England’s 2005 Ashes win prompted Christine Grahame to table motion S2M-3274, lamenting the “overwhelming UK-wide coverage of a sport that is of only marginal interest in Scotland”.
Yet cricket, with an estimated 28,000 active participants, has a longer history in Scotland than football. There are more cricket clubs per capita in Scotland than in England. There are more cricket clubs in just the Scottish lowlands than there are rugby clubs in the whole of Scotland.
Roseanna Cunningham’s snearing motion S2M-3284 (19/9/2005) even expressed “every confidence that Australia will regain the Ashes at the next meeting between the two countries”.
And now Sandra White (of butcher’s apron infamy) and Bill Wilson (who thinks “nobody” in Scotland speaks standard English) have piled in, calling for English cricket to be purged from Scottish TV.
These people disgrace Scotland with their mean-spiritedness and promotion of anti-Englishness.
12 July 2009
Anti-English cricket campaign is irresponsible
Posted by
Scottish Unionist
at 7:37 PM.
There are 16 comments.
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You are 100% correct.
Mean spiritedness is exactly what it is. Ignorance is another word for it.
Hi Jim. It’s reassuring that not all nationalists share the Grahame/White/Cunningham/Wilson cringe!
But the broader cybernat reaction needs to be documented. This is what I mean by “promotion of anti-Englishness”. Wittingly or unwittingly, the anti-English cricket campaign empowers the kinds of people who truly hate the English, seeing them as imperialist aggressors and Scots as victims of cultural oppression.
Some of the worst comments:
“The BBC is the EBC, of that there is no doubt, and it will never change, whilst Scotland remains as the personal lapdug of england.”
“Cricket, truly the most boring game ever devised. The only consolation is that england invented it, went on colonial conquest missions promoting it, and now are regularly gubbed by Australia, Pakistan, the West Indies etc..”
“This is an auld argument yet still the EBC ignores Scottish wishes.”
“We all know that the ebc favour the people from south of the border, but as long as you have nuliebour it wont change.”
“after more than five decades of having it forced down my throat , i still have no clue how the "game" is even scored”
“coverage of what greater england wants is always going to happen on the greater england broadcasting corporation.”
“Lidl in arbroath are selling Ashes Beer complete with painted fan in st georges cross, with the slogan "not for australians". I say "not for scotland either"”
“The EBC and endless cricket. Another great benefit of the undemocratic and wasteful english union.”
“The fact is, we do have england thrust on us ALL the time, but scottish fayre is not good enough for them down south.”
“The reason you got so much cricket coverage was because the "Old Dunkirk" spirit was rekindled in the SE of England.”
“Cricket is the National Sport of the English aka the Ingers or Inger Mingers.”
“enjoy it while you can , the days of having english stuff forced down scottish throats is nearly over”
“Cricket is just one of the many ways that England's cultural imperialism is force fed to Scotland. All in a vain attempt to crush out own culture, the BBC being the glue that holds the union together.”
“I sincerely hope the BBC and Sky keep up the current blanket coverage. This current Ashes series has all the hallmarks of potential English humiliation.”
“The complete assimilation of Scotland, despite all the attemtps by the English establishment has failed. They are now shown to be the arrogant imperialists they always were.”
This one made me laugh:
“after more than five decades of having it forced down my throat , i still have no clue how the "game" is even scored”
I can't begin to imagine how inter-galactically, fucking stupid you'd have to be to have not cottoned onto the scoring system after 5 minutes, never mind decades, but then to come onto the internet to tell everyone beggars belief...
This one just scares me though. I just thought it was a bat and ball game of skill, concentration and courage. As always I seem to have missed the bigger picture.
“Cricket is just one of the many ways that England's cultural imperialism is force fed to Scotland. All in a vain attempt to crush out own culture, the BBC being the glue that holds the union together.”
SU,
Whilst I totally agree with your last sentence I'm disappointed to find that you define the silly comments you concentrate on as being the "broader" nationalist view-point.. We both know that such is not the case. Furthermore, a dislike of cricket does not equate to a dislike of the English nation. Anyway, the "English" team on occasions contains Scots and Welsh players and, most notably, a South African.
Brownlie:
I’m pleased to note that you agree with me that Christine Grahame, Sandra White, Roseanna Cunningham and Gordon Wilson disgrace Scotland with their mean-spiritedness and promotion of anti-Englishness.
But actually, I described the quoted comments as indicative of the “broader cybernat reaction”, not the “broader nationalist view-point”. We would be in real trouble if that were the case!
Incidentally, I just stumbled across this little tidbit from an old Scotland on Sunday, discussing Channel 4 viewing figures for the 2005 Ashes series:
“Official viewing statistics show that up to 18% of its UK audience was north of the Border ... Scotland has just 8.5% of the UK population.”
Where do you think that leaves Christine Grahame’s claim that cricket is “only of marginal interest in Scotland” – coincidentally also Bruce McFee’s exact words? Or Sandra White’s claim that she doesn’t think that “in Scotland cricket merits the same support that it does down south”?
Yeah, I agree. Most Scots sports fans I know have at least a passing interest in cricket.
