A Hatred rekindled!

As I think back to my very earliest memories there is one that comes to mind which really shows the power of an impression on a young mind.

Up until the age of 7 I lived in a suburb some 15 to 20 kms north of the Melbourne CBD. When occasion would arise, my Dad would take my brother Michael and I on the train to watch our Football team Collingwood, play against some of our traditional rivals. There is one that I was taught to hate. Carlton! They were the enemy and all that Carlton represented was diametrically opposed to Collingwood.
Carlton were evil, they cheated and were dirtly rotten scoundrels. In fact when my brother and I wanted to insult each other we would suggest the other was a Carlton supporter. No other insult could cut like that one to the heart of a young magpie like myself.

Now as an adult with a little more perspective on life I still have buried in my subconscious that all things Carlton are bad. I meet nice people who I find out to be Carlton supporters and for a moment there is a conflict within me that something doesn't add up. "How could such a nice person support Carlton? Don't they know that they are bad?" It is a real conversation that fleetingly takes place in my mind.

As I think about this my mind starts to ponder how powerful and easy it is to create a culture starting with children and the danger that we as a society can find ourselves in if we don't teach children correct principles.

Let's look at a global example, racism! We see so much hatred and dislike between particular races often based on ignorance and generally created through being taught and not through experiencing large scale common nationalistic behaviours.

The danger arises when little ones are taught an opinion as fact about another race and create a view or reality map in their young forming minds before they get a chance to experience and judge for themselves.

 Now, many of these views may be close or even accurate but to label a whole race is to over stereo type and judge based often on ignorance.

Let's look at an example, Asian drivers are all bad! The first question I would ask is have you ever driven in Asia? I have been on roads in both Asia and the sub continent and let me tell you, I would be way too scared to drive on any of those roads. In fact some of the most skillful drivers I have seen have been in Asia and India. 3 lanes on a road becomes 5 wide full of cars and bikes and you would see far less accidents then you do in Australia. Whole families riding on the one motor bike sure beats the traditional family people mover.

Yet, you bring one of these people to Melbourne and they often struggle to adapt to our driving as they aren't use to the style in which we drive. Are they bad drivers? No, just use to driving under different conditions.

Societies are like that, is one better then the other? Morals and values aside, I would say they are just different and have different challenges. Seeking to understand one another before delivering a judgement, now that is a culture that would be great for our children to learn.

Now as I sat at the MCG last night with Collingwood putting Carlton to the sword I made a comment that my son didn't like, and he turned to me and says "you're a Carlton supporter" with a look of disgust. Even now as an Adult that hurts!

I think it is fair to say that of all the things in life that we can brainwash our children with, hating Carlton is one that we can allow to happen!.

Tendulkar is a star....but he is no champion!!

Well India finally win a world cup. Good on them, they have under achieved for so long and the country has had to wait so many years for this over paid group of rich boys to finally bring home a decent trophy.

That fact that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the captain when this has happened is no surprise either. He is a quality leader who has been able to bring together a team with as much cultural diversity as a world 11 side has. Not to mention the political pressures of the BCCI and the individual states in India.

India's rise to the top started though when they removed Tendulkar as captain and brought in Ganguly. Sachin for all his great skill as a batsmen was probably the worst captain in world cricket. He is revered world wide, not because he leads but because he does. Ganguly came in and used his silver spoon background and really toughened the Indian side up with his personal strength. Must say though I couldn't stand Ganguly as a person, but he lead India very well for a long period.

When Mahenda Singh Dhoni took over the team, he really brought a youngish team and made them follow him. He is a gentleman and a great player. but he also commands respect of his team. I was happy to see that he hit the winning runs for India and it would have been a disaster if India had not won this tournament.

This World Cup was an Indian victory in the making, it was their to lose. They had home games, pitches created for their strengths and a huge emotional desire to win it for Sachin.

Sadly Sachin failed again in a big match which most people will forget about but Champions rise in big matches. I can't recall Sachin ever rising when the pressure was on and winning a big match for India. He will go down in history as the 2nd greatest batsmen of all time behind Sir Donald Bradman but in my mind, he is an accumulator of records not trophies.

Give me Richards, Ponting or Gilchrist with their multiple world cups and massive domination of world cricket over Sachin's record, which it must be said was strengthened against playing Zimbabwe, Bangledesh and a lot of homes games.

India has risen as the world power in cricket and this win will be great for a nation which holds its cricketers as demi-gods and heroes. In some ways, cricket fans need to be grateful for India keeping cricket alive.

In Australia, cricket seems to have lost its mojo. In a time when there are so many options for kids, cricket seems to becoming less popular and the days of Australian domination is at an end. Michael Clarke is no champion and won't lead Australia out of it's downwards spiral.

The Last thing I have to say on this world cup is that you expect sporting events to provide better competition as they evolve and change. Sadly this world cup showed that the standard of world Cricket is on the decline. The great Australian side of the last 20 years is gone and with it the last if the trully dominant champion eras. Cricket today is very average compared to the days when Australia dominated 3 world cups and when an average player like Yuvraj Singh can win player of the tournament, please can someone send us a Champion.

That's my rant for today.