Like most sports-minded boys, when I was growing up, I wanted to play cricket for Australia. I wanted to get my hands on a baggy green cap more than anything else. Footy was big, but it was suburban and as a boy from Laverton, playing for Footscray didn’t have the same grandeur as playing for Australia. I was a huge fan of Ian Redpath, Graham McKenzie then the Chappells (not Trevor) and of course the king of them all, Dennis Lillee.
The events of the last week took me back. I was fortunate that my radio career led me to meet Dennis in Perth. I was there to cover the David Bowie tour but when D.K. Lillee walked into the hotel I went weak at the knees. Dennis was no saint. Remember the bet he and Rod Marsh had in England during an Ashes series? And his clash with Javed Miandad was not from the Wisden etiquette manual. He never cheated though, and had he, I – like tens of thousands of Aussie cricket lovers – would have been devastated, as so many are right now.
I played a lot of cricket over the years and blokes shining the ball with hair gel or Vaseline was pretty common. I can honestly say I never did it. I sweated bucketloads, so shining the ball was never an issue.
I am still scratching my head about what the Aussie cricketers did. They knocked the rorting politicians off the front page. What a wonderful country we live in. Our political leaders cheat, our number one national sporting team cheats, our number one football codes have massive clouds hanging over them still, from drug cheats. Australia the lucky country? Not exactly. We could not rely on luck so we cheated.
This win-at-all-costs mentality corrupts and compromises the core of our values and morals. A much-used sporting expression is ‘Winning isn’t everything – it’s the only thing.’ No it’s not. No one likes losing and there is nothing wrong with that. It does make victory sweeter though when it comes.
I feel cheated because some men who were talented enough to fulfil the dream of getting a baggy green cap just dropped it in the sewer and we may never get rid of the smell. ■
