Caught, clean bowled and hit wicket

Well, cricket's in a right old hissy fit, what?

1st of all, obviously I condemn racism along with any form of prejudice. And if someone can prove it's happened in this case, I'll condemn it in this case.

That's a big if. No-one has provided any evidence that monkey is a racist taunt. So it's general sledging.

So where did sledging start? With "real men don't eat quiche" types such as Ian Chappell, Rod Marsh and Jeff Thomson in the 70s (and in a way, tennis players like McEnroe and Connors). Has anyone tried to turn sledging back, including Steve "Mr Nice Guy" Waugh? No.

So other sides, being human, do it to. What do the spoilt brat bullies of world cricket, the Aussies do? Run to mummy and get someone suspended (pending appeal).

If the Aussies are such skilled cricketers why do they need to sledge and do the pressure appeals? Or maybe they aren't so skilled and use cheap shots to cover that up? So let's throw out a challenge to the Aussies: play in Perth without sledging and see if you can win.

Re the umpiring, well, it's the imbalanced number of decisions for one test that's got the Indians upset. 5 0r 6 big ones to virtually zip in a close test; upset is understandable. But a challenge for the Indians - finish the tour, go to Perth, thump the Aussies and end the streak.

What really gets me was one knucklehead who wrote to a paper saying players shouldn't "walk" and that to do so was putting yourself ahead of the team. What happened to ethics, for heaven's sake? Maybe we're so used to head-kicking skin-doctoring and occasionally crooked politicians and business types that people think their behaviour is the norm and being ethical is "weird?" Maybe quality examples of leadership would help overcome all this.

All I can say is Bradman must be turning triple somersaults in his grave.