John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova want to tell Australians what’s right and wrong with Margaret Court protest

John McEnroe was disqualified from the 1990 Australian Open for verbal abuse, left, and Martina Navratilova and McEnroe protest on Margaret Court Arena. Picture: News Corp/Twitter

John Newcombe and Pat Cash – just for argument’s sake – gain access to the centre court during the US Open courtesy of participation in a legends match and unfurl a banner demanding that Arthur Ashe Stadium be renamed Jimmy Connors Arena.

What would happen next?

I’m willing to go out on a limb and suggest that New York’s finest would be out on the court within seconds, handcuffing Newc and Cash and hauling them off to some downtown lock-up.

The charges would mention something about trespass and disturbing the peace, maybe illegal protest. But what would really offend most New Yorkers would be the fact they were being lectured to by a couple of Aussies.

We’re much more polite and relaxed on this side of the world, of course. A couple of Americans – John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova – got little more than a slap on the wrists when they unfurled a protest banner on Margaret Court Arena on Tuesday. But for heaven’s sake, who are they to lecture us like this?

McEnroe and Navratilova, who don’t like the political and religious views of Australia’s greatest tennis player, want Margaret Court Arena renamed Evonne Goolagong Arena.

On Tuesday, at the completion of a legends match, Navratilova jumped into the umpire’s chair and grabbed the microphone to deliver an attack on Court and her views on gay marriage. When the public address system was shut down before she had said much, she and McEnroe unfurled the banner proclaiming Evonne Goolagong Arena in rainbow letters.

Freedom of speech is a great thing and McEnroe and Navratilova should be encouraged to express their views. And, of course they have done. Navratilova has taken every available opportunity to criticise Court and this week she delivered an open letter calling on authorities to switch the name of the court. McEnroe offered his views in an amusing video circulating on the internet.

But disrupting action on court during the Australian Open with a stunt worthy of an undergraduate protest is probably taking it too far.

If nothing else, they have abused their positions to gain access to the court. They were only there because she was participating in the legends match and he is a commentator.

In the case of McEnroe, this lecture is particularly galling in that it comes from a bloke who was once disqualified from the Australian Open for his appalling behaviour. Known as Superbrat in his playing days for his constant badmouthing of umpires and linesmen, he was kicked out of the 1990 Open after an out-of-control tirade of racquet smashing and abuse.

Now he wants to tell Australians what’s right and wrong.

McEnroe is also the bloke who referred to an umpire at the French Open in the mid-1980s as a “f...ing French frog fag”.

Truth is, we have our own ideas of what’s right and wrong. Some of us agree with Court on gay marriage, many of us don’t.

We’re big enough to accept the differences and get on with it. And we should be confident enough in our views to tolerate a range of views and get on with honouring the 50th anniversary of Court’s 1970 grand slam.

Without a couple of retired Americans waving banners on court.