I spent the early part of yesterday afternoon watching the test match between England and India on Sky, but with BBC Test Match Special’s (TMS) commentary. It was utter exhilarating. Suddenly, with a new coach and captain, England are the entertainers and in Jonny Bairstow, once a bit part player, a selection afterthought, we appear to have a world class counter-attacker. I was getting well into it, but with a sentence like this, there’s always a but. And this ‘but’ is about the modern day cricket crowd.
Call me old (true) and old-fashioned (also true) but I like the way cricket used to sound. The early morning buzz followed by a more ‘lively’ afternoon, one which never became raucous, but did represent good-natured humour and banter. That’s long gone.
Yesterday evening, we heard the grim news that there had been claims of racism from so called England fans directed at India fans from the notorious Hollies stand at Edgbaston. According to the BBC, supporters said the “disgusting racism” faced was “some of the worst abuse we’ve ever experienced at a match”.
Listening to TMS, I wasn’t aware of racism and it wasn’t the reason I switched off, despite the brilliance of the England batsmen as they lead their team to an historic victory. I find the endless alcohol-fuelled loud singing and chanting immensely tedious and so it was for me as Bairstow and Joe Root started to destroy the India attack. During the Headingley test, I switched off when the ‘hilarious’ so-called ‘Barmy Army’ launched into, among other things, repeated chants of “wanker, wanker, wanker” against whom I do not know. If that is the way cricket crowds are meant to behave, then I’ll watch something else. For me, it is the equivalent of a tennis crowd winding up a chant of “Ohhhhhhhh, yooouuu’rre shit – ahhhhhhhh” as a player starts to serve. Now we have banter with added racism.
I’m no fan of the Barmy Army, which appears to be a collection of middle class, middle-aged dullards who think they’re cleverer and funnier than they actually are. However, set to one side their dreary singing and chanting, they don’t appear to have a history of racism. Although there are now serious allegations of racism from the crowd, I doubt that many of those who are shouting ‘Barmy Army’ are also shouting racial abuse at India supporters. But here’s the thing: where you have an environment of drunken shouting and singing, with the use of the type of foul language you can read in this blog, when actual card-carrying racists join their number you can see where this might end.
I knew that since I were a lad, times have changed, and for a variety of reasons the once friendly hubbub of a cricket match can sound more like a football crowd in action, with added booze to be consumed in the stands during the game. And it’s legitimised by a media which finds the Barmy Army chanting and singing hilarious, laughs uproariously at inflatables being tossed onto the field of play and turns a blind eye to some of the excesses. None of this is going to change and I accept that so it’s for me to seek out the off switch when the noise irritates me too much. But we should not be turning a blind eye to racism, not now, not ever.
If I was the head honcho, I’d first try to identify racists and pass their details to Inspector Knacker to investigate. And if the allegations prove to be well-founded, to ban the club from holding international fixtures until they have got their house in order.
Hopefully, England’s cricketers can register an historic victory today. I’ll feel much better if the perpetrators are prosecuted. Either way, I won’t be watching or listening. The allegations of racism ruined it for me. That it was caused by “a small minority” doesn’t cut it for me, I’m afraid.
