Ashes: In a gentleman's game an image that mocked Asians

Adelaide: Apart from England poor showing in the on going Ashes series the other topic that engrossed the cricket fans is an image that was not only insensitive to England spinner Monty Panesar but a plain racist and insulting to the Asian community. This image was posted just on the eve of the second Test in Adelaide. And who posted it….? Cricket Australia, the governing body that controls cricket in Australia.Are you in La La Land? The Cricket Australia account tweeted this photo with the bizarre message 'Will the real Monty Panesar please stand up?'Cricket Australia tried to mock Panesar, offended just about everybody instead and then hastily withdrew. A supposedly humorous image appeared on Twitter and, being met with more gasps than guffaws, just as quickly disappeared. England's hosts - an organisation whose pre-match stance should not really extend beyond the respectable wish that the best team wins - put up a picture on its official Twitter page, CricketAus, shortly before play began and once England's starting line-up had been announced. It showed four men, Indian and Sikh in appearance, wearing turbans and dressed in matching outfits distinguished only by their different bright colours: from left to right, purple, red, green and yellow. All are wearing sunglasses, all have beards, all have funny antennae on their heads. The picture is captioned: ‘Will the real Monty Panesar please stand up?' The colours, the antennae-turbans, identify these Asian men as mimicking the Teletubbies: Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po. For Asian immigrants generally it no doubt also pales into significance beside a late night beating at a bus stop, or the sense of not being somehow other, in western communities. So what does this image convey…..? Panesar looks like these men, and that these men all look like each other. So Asians look the same. Nice. Here comes another one just like the other one. Cricket Australia wishes to dress Panesar, and those who resemble him culturally, in the childish garb of mythological toddlers to tell them apart. The joke was demeaning, insulting and fell instantly flat. It wasn't especially vile, but it shouldn't have been made at all. This isn't what Cricket Australia is for. The clue is in the name. They run cricket in Australia, a nation that has won two Test matches in 2013 and are currently playing a major Test match at a half-finished venue, largely unfit for purpose. .