"Which of you bastards...."

This contribution from Dileep Premachandran from Times Online, published in The Oz - Cut and Paste on Jan 10th, sums up the wank we call modern cricket pretty well for me -

During the infamous Bodyline tour of 1932-33, Douglas Jardine knocked on the Australian dressing-room door to demand an apology for being abused. Bill Woodfull turned to his team poker-faced and asked "Which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard?" Had they been around, Mike Procter and other (International Cricket Council) match referees might have had a field day. This is not a lament for time that can never return, but such an anecdote does remind one of the death of common sense and humour in modern day cricket. If an outsider looked at the current tug-of-war between India and Australia, and the sanctimonious crap dished out by both sides, you'd think there had been 22 Mother Teresas out on the park. All this talk of integrity and honour between individuals who don't walk for an outside edge that sounds like the crack of doom. Precious.

Barring a few brain-deaths at the meeting in Delhi (yesterday), the tour should now proceed. Steve Bucknor has been stood down, and Harbhajan Singh promised a fair hearing but the most pertinent is this: where does cricket go from here?

Apart from anything else, it shows what we've lost. It's interesting that it took an Indian (presumably - going by his name) to point it out.

It's not confined to cricket. As a nation, we're rapidly losing our sardonic sense of humour. It's gone the way of biscuits (now "cookies"), taps (now "faucets"), and footpaths (now "sidewalks").