Q: Minister, could you give us your views on the crowd reaction to Muralitharan and the controversy over his bowling action?
A: Well, my first thought is this. I am a firm believer in the concept, perhaps I am being old fashioned about it, that cricket is a sport, it must remain a sport, some people call it a gentleman's sport; it is not a form of war, and should not be allowed to degenerate into a form of war with no holds barred. Cricket, in particular, is a game that has become embedded, through metaphor, in English language. We speak of something ``not being cricket'', of ``playing a straight bat'' to indicate honesty and fair play. Thus, it makes me sad to see a sportsman who is trying to do his best on the field of play getting a rough handling from a foreign crowd. Sometimes, if you look back on it, you find cases where a player has deserved rough handling because he or she had done something which irritates an audience and the audience has its own method of expressing disapproval. But in the case of Muralitharan, I do not think anybody will say that he has done anything objectionable in the sense of not observing fair play and good conduct on the field or off the field. He has been a model player. He is a serious young man, devoted to his game. He tries hard. He is a good team player. He is a pleasant young man. I was very happy to hear the other day that Steve Waugh had made a very handsome comment about Muralitharan. He said that he is a great sportsman and should be allowed to play his game.
Well, that's the kind of spirit I would like to see. As for the ``chucking'' controversy my understanding is that there ought to be some kind of international body that can go into a question of that kind and resolve it decisively once and for all. Today there are so many aids to decision making. You have films and scientific experiments you can use to get to the bottom of a controversy like this. My feeling, my understanding, is that this had been done after the last Australian tour and that the ICC had gone into this question. I am sad about this crowd reaction and I think many Australian sportsmen and vast numbers of ordinary Australians, not to mention other nationalities and sportsmen the world over, are equally sad about that. Australian spectators traditionally have been noted for their aggressive participation in the game. That is very much a part of the game in Australia. I recall the cricket books being full of stories about the vocal, beer-swilling crowds in Sydney and Melbourne and the humour, often the bawdy humour, of Australian cricket crowds. But all that was good natured fun, rowdy maybe but not vicious. But when the persistent heckling of one player becomes a form of torture it becomes very disagreeable. It does no credit to the people of Australia. It is a very sad state of affairs.