Comments on: An interview with Peter Lalor (Part-2)

By: sunil k

sunil k — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 07:27:20 +0000

As Raghavan mentioned earlier, the tone of Peter’s response is nowhere close to to his writings while he was in India, and in some of his
responses to the questions asked above.
Instead of celebrating an exciting cricketing rivalry between two teams, his articles came across more as an attempt to put an upstart in place. And putting a racist spin on crowd behaviour was completely missing the point. There is no doubt that the behaviour of one-day cricket crowds in India is usually despicable. But if Peter cares to ask any Indian cricketer in private about crowd behaviour, he will find out that the crowds abuse even Indian cricketers. There was no need to bring the race issue. The criticism could have been limited to the falling standards of crowd behaviour. The Symonds episode just spiralled out of control. The atmosphere of the series in Australia has already been vitiated. Instead of enjoying an exciting series between a legendary Australian team and a young, upcoming Indian team, we will be focusing more on non-cricketing issues.

I am sorry if my comments were a cause of hurt for Peter.
Lets hope for a great series in a months time, and hope cricket plays its part in building friendship and understanding between two vastly different cultures, as cliched as it might sound.

By: blogesh

blogesh — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 21:30:17 +0000

You cannot make all the people happy all the time, Peter.

But thanks for your honest and candid response. I am sure it has definitely changed the perception a lot of Indians had on you and your writing – it is a pity only the ones who don’t agree with your articles care to comment.

I, for one will look forward to your articles…

By: peter lalor

peter lalor — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:27:35 +0000

“Ignorant?” probably. There is always something to learn,
“Pompous?” that is your call, as cruel as it may be.
“Malevolent?” I dispute that vehemently.
As for the call me to “shut-up”, well, I was only answering the questions asked of me but I apologise for being so long winded in doing so as I was at home alone with the dog and did go on a bit while waiting for the kids to come home from school.
Thankyou, this has been an interesting learning curve for me, and at the risk of being told to shut up one more time, I want to assure those of you who are so irritated by what I write that India is my favourite country outside of home and cricket in India is something I love dearly. I obviously have to work on conveying that in the way I write and the tone I write it in.
Namaskar and congratulations on getting Kumble as captain, please be kind to him as it is a difficult job and there appears to be no end of critics waiting to pounce on the slightest failings.
Hopefully Mohan will spare you whatever else he has up his sleeve from me.
PS watch out for the documentary called Guru Greg … it is sure to cause a stir.
I will now “bugger off” but if you are coming over here for the Tests drop me a line at The Australian newspaper, I would be happy to catch up with fellow cricket lovers.
Peter
lalorp@theaustralian.com.au

By: sunil k

sunil k — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:41:59 +0000

Peter Lalor has the distinction of “popularizing” monkey chanting here in India. He claims that it is absurd to believe that it was unheard of in India as English and European football leagues are a staple of people here. Fantastic insight that is. Sorry Mr. Lalor, please take credit where it is due. On another interview he declares pompously “.. it is time for a country to grow up”. Wow!
He very well qualifies to be the most ignorant, pompous, malevolent journalist to have come to this country in a while. When Australia has a surfeit of great cricket writers, I dont know how this guy slipped through.

By: sampath kumar

sampath kumar — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:47:43 +0000

BUGGER is an Aussie slang–a term of endearment to describe a contemptible person or a thing

A Prime Minister used it against old folks

Toyota had a very good TV advertisement shot in NZ and shown in Australia with clever use of the word BUGGER by a few people and a dog!!!

It is not what some people take it as outside Australia–a big cultural difference indeed

By: Rahul

Rahul — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 07:08:06 +0000

@Ramesh
Your comment-post was a disgrace. Calling Lalor a “bugger” was needless — a slur any way you look at it. If you cannot engage in dialogue without the need to slur and curse, I suggest you resist the urge. I do not agree with all of Lalor’s views, but I do believe he is a decent human being.

And in my view to say Symonds got what he deserved for the comments he made is akin to saying that a woman deserved to get raped for the clothes she wears.

By: ramesh

ramesh — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 05:34:09 +0000

will this bugger lalor shutup. enough of his pathetic defense of everything australian. he comes to india and expects the crowds to behave like they do in Lords pavilion? he justifies the aussie way of sledging, abusing, aussie crowd behaviour. he is the one who blew this symonds issue out of proportion. symonds got what he deserved from the crowds for his comments. if it is construed as racist by White australians then so be it. Indian crowds need not pay for the problem aussies have in their society where they discriminate against aboriginals.

By: Ottayan

Ottayan — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 02:39:29 +0000

“I had no problems with the crowds attacking Symonds as long as it wasn’t racist, although I would have hoped for more sympathy after the first racist taunts. ”

Symonds is paid to play cricket. Irrespective of the circumstances he is expected to play.

He played, we respect him for it.

Why should he get sympathy?

If he is racially abused in his workplace, it is between him and his employers to sort it out.