En Passant

In recent weeks a campaign has developed momentum calling for a boycott of Sri Lankan cricket matches to protest both the Sri Lankan regime’s genocide of Tamils and the Australian government’s attacks on Tamil refugees. Andrew Cheeseman in Socialist Alternative explains why.

For too long, Australia has turned a blind eye to the mounting evidence that the ruling regime in Sri Lanka has committed war crimes, including the slaughter of more than 40,000 innocent Tamil civilians at the end of the civil war in 2009.

This cricket season, Australia’s attention will be trained on the batting and bowling of the Sri Lankan cricket team at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. By calling for a boycott we can expose the human rights abuses that the Sri Lankan cricketers just can’t hide. And we can encourage our own government to recognise that refugees from Sri Lanka are fleeing genuine persecution.

Du Plessis turned the fait accompli of an Australian victory into the possibility of a South African win in the long term. Despite all the hype and hyperbole about Australia’s performance from the cheer squads of the media and the experts in the grandstands, the possibility that South Africa could win or at least draw the series and retain the number one world ranking shows that perseverance and persistence, coupled with skill and a steady, unflappable approach, can triumph.

My hope is to bring in my own small way reason in revolt to the world of tax and end the age of cant. That can only really happen if 2012 becomes the year of revolution, of working classes across the globe – from Egypt to Italy, from Wisconsin to Wukan -fighting back against the bosses and their state and setting up their own profoundly democratic society to satisfy human need.

As you all know I am a market kinda guy. So I suggest the test cricket selectors use the Indian Premier League money ranking to pick the next test team. Here’s the 12, starting from the most well paid: Warne, Watson, David Hussey, Christian, Gilchrist, Symonds, Warner, Bollinger, Nannes, Hodge, Mike Hussey and Brett Lee.

It is time for a revolution in cricket in Australia. Let’s grab our game back from the exploiters. The grass roots should rise up and take over its running in the interests of every kid and adult playing, watching or otherwise participating in local cricket.

The massive inequality in Pakistan society is mirrored in the massive inequality in global cricket.

The time has come to sweep away the rotten systems in cricket and globally that produce these outrages.

The International Cricket Council has rejected John Howard. Good. Howard is a racist warmonger who should be in leg irons before the International Court of Justice in the Hague on trial for war crimes, not running world cricket. Let’s have a  look at the man the Colonel Blimps of Australasian cricket recommended for the job of leading [...]

Howard’s elevation looks like an attempt by conservative white cricket elements to turn the clock back to the good ole days of empire, when those with dark skins didn’t run things – they did what they were told.