The full coverage is on Sky & terrestrial coverage is reduced to 2-minute BBC evening news reports & a half-hour slot on channel 5. Surely thats not too hard for a select bunch of politicians & 'The Scotsman' scribblers to comprehend?
What exactly do they want? If they want a separate broadcasting company, don't the SNP have the power & resources to produce one?
*Brownlie*
The South African in question (Kevin Pietersen) has an English mother & sees himself as English. As one of his legions of fans, thats good enough for me! :-)))
snearing motion?
wv Protosh
I also agree that the comments are stupid. I see a lot of kids playing cricket in my local park. I suspect most of them would support Pakistan rather than England but who cares. (And yes I know there is a Scottish cricket team but they are not very good).
But in defence of Roseanna - of COURSE she is anti English when it comes to the Ashes. She grew up in Australia.
For those who don't know The Ashes is strictly an England-Australia battle which has been going on since the 1880s.
Luke: Broadcasting is reserved to UK level.
Montague: Eh?
Indy: Point taken.
No dissent from me on this one either SU... I'm a card carrying Nat & fan of the English cricket team.... If only it wasn't on bloody Sky.
That said, I won't and can't agree with anyone tarnishing the whole party with a few stupid comments.
Su,
Having looked at the issue again I consider that they disgrace themselves rather than disgracing Scotland. I suppose they are entitled to their own opinion but I would rather they did not offer them in any public capacity. Whilst I certainly do not, I suspect that more than a few in England share their views on cricket.
WV is "inglee" - how strange!
The headline in the Times was “Scots call to cut cricket on TV”. This kind of thing reflects poorly on us all. Indeed, that may even be the political rationale.
SU
Don't disagree with your feeling on this, but cricket just doesn't float my boat. Those who display a lack of integrity in public cast judgement on no-one but themselves.
As I've said before, I have a problem with the BBC being the LBC (not the EBC,) although, for different reasons, feel passionately about no Scottish professional football being shown on Saturday evening on BBC1. That, and lack of coverage of the Scottish national team's qualifying games, is something that Scottish Licence Fee payers' have every right to bemoan. You don't have to be of a nationalist persuasion to campaign for these things either. Isn't it ironic that terrestrial coverage of Scottish football was actually better prior to devolution.
I remember as a boy compulsively watching a program called 'bodyline' which was a dramatisation of the infamous bodyline ashes tour to Australia.
If I remember correctly, the captain and 'villian' of the piece, Douglas Jardine, had a strong Scottish connection.
In fact, I think I'm right in saying that England weren't really England in the sense of other International sports up until quite recently. It was always an MCC XI who played and there have been a few Scots selected for them over the years.
I loved watching the 70's cricket coverage and hearing the beautiful voice of 'Jonners'. Just as I played tennis during Wimbledon, I played many long hours of cricket in my mates back garden. Ah! Nostalgia! It's brought a real smile to me to recall those summers of wanting to be Bjorn Borg, Archie Gemmill and Ian Botham all at once ;-)
As part of this blog’s stated remit of serving as an archive, here is a quick roundup of various other bloggers’ thoughts:
David Maddox: “One has to ask, as some political parties already have, whether having a go at cricket is a convenient way of having a go at the English without actually saying so as it is clear they consider the game to be an English one.”
Tom Peterkin: “To suggest that cricket is of little interest to Scots shows at best a misunderstanding of a great Scottish sporting tradition. At worst, it suggests a knee-jerk antipathy to all things English.”
Alex Massie: “There is much more enthusiasm for cricket, and much more cricket actually played, in Scotland than many people in England appreciate. And there's much more cricket in Scotland than some Scots appreciate too. This is especially true of joyless, chippy, narrow-minded, prejudiced nationalist members of the Scottish parliament, plenty of whom see the game as an unwecome, if irrelevent, interloper at best and, doubtless, an agent of English colonialism at worst. This, naturally, is Class-A piffle.”
Jim: “I've come across this strange attitude in Scots before. It bewilders me. It saddens me greatly. How from a position of ignorance we can project an image of hostility is perhaps to be expected from some bar room tosser, but from our elected representatives? How very sad indeed and about as far from my hopes for a fair minded, egalitarian Scotland as can be!”
Rob Marrs: “'England' are, of course, actually the England and Wales Cricket Board but to many Scottish fans cricket is the only sport where they will cheer the English on.... maybe there are more reasons as to why the Nationalists don't like it! My father, for one, will cheer with delight when England get stuffed at rugby or football or, indeed, any other sport but likes nothing better than watching England win the cricket.”
Why do the so called experts not focus on the positives for once....,Scotland's national sport gets so much media attention, more than it deserves. Yet 3 Scottish cricketers have just received full time contracts, due recognition for their efforts in reaching the recent world cups.
The negativity surrounding the game north of the border is obvious, but it remains popular and ultra competitve amongst those who play.
A bunch of bickering politicians wasting their time on a game dubbed by many as a waste of time doesn't alter the fact English cricket will break the Australian cricket dominance this summer. Something most Scots will relate to, an underdog taking on the world number 1.