Notes from a small island

Notes from a small island
A weblog by Jonathan Ali

Thursday, June 12, 2003

Singh-ing Lara's praises

I could've put money on it: Valentino Singh, the Guardian sports editor, has come out swinging against Tony Greig in today's edition of the paper. This in response to Greig's comments on the Brian Lara walking/not walking issue in Sunday's one day international against Sri Lanka, which I blogged about. (See post below.)

Predictably, Singh prostrates himself before the altar of the West Indies captain, parroting that tired, pointless, unhelpful line that Lara is one of the most honest sportsmen in the world, and once he is convinced he is out, he doesn't wait on the umpire's decision, but walks, and is beyond reproach in his conduct, etc.

And of course, he has to demonise Tony Greig ("the South African" - what does Greig's nationality have to do with it, Mr. Singh? what are you trying to imply?) and bring up the "grovelling" non-sequitur.

It is unfortunate that someone like Singh would abandon fair, balanced journalism (even in an op-ed piece) for such tendentious, tribalistic and myopic rantings. I'm not going to rehash my previous post, but what does it benefit West Indies cricket when we wax lyrical about things we should be taking a much more critical and reasoned approach to? When people like Singh says things such as, "Lara... was not convinced that he was not out and that is why he did not walk. Plain and simple."?

Really, Mr. Singh? And I suppose Lara told you that himself? And even if he did, I don't suppose it ever occured to you that it just might be possible that Lara, a (gasp!) human being like the rest of us, is fallible, and perhaps could have been indulging in parsimony when it came to that most precious of commodities, truth?

Again, I'm not saying Lara should have walked, or that he was right not to. What matters is that we approach such issues even-handedly and rationally, and go after the facts tenaciously. Otherwise the true happenings in West Indies cricket will continue to go largely mis- or unreported.

(Thank goodness for Ryan Naraine.)

posted by Jonathan | 10:24 AM 0 comments

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