One needs to mediate carefully between the group and the individual. There may be a small element of truth to certain groups conforming to certain behaviors, but that needs to be measured against that fact we are individual minds, and you need to be wary of flattening or erasing any nuance or legitimate difference that exists between members of a group.
In terms of parental pushiness, my experiences were decidedly mixed, with 2 children involved in soccer, cricket, swimming, ballet, fencing, drama, choir, art classes, gymnastics. Pushy parents come in all shapes and skin colors, as do chill parents.
This is wise words.
That being said, our work has put on 2 'indian cultural days' where the goal is to help understand the differences between Indians and 'traditional' clients and how to navigate this without being offensive.
It was run by an indian woman who has been in Melbourne for almost 2 decades now.
Summarised best by explaining India is so big and varied its best thinking about it essentially as different countries. Wealth, education, language, religion, mannerisms all change depending on where you are.
However, take home message is this. As a general rule, "if you don't ask, you don't get" and "You can't say 'no' to indians" put a lot of people offside from our end. Culturally, they are 'pushy' because they need to be. There's a billion other people they are competing with. While as a group/company, we acknowledge this, but its poor form to bow down to such demands in comparison to any other client. Why should they get favouritism simply because they are pushy??
Obviously, within that individual personalities vary, just like other cultures, but they acknowledge themselves its part of theirs. This certainly does show up in sports and with pushy parents.
For those interested in movies, 'Dangal' is an indian movie based of real events of an overbearing parent going against tradition and training his daughters up to be world class wrestlers, competing at commonwealth and olympic games as a result. A great standalone movie in its own right, but gives you a look at 'the other side'.
Nice post Kruddler!
I haven't been to India but I hope to one day. A lot of what I know about India has been gleaned from cricket commentators like Harsha Bhogle on the wireless. They often stress how diverse India is with so many different religions, ethnic groups, languages, cuisines, cultural practices, etc, etc.
One of my former colleagues is from Nigeria but he obtained one of his degrees at Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar. Some of his fellow students were Muslims and they couldn't get beef in Amritsar. Mba was travelling to a Muslim city and they asked him to bring some beef back with him on the bus. Unfortunately, one of the passengers noticed blood dripping from Mba's bag and he was confronted. He fessed up and was worried that he was about to be kicked off the bus in the middle of nowhere. However, all of the other passengers left the bus and he returned to Anritsar by himself.
The attempt to obfuscate the need for Congressional authority to use force under US domestic law won’t work if a couple of Republicans grow a spine.
While the US attacks in Venezuela are clearly a breach of Article 2(4) of the UN charter, nothing will come of that … apart from Putin acknowledging that international law does apply to other countries.
Taco was quick to bully Nigeria using the false claims that Christians are being killed. The strike he ordered, without Congressional approval, was ineffective, unless you’re the owner of one of the mud huts the missiles hit.
No prizes for guessing what Nigeria and Venezuela have in common but Nigeria also has significant lithium deposits.
I suspect that Russia and/or China will be extending the hand of friendship to Bola Tinubu.
"We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure."
"We'll be selling large amounts of oil."
However, US oil giants haven't responded to Taco's claims. Chevron, is the only US oil company currently operating in Venezuela, and they have undertaken to follow Venezuela's “relevant laws and regulations”. I suspect that Taco doesn't understand that multinational companies have to operate in an international context and can't play fast a loose with the resources of sovereign nations.
The formerly US-backed opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Maria Corina Machado, seems to have had the rug pulled out from under her. Despite her "the hour of freedom has arrived" comment, Taco says that Machado doesn't have "support or respect". He is backing Maduro's deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, saying "she's essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again." 🤮
Of course, Rodriguez is remaining loyal to Maduro and is promising to resist US aggression ... for now.
Russia has condemned Taco’s ‘armed aggression’ against Venezuela
Russia’s Foreign Ministry stated;
“The pretexts cited to justify these actions are untenable. Ideologically driven hostility has prevailed over practical pragmatism and a willingness to build relations based on trust and predictability.”
The only thing wrong with the Russian statement is the omission of Venezuela’s extensive oil reserves … and then there’s the utter hypocrisy given Russia’s ongoing territorial aggression in Ukraine.
Denmark and the EU should be thinking seriously about beefing up their military presence in Greenland.
