En Passant

Let me add my voice to the growing chorus against the pink ball.

Why the difference in the treatment of the death of Phillip Hughes and that of building workers? In a word, profit. Safety on building sites threatens the bosses’ profit. Cricket on the other hand, as a business, reinforces the profit system, and makes its protagonists well known and loved. Let’s fight for a world in which everyone is safe at work. That means at its most basic more power to our unions, not less.

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.