thought England deserved what they got. And I don’t think I was alone in that.
...The stump microphone picked up a classic piece of sledging wit during that second Test between England and India. “I’m driving a Porsche Carrera; what’s your car?” Thus the exquisite Wildean wit of the modern England cricketer is laid bare.
It is, of course, the sort of remark you would expect from a Porsche driver, a Porsche being the naffest car ever manufactured. But is it a suitable remark to make to a man from a Third World nation who is a guest in your country? The combination of vulgarity and insensitivity is mind-numbing.
...The England cricket team are suffering from confusion. The players believe to a man that behaving like an arsehole makes you a better cricketer. The fact is that it doesn’t. It only makes you an arsehole.
...One of the many great things about the Ashes series of 2005 was the respect between the players. The ultimate image of the series was Andrew Flintoff’s moment of commiseration with Brett Lee after England’s narrow win at Edgbaston in the second Test. We liked that – that’s how we want cricket played.
So what is Moores’s response to the present outbreak of nonsense? “There is an issue about whether the stump mike should be so loud.” No there is not, there is an issue about whether the England players should make such prats of themselves.
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