Michael Roberts
Some of the illuminating details that surfaced at the recent coroner’s inquiry in Sydney into the death of Philip Hughes when a bouncer bust an artery in his neck display the continuing prevalence of verbal assaults in the heart of Australian cricket and the legitimacy accorded to this ‘philosophical pillar.’ Verbal intimidation is often a twin brother of intimidating bouncers. Bouncers are now restricted — no more than one or two per over. Verbal intimidation is not — and the coroner’s verdict in Sydney only sustained, albeit inadvertently, the official blanket thrown around the practice. I will be writing more on these specifics around the verbal and bouncer assault on the turncoat New South Welshman Hughes by his former state buddies in the near future, but let me return to my old campaign against a macho cricketing practice that undermines the principle of a level playing field : namely, the use of verbal intimidation by those more versed and hardened in that practice. I present here one of my first (ineffective) blows from the year 2001 – an article entitled “Against Verbal Intimidation in Cricket” in http://www.ozlanka.com/commentary/intimidation.htm
Australian opening batsman Usman Khawaja squeezes teammate Adam Zampa’s behind ahead of the ODI against the Black Caps in Wellington. Opening batsman Usman Khawaja certainly got busy calming the nerves of rookie spinner Adam Zampa. Khawaja laughed off being caught grabbing Zampa’s behind, playing it down when asked about the video on Twitter. “hahaha oh boy. Didn’t realize there were cameras filming from behind,” he tweeted. “haha it was all consensual. Just have a joke with the debutant #playon”.
Pistol-Packing Paul Reiffel
Mahinda Wijesinghe, whose favours this title for his article “The Umpire who said ‘HURRAH! We won’,”
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