ON LINE CRITICISM: IT’S JUST NOT CRICKET

‘If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same’

Such, suggested Rudyard Kipling, is part of what it is to be grown up.

This week Somerset lost a cricket match and hearty congratulations are due to Essex who ran out the worthy winners of what, for me at least, was still an enjoyable contest even though the result was not the one I would have liked.

Despite yet another century for Sir Alistair Cook, diehard Somerset supporters like myself were, at 12.15 on the morning of the final day, still dreaming that, even with four wickets down, captain Tom Abell and the teenage wicket keeper batsmen, James Rew might have had what it takes to pull off a remarkable win. Such optimism was, on this occasion at least, unjustified, as one and then six wickets fell for just 41 and Somerset were all out with the required target still a distant 196 runs away. I guess we can’t all be like Surrey who impressed by chasing down a remarkable 501 to beat Kent on the same day!

Predictably enough it wasn’t long before the knives were out with some on social media doing what they do best by pouring scorn on the Somerset performance.

Over the last 46 years there have only been two occasions when I have been embarrassed