One needs to mediate carefully between the group and the individual. There may be a small element of truth to certain groups conforming to certain behaviors, but that needs to be measured against that fact we are individual minds, and you need to be wary of flattening or erasing any nuance or legitimate difference that exists between members of a group.
In terms of parental pushiness, my experiences were decidedly mixed, with 2 children involved in soccer, cricket, swimming, ballet, fencing, drama, choir, art classes, gymnastics. Pushy parents come in all shapes and skin colors, as do chill parents.
Very true Paul. It is all too easy to attribute an individual’s behaviours to their gender, ethnicity, religion, etc when it’s really down to their personality.
I served for many years as president of a junior basketball club in multicultural Box Hill. Pushy parents, and pushy children, were an occupational hazard and they did come in all shapes and sizes. The worst were generally many generations removed from their immigrant forebears.
Khawaja spoke very well about growing up a brown kid amongst mostly white older generation racist players. It wasn't until Gillys generation that he began to feel apart. He said that it was the parents of the kids he played that were the worst. He's done very well to get through that to become the player he is.
I don't doubt that there has been an element of racism in Australian cricket at all levels. However, while Australia has lagged behind England, South Africa and New Zealand in terms of players with Asian or Indigenous heritage making the Test team, Michael Jeh, writing in 2013 makes the point:
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As a dark-skinned Australian who began his cricket career in Australia, I cannot claim any discrimination or disadvantage based on my ethnic background. Any bias that I’ve experienced has been down to the fact that I’ve been limited by this ridiculous obsession with picking the best players! I suffered from simply not being good enough.
He then takes a slightly more serious approach and points out that:
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... many young boys from South Asian backgrounds have family expectations to deal with. Speaking from personal experience, I know that they come under immense pressure to follow academic pathways and ‘safe’ careers rather than chasing exotic cricket dreams. It’s ironic because these same families will watch every game of cricket and worship the stars but for their own sons, there’s a genuine desire to set them on a traditional career pathway that requires an emphasis on study. That will change but it might take a decade or so to show. Don’t ask me why this doesn’t manifest itself in England – I can’t figure that one out myself.
And
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From a pure cricketing perspective, the nature of Australian pitches lends itself to bigger, stronger physiques dominating senior club cricket. You have to be strong and robust enough to hit the deck and get bounce, therefore more suited to the Anglo-Saxon body shape. In England and New Zealand, the nagging medium-pacers and spinners come into their own, thereby opening up the field to bowlers who may lack the pure ‘grunt’ but can do enough with the ball at 125 kph. Australian pitches need to offer more variety full stop. It will automatically create more opportunities for players with different body shapes and techniques. The added bonus is that it will allow our players to adapt better to foreign pitches too.
From a pure cricketing perspective, the nature of Australian pitches lends itself to bigger, stronger physiques dominating senior club cricket. You have to be strong and robust enough to hit the deck and get bounce, therefore more suited to the Anglo-Saxon body shape. In England and New Zealand, the nagging medium-pacers and spinners come into their own, thereby opening up the field to bowlers who may lack the pure ‘grunt’ but can do enough with the ball at 125 kph. Australian pitches need to offer more variety full stop. It will automatically create more opportunities for players with different body shapes and techniques. The added bonus is that it will allow our players to adapt better to foreign pitches too.
And finally:
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Psychologically, it’s no secret that Australian club cricket is played hard and uncompromisingly, sometimes too much so perhaps. It’s easy enough to mistake some of the sledging as ‘racist’ but from my experience, I found most of it to be opportunistic rather than redneck.
Michael Jeh is an Oxford Blue who played first-class cricket, and was a Playing Member of the MCC. Perhaps he and Usman should compare notes.
Anyway, Khawaja has had a great career, even if it did go for slightly too long. If anything, that part of his Test career after his recall was better than his first part. Well done and let's hope he goes out with a decent score at the SCG - the curator will probably produce a road
The nazi wannabes of the NSN have adopted black Helly Hansen rain jackets and hats as their “uniform”.
Presumably this is because they feel that appearing in a black brand name “uniform” makes them look both cool and intimidating. Then there’s the “Aryan” connection with the Norwegian company and the correlation between the company’s HH logo and the NSN’s “Heil H_____” rallying cry.
Imagine the dismay among the NSN faithful when they learned that Helly Hansen is the platinum sponsor for the 2026 Sydney Pride Regatta.
I have no idea whether HH took on the sponsorship as a deliberate response to the appropriation of their brand by the NSN goons or whether it was a purely commercial decision. Either way, the NSN won’t be comfortable sharing their preferred brand with the Pride Regatta.
When there is a line ball between a couple of players, high class disposal efficiency will win the position. For too long we've had great foot soldiers who have poor disposal.
I was only half listening to the wireless but I'm pretty sure that it was Stuart Clark who had a real crack at Marnus for his antics after he was nicked off. Rather than carrying on like a pork chop, he should have marched straight off the ground and got to work addressing his poor technique.
If the pitch was so unpredictable, Alex Carey must have had a death wish in standing up to the stumps for the fast-medium bowlers.
My approach is to have at least three players capable of playing on the wing among my seven or eight midfielders. They should have plenty of stamina, the ability to nullify their opponent, be able to break the lines, and hit targets inside 50.
On paper at least, we have plenty of candidates; Acres, the Camporeales, Chesser, Cottrell, O Hollands, and Smith, and Cerra, Haynes, Lord and Walsh all played on the wing last season as did Docherty and Binns.
Acres was hampered by a bulging disc last season and was way below his best. He looks to be moving freely again and, if he can regain his previous form, should be a monty on one wing.
The Camporeales have potential and I expect both to play in 2026. They will need things to go their way if they get the nod over those ahead of them in the pecking order.
Chesser comes into our squad in place of Docherty/Binns and his injury history means that he’s a bit of an unknown quantity. He was a very highly regarded junior and was taken as a first round draft pick despite suffering meniscus damage in his draft year. His first pre-season crashed when he smashed his ankle and ongoing ankle issues, and another knee injury, restricted him to just 32 games in his first three seasons. He had ankle surgery in the 2025 pre-season and missed the first half of the season before earning a place in the Eagles’ side for the last four games. His form in those games was the best of his career and finally revealed his ability. The point of difference with our other candidates for a role on the wing is his genuine foot speed. However, that’s not going to get him a game by itself, and I’d have him just ahead of the Camporeales in the pecking order, unless he can show the form that demolished Ed Langdon in round 21.
Matty Cottrell really cemented his place in the team as a link up high half forward but there’s a lot more competition for spots in the forward line now and I suspect that his best chance of a senior recall will be on the wing. Of course, there’s plenty of competition for winger roles too and Matty has to overcome his stress fracture issues.
The arrival of Ollie Florent probably means that Ollie Hollands won’t be required in defence this season and wing is probably his best position. Ollie rarely loses a one on one contest and he has an ability to create contests when the opposition seems likely to break away. Ollie’s not quick though and his kicking can lack penetration and accuracy.
I’m not sure where Jagga Smith will play in 2026, but he could line up on the wing. He is fast, elusive, reads the play well, makes good decisions and is a good user of the ball. I don’t know about his defensive work but, if he’s the one with the pill, he doesn’t need to defend.
My pecking order for a spot on the wing in Opening Round is Acres (subject to fitness), O Hollands, Smith, Cottrell (subject to fitness), Chesser, L Camporeale and B Camporeale. Walsh, Cerra and Lord could be in the mix too, if required.
Then there’s Nick Haynes. The experiment of playing him on the wing in the last two rounds was a success and he could provide us with a different look and more marking power in our midfield. McGovern has been training with the defenders and I don’t think we’d necessarily go with both him and Haynes in defence. If Haynes is training with the midfielders, I won’t be surprised if he’s on the wing in Opening Round.
The preponderance of T20 cricket has virtually eliminated the forward defensive shot from most batsmen's toolkits. With its demise has gone the ability to protect one's wicket and build an innings.
The pitch copped it overnight … but the batsmen’s technique and decision-making and the bowlers’ planning and execution didn’t change.
The only discussion about the pitch that I recall from the commentary was that batting would become easier as the pitch hardened over the next couple of days and that the ball was carrying through to the keeper more in the last session.
I think that for the cricket media, as opposed to commentators who have batted/bowled on the pitch in question, 20 wickets in a day must mean dodgy pitch rather than poor batting/good bowling.
