Liz Cambage third world sledge hypocrisy beyond belief

Australians are getting sick of being told how racist we are, especially from a trumped up athlete who, it turns out, might need to turn the mirror on herself, writes James Morrow.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Not long ago women’s basketballer Liz Cambage was on her way to being yet another woke darling of the Australian sports world, right up there with the coal mine protesting David Pocock and the climate campaigning Pat Cummins.

In May of last year Cambage made headlines complaining that there were too many white athletes in photo of the Australian Olympics team, saying it represented “#whitewashedaustralia” (yes, there is always a hashtag for these things).

Naturally she quickly traded in the inevitable criticism she received for victimhood points, going on to suggest that a coach and former players were bullying her over her campaign.

Now, though, we know things are a little different because the very publicly right-on Cambage turns out to be somewhat different than she presents.

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” Liz Cambage’s hypocrisy is beyond belief, says James Morrow.

It has been confirmed that Cambage, in a practice match with Nigerian basketballers at the Tokyo Olympics, told her opponents to “go back to your Third World country.”

This was clearly not playful banter, or if it was meant to be it certainly wasn’t taken as such.

The remark triggered an on-court brawl, and Cambage – who, ironically, is half-Nigerian herself – has been told she will never play for the Opals again.

The revelations have caused quite a fall from grace for Cambage, who is now very unlikely to enjoy a post-athletics career going on ABC panel shows to tell Australians how racist they are.

Sports fans might recall that at one point she threatened to boycott Tokyo over the previously mentioned too-white team photo by saying she didn’t “care for a white man’s opinion on racial issues”.

Indeed.

Cambage, in a practice match with Nigerian basketballers at the Tokyo Olympics, told her opponents to “go back to your Third World country”.

The whole thing feels a bit like those stories from the US about anti-gay southern preachers who get busted conducting a bit of “men’s ministry” in a cheap motel.

Or, as another white man – one William Shakespeare – put it some time ago, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Australians are getting sick of being told how racist we are, especially from a trumped up athlete who, it turns out, might need to turn the mirror on herself on this score.

“Go back to your third world country” is a disgraceful thing to say to a group of African women, and we all know what the response from the outrage brigade would be if the comment was uttered by a player of a fairer skin tone.

The hypocrisy is beyond belief.