MORE BOOR

Dominic Lawson:

Boorish and chauvinist: the new breed of England cricket fan

I know the exact moment when a most unexpected feeling overcame me – the desire that Australia should not lose against England in a vital Test match. It was when the captain of the Australian cricket team, Ricky Ponting, came out to bat in the second innings of the Edgbaston Test on Sunday afternoon – and was booed by a large contingent of the Birmingham crowd.

Alex Massie:

Ricky Ponting Deserves Our Cheers, Not Moronic Boos

Three - yes, a whole three - cheers for Dominic Lawson's article in the Independent today. He is right: booing Ricky Ponting is disgraceful. There may be a cartoonish element to it all and perhaps the Barmy Army will signal this by cheering the Australian skipper to the echo at the Oval when, we assume, he plays his final test innnings in England, but that's still not quite good enough. For the time being, too many England cricket fans - not to be confused with supporters of English cricket - seem to have decided that Ponting is some kind of villain.

Greg Baum:

Fans' behaviour is nothing to cheer about

ONE group of Australians covered themselves in glory at Headingley. Another covered themselves in ignominy. When the sounding of a fire alarm forced the England players out of their beds and into the rain in the early hours of the first morning, the Fanatics claimed responsibility, saying it was ''good old Australian high jinks''. In this country, no one batted an eyelid, concentrating instead on other forms of batting.

Comments

[RT]

The booing of Ponting is odd. He's not a likeable type captain by any stretch but not in the old Ganguly type mode of trying to be a c*nt. He's actually got better with his off field demeanour and media presence, presenting some thoughtful analysis. And this from a bogan Tasmanian. He plays it hard but no harder than most current test captains. Pommie crowds just seem to like picking a bad guy.

Having said that his captaincy has not really improved and the Oval is rightly crunch time for him. At nearly 35 post Ashes talk will be on a succession schedule. Sadly the walking Tattoo looks the only alternative.

[Tony]

My TT spider senses are telling me Tattoo might turn out to be a great skipper.

[RT]

I'm more Peter Parker cautious on Tatt but at least his batting has been very solid this Ashes tour and at times superb. No flakey get out shots.

[m0nty]

I may boo Punter if he calls the toss wrong.

[Tony]

"Heads" for sure.

[Colin Campbell]

Gotta love the ECB and the weighted coin. They could make money on the craps.

[Tony]

Last year there was talk out of India that Dhoni Kebab had been practising tossing the coin and could flick it in his favour around 65% of the time. If that is true, Ponting needs to stop calling the same for a whole series. He should do what I used to do: toss a coin in the rooms before walking out for the toss, then call whatever the first toss landed (or the reverse). That way Ponting 1) takes away any feeling of regret that he should have stuck with one side or the other; and 2) the opposition skipper doesn't know what he is going to call.