{"id":131188,"date":"2014-10-03T02:03:43","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T20:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=131188"},"modified":"2014-10-11T11:03:47","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T05:33:47","slug":"beheading-murali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/beheading-murali\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Beheading\u2019 Murali"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Roberts<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Michael Roberts<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Beheading\u2019 Murali: Cricketing Fundamentalists In Australian Cricket, 1995-98<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Western world is in shock as ISIS has <\/span>gained control of a swathe of territory<\/a><\/span> across Syria\/Iraq and <\/span>set up a caliphate state<\/a><\/span> as a symbol of resurgent Islam of their <\/span>crusading character;<\/a> and, thereafter, when ISIS (A) beheaded several Western hostages in chilling <\/span>video-theatre<\/a><\/span> and (B) called upon like-minds in Western centuries to venture forth on random acts of decapitation in the heart of cities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Australia has been in the grip of alarm<\/a><\/span> for several days this past week as the ISIS call reverberated<\/a><\/span> and the Federal Police launched precautionary raids on those radical Muslims they had been monitoring. Then, on the night of 23rd<\/sup> September one young Muslim of Afghan descent, Numan Haider, raised the scales by slashing and nearly killing two policemen<\/a> in the vicinity of a Melbourne police station.<\/p>\n

So, references to \u201cIslamic fundamentalism\u201d have ruled the air waves.<\/p>\n

\"Murali\"<\/a>

Murali<\/p><\/div>\n

This phenomenon struck a chord in my memory bank. I went back to my own writings. Let me quote from a piece[1]<\/a> written on 1st<\/sup> January 1996 under the title \u201cFundamentalism in Cricket: Crucifying Murali.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Australia \u2026 fundamentalism is not only suspect, it is detested. In this view (some) Muslims are the epitome of contemporary fundamentalism. Yet, reposing righteously in this anti-fundamentalist terrain is a species of fundamentalism. In the sunny field of cricket these purists have assassinated Muttiah Murlaitharan by the book. Their scimitar is both sharp and uncompromising. \u2026 Fundamentalists do not know the art of compromise. Their righteous zealotry is piously strict. They go by the Book. Darrell Hair has emerged as the champion of cricket purists. His ruling \u2026 has guillotined Muralitharan\u2019s arm and placed the lad on the shelves of history.<\/p>\n

Darrell Hair was not a maverick. He was carrying out the wishes of a powerful coterie at the heart of the Australian Cricket Board and the Australian team. On the morning of the 26th<\/sup> December 1996 Tim Lane[2]<\/a> and Graham Halbish[3]<\/a> <\/b>were both aware that a momentous act would occur on the field of cricket that day. Grapevine tales in the Australian circuit focus on Bob Simpson, the Australian coach, as a key conspirator demanding such action; while Malcolm Gray and Colin Egar have also been implicated.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia at this stage was the ruling hegemon in the cricket world, outmuscling the MCC and Englishmen. Its commanding figures believed that the game of cricket was sullied by the burgeoning phenomenon of \u201cchuckers\u201d — bowlers who threw the ball. In the early 1990s Warnaweera had appeared, persisted and disappeared without being called. Now, in 1995, they were seeing Dharmasena and Murali plying the art of bowling as chuckers, with Murali the most dangerous of them all as wicket-taker.<\/p>\n

So, a line had to be drawn in the sand to save the game of cricket from degeneration at the hand of these (Asian) bowlers. Not only was there a touch of Orientalism, in the sense Edward Said<\/span>,<\/a> in this brand of thinking, but also more than a wee dram of moral righteousness of the sort that would have pleased Calvinist pastors.<\/p>\n

So Murali\u2019s arm had to be — metaphorically — decapitated. When the first burst of action initiated by Hair and others (including Emerson and McQuillan) could not be sustained,[5]<\/a> a second attempt at \u2018decapitation\u2019 was carried out at Adelaide Oval on 23 January 1998 by Ross Emerson \u00a0acting upon instructions from \u201ca senior Australian official<\/span>.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

The failure of these efforts, and the campaign as a whole, should not detract from its significance: namely, the force of moral righteousness and cricketing purism in seeking public acts of \u201cexecution.\u201d To these minds, \u201cchuckers\u201d were infidels within the cricketing domain.<\/p>\n

Murali\u2019s arm as an \u2018infidel\u2019 chucking arm had to be stayed, cut-off. The cricketing gods demanded it.<\/p>\n

SELECT BIBLIOGRAHY<\/b><\/p>\n

Abbasi, Kamran<\/b> 2006 \u201cWanted: A Radical Rethink on Suspect Bowling Actions,\u201d in Roberts, Essaying Cricket. Sri Lanka and Beyond<\/i>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 179-81.<\/p>\n

CNN<\/strong> 2014 \u201cVideo shows ISIS beheading U.S. journalist James Foley,\u201d http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2014\/08\/19\/world\/meast\/isis-james-foley\/<\/p>\n

Maley<\/b><\/a>, Paul<\/b> 2014 \u201cIslamic State horror hits home: plot to abduct and behead Australians,\u201d The Australian<\/i><\/a>, 19 September 2014, https:\/\/plus.google.com\/114281934612203133760<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael & Alfred James <\/b>1998 Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket<\/i>, Sydney: Walla Walla Press.<\/b><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/b> 2006 \u201cFundamentalism in Cricket: Crucifying Murali,\u201d in Roberts, \u00a0Essaying Cricket. Sri Lanka and Beyond<\/i>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 4-5.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/b> 2006 \u201cMoral Crusaders as Menace to Cricket,\u201d <\/i>in Roberts, Essaying Cricket. Sri Lanka and Beyond<\/i>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 51-56.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/b> 2011a \u201cCurrents, Clashes and Issues in Sri Lankan Cricket,\u201d in Roberts, Incursions and Excursions in and Around Sri Lankan Cricket, <\/i>Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 1-20.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/b> 2011 \u201cSaving Murali: Action On-field and Off-field, 1995-2005,\u201d in Incursions and Excursions in and Around Sri Lankan Cricket, <\/i>Roberts, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 111-38.<\/p>\n

Wijesuriya, Glucka<\/b> 2006 \u201cMurali and the Bowling Issue,\u201d in Roberts, Essaying Cricket. Sri Lanka and Beyond<\/i>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 4-5.<\/p>\n

Roebuck, Peter<\/b> <\/i>2006 \u201cSecret Filming reveals Extent of Bowlers who Chuck,\u201d in Roberts, Essaying Cricket. Sri Lanka and Beyond<\/i>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 321-22.<\/p>\n

Suhaib, Hilal<\/strong> 2010 \u201cRoss Emerson admits to no-balling Murali due to orders from the top,\u201d 8 July 2010, http:\/\/www.islandcricket.lk\/news\/60670708\/<\/a> ross_emerson_admits_no_balling_murali_due_orders_from_the_top<\/p>\n

Thuppahi<\/b> 2014 \u201cMedia Tsunami in Australia over Islamic Terror WITHIN … and Beyond,\u201d http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/09\/18\/media-tsunami-in-australia-over-islamic-terror-within\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Thuppahi<\/b> 2014b \u201cTerror Australis,\u201d http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/09\/19\/terror-australis\/<\/p>\n

White, Alex<\/b><\/cite> 2014 <\/cite>\u201c<\/b>Unmasked: Aussie jihadists heading into Islamic State terror zones,\u201d Herald Sun, <\/cite>18 September 2014.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n
\n
\n

[1]<\/a> I was watching the match at the MCG on the 26th<\/sup> and got back to Adelaide on the 31st<\/sup> night. I penned this article there and then. It was printed in the Daily News<\/i> in Sri Lanka but no Australian newspaper accepted it. It has been reprinted in my Essaying Cricket<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[2]<\/a> Tim Lane told fellow radio commentators ha t morning that something major would take place that day. This story went the rounds once Murali was no-balled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[3]<\/a> As they drove to the MCG on the 26th<\/sup> December morning Halbish told Owen Mottau, his mate from the same Prahran Cricket Club, that Murali would be no-balled that day (info communicated by Owen to me).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[4]<\/a> See Roberts 2011a: 6-8 and Roberts 2011b: 114-17.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[5]<\/a> This was due to an offer of testing from Daryl Foster of the Biotechnology unit at the University of Western Australia — a friendly gesture that was taken up with alacrity by Duleep Mends and the BCCSL. For details see Roberts<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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