Cricket is getting shoulder-charged into a mean, new world

It’s just not cricket. Whatever that was, it isn’t any more. New to the crease, the sensational young Australian cricketer Sam Konstas has already integrated Test cricket sledging into his game, learnt from and encouraged by his fellow team members and fellow cricketers.

Arrogant backchat and verbal pestering have become acceptable parts of the game now played on our hallowed grounds (“Pathetic penalty doesn’t fit Kohli’s crime”, 27/12).

This is not the way our Don Bradman would have played the game.

Stinginess and small-mindedness have become acceptable, although physically barging into the batsman’s power-wielding shoulder is definitely not acceptable. Our new young batsman who has mastered using both sides of the bat to belt the ball over the fence will no doubt face his own cricketing demons and disappointments, as have all cricketers in their Test careers as the years go by.

Enjoy the moment, Sam, add wisdom and grace to your repertoire of shots, and remember even our Don had his bad days.

Stephanie Summers, North Turramurra, NSW

Indian cricket star Virat Kohli’s blatant shoulder bump against Australia’s upcoming cricket talent Sam Konstas carries far greater significance than a mere Level 1 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct, which relates to inappropriate physical contact with a player.

Kohli’s status as one of cricket’s legendary players, together with him representing a sporting nation of almost 1.5 billion people, many of whom hold him in the highest esteem, clearly raises the stakes in this latest encounter.

Vincent Zankin, Rivett, ACT

English in entropy

Never mind the loss of the Elizabethan insults, “me and my mates” believe the state of the English language to be much worse than even Greg Craven thinks, and not only because we now go to “train stations” instead of “railway stations” and “swim schools” instead of “swimming schools” (“A pox on the porpentines and pesky popinjays”, 26/12).

More than 50 years ago, schools stopped correcting spelling and grammar in children’s essays on the grounds that to do so destroyed the children’s creativity. Since then, English has lost its precision.

Nobody under 50 seems to know the difference between “quick” and “fast”, “translator” and “interpreter”, and “persuade” and “convince”.

“The children and their mother” are no longer a single family, and a single child can lose “their” English textbook.

And apart from “incredible”, the only adjective that seems to be known to most of the population is the one derived from the copulative verb, and the only adverb the same word.

Albert Riley, Mornington, Vic

Greg Craven roundly decries “the entire simpering modern English language”. Rightly so.

However, I have two examples of the reverse where trite language from old times is badly in need of updating: “Please be upstanding” for the national anthem or a similar reason and “I wish to thank anybody, for whatever reason”. This indirect language makes me cringe whenever I hear it. What about “please stand for the national anthem” and “thank you, Mr Anybody, for whatever reason”?

Trevor Sargent, Busselton, WA

Scapegoats of history

Instead of differences, confused people should focus on our similarities. That is the positive aspect enabling the exercise of beneficial comparison and moral clarity associated with the truth and understanding of humanity’s cultural differences.

Nova Peris (“Indigenous lore shares common cause with Israel’s struggle”, 27/12) writes a superlative article, easily read and understood by those confronted by biased and controlled mass media propaganda.

Ignorance is the subversive factor that denies mutual respect and favourable understanding to resonate and be communicated. Her well-expressed line, “The Jews get accused of whatever is the worst sin of the day”, is a blame of convenience also meted out to the Indigenous population.

Peris’s vital disclosure that “anti-Semitism accelerates our moral decay” has its tragic evidence throughout history and prefaces the inevitable breakdown of the greater society.

Aviva Rothschild, Caulfield North, Vic

Uplifting to the end

A heartfelt thankyou to the Marinos family and Stephen Lunn for the beautiful article (“Why our Lex chose to die at home”, 21-22/12).

I know Lex Marinos only through his work, but this article and the courage of his family in telling their story convince me I would have enjoyed his company immensely. How not to like a talented man who loved cricket, enjoyed a few laughs and clearly had great taste in music?

William Vickers, Melbourne