Test Cricket and the Temptress
Approaching our 20th wedding anniversary I want to tell you about my first love - test cricket.
A passion so difficult to describe that it raises the ire of those devoid of similar desire.
Yet during the final hour of the final day of an gripping third test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, I could not wait for the game to end.
It was not the tension of an exciting draw, rather, the inevitable debate that would predictably ensue.
The Pink Test, as it has become known, raises funds for breast care nurses inspired by the struggle of the late, Jane McGrath with the support of her best friend, Tracy Bevan.
Sadly, the most funds raised by the charity since inception was momentarily overshadowed by taunting from the crowd towards a unique player and a grieving cricketer - professional sportspersons yes, but vulnerable human beings all the same.
Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah is unique, skilful, and likeable. His fledgling pace partner who debuted on Boxing Day, Mohammed Siraj, is far from home and far from his family following the death of his father while he has been on tour.
Siraj, not 'Shiraz', is in mourning.
Changing someone's surname could be considered hassling at best and bullying at worst, depending on how you hear it.
Unfortunately, they have both faced Australia's best and Australia's worst.
Watching or listening to every ball of a test match is blissfully right, full of expectation and contentment. It is a muse that demands attention.
My greedy love affair has rarely been in question. A fleeting fancy with one day cricket and modified formats like Twenty20 momentarily grabbed my attention, but both were unable to secure my affection.
It was while watching the 1987 World Cup final on a 34-inch television when my hero Allan Border dismissed the England Captain, Mike Gatting, who played an unheard of and outrageous reverse-sweep, that a temptress was introduced.
Alas, loyal to the core, it has always been test cricket for me.
For those unaware, test cricket provides opportunity for heroes and villains to prosper over five absorbing days. To be atop the cricketing mountain in triumph, and just as quickly dismissed to the scrapheap of former international players.
For a cricket purist, the glory or heartbreak and the success or failure on the world stage remains captivating.
To our Indian friends, cricket is religion. A game introduced by the East India Company during British colonisation.
The rulers could never have anticipated how integral the sport would become to the sub-continent's culture.
Indian Captain Virat Kohli is godlike in his own country and worshipped abroad much like Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar.
The greatest compliment we can gift is that he plays cricket like an Australian. We admire and respect his choice to be at home with his wife for the arrival of their baby, but we miss him.
Cricket is very important to many Australians. Test captain Tim Paine has provided leadership post-sandpaper that will ensure he is remembered as one of the most crucial sporting figures in our nation's history.
Paine has rarely had a bad day in the role, and he deserves all the forgiveness we can muster.
However, when a distasteful incident occurs at an Australian sporting ground there is an inevitable discussion about whether the behaviour, comment, or connotation was an attempt at humour or simply derogatory and/or racist.
And like when people discuss these matters in a social setting, we are quick to judge.
The community discussion has a pattern to it that is as predictable as grass stains on cricket whites.
The Australian Human Rights Commission describes racism as when people:
make "jokes" or negative comments about a particular ethnic group
call others racist names or verbally abuse them
bully, hassle or intimidate others because of their race
Obviously not all jibes and jokes and one-upmanship or an Aussie play on words or surnames are deliberately racist. Often, they are attempts at humour - sometimes ignorant, sometimes funny and sometimes failed.
However, we do not always understand the impact of our words. Our jovial ribbing nature is not always appreciated by other cultures and that is not their fault.
Further, rarely does the discussion focus on the impact of drinking beer all day beginning at 10.30am.
The argument, mainly on social media, tick tacks between players being considered sooks or needing to toughen up or it was not racist to, we live in a racist country and this type of behaviour occurs more regularly than you think.
It is the sweeping generalisations that are most frustrating. An oversimplification of the hurt that words create, somehow indicating that we are all tarred with the same brush and it was OK "when I was a boy".
Thankfully the fourth Test started late last week, and devotion is again in the air. M. Siraj struck early and celebrated with gusto.
In response, former Australian Test Cricketer Stuart Clark said on ABC Radio: "He is the find of the tour". And that makes me happy.
It is still love. Happy anniversary.