Ricky Ponting was booed all along the distance from dressing room to the crease by the members of Barmy Army and the experience was painful not just for Ponting but to any test match lover who was watching it. How could anyone treat a person, who is one of the greatest ever to play the game like that? They must instead relish every moment as not many get a chance to see such players bat.
I watched him bat both in Melbourne and Sydney when Aussies took on Indians last year and I feel I was privileged to watch the great man play and relish it for the rest of my life.
What Barmy Army must realize is that there is no point to match Australian behavior. It’s a culture thing. They should realize that they are English fans and they must behave and showcase what they are best known for. They must remember that even a fireman uses water to put off fire and never fight fire with fire.
The Barmy Army's mission statement – like every organization has one, it seems – is: "To make watching cricket more fun and more popular". On Sunday, what its members failed to understand was that the "fun" in watching cricket, is ... watching cricket. For the great majority of real cricket-lovers, there is no fun in being around such hooligans and rowdy elements.
I know for sure that if this trend follows, a number of real fans may no longer attend Test match Cricket, whose existance is already under threat from shorter versions of the game.
The whole incident raises a question. Is cricket gentleman’s game? The answer is an astounding NO till we have such boorish and chauvinist supporters around.
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