THE GREAT CRICKET KERFUFFLE OF 2008

It's appropriate to preface this post by saying that I haven't paid much attention to cricket over the past few years – lack of knowledge landed me in a bit of strife in comments at Tim Blair's yesterday – but the opinions I'm about to express don't require detailed background knowledge. This post is simply meant to clarify my position.

In my opinion:

1. A comment passed from one player to another is not newsworthy.
2. Such comments, unheard by umpires or members of the public, do not merit scrutiny by higher authority.
3. Harbhajan Singh should not have been suspended.
4. The Australian side plays the best cricket in the world.
5. The Australian team has the worst attitude of any team.
6. Nearly every concerned party has massively overreacted.
7. Those of the general public who have invested more than 30 seconds in this story, and that includes me, need to get a life.
   

Now don't bother starting on me about how racism in sports is unacceptable. I agree, but this isn't about institutional racism, it's about something allegedly said by one player to another. If Harbhajan Singh called Andrew Symonds a monkey it was a stupid thing to do; Symonds should feel pretty good about himself, secure in the knowledge that he'd never stoop so low.

If my position on this offends or disappoints you, too fucking bad.

Update: The inter-RWDB stoushing clearly refutes the lefty-promoted notion that Blair's commenters are lock-steppers, by the way.