Apparently the Gabba crowd booed the increasingly unpopular Australian Test and One Day Cricketer Michael Clark. It seems the tide of popular opinion has turned over his ill form and public persona.
It just seems so unaustralian to boo one of our own cricketers. The Gabba crowd has form in this area. They booed Adam Gilchrist when he came on after replacing Ian Healy, one of Queenslands own. With the benefit of history, and Adams sterling career, that was a very unfortunate choice.
Along with bad form, perhaps its the way Michael wears his hair, struts around advertising underwear or dates models, who knows.
Either way, leave the booing for the real enemies, the English, and the umpires.
What do you expect from Queenslanders?
There has been a lot of talk about this…. and to be fair to the Queenslanders, every state has boo-ed him this year.
The talk has been that we expect more from a ‘future’ captain, we expect someone who can score, not be a liability to the team and someone who is a ‘bloke’ like Border, Taylor, Waugh and Ponting, someone who you would be happy to go into a battle with. The mindset is that Clarke is not a team player, someone who would go ‘missing’ in the trenches.
He has also been seen leaving the various grounds straight after the day instead of sticking around, helping the team or maybe even learning how to leave the ball…. Not to mention his twitter nonsense, staying up til 1-2am during a test at a club/ pub etc. BTW this is all this summer and not even mentioning the Lara Bingle Bungle.
And then finally, we have his form with the bat. In the last three years, he averages 30 odd with one or two 50’s and no 100’s. Even someone like Marcus North had better form than he does.
The thing is, we who love watching sport, myself included, need to realise that many of these guys who we love to watch, and enjoy supporting, are probably nobs and jerks in real life!
I am sure many are great guys.
But just because someone is a nob does not give us the right to boo them, especially if they play Cricket for Australia.
Having said that, I have no problem in booing opposition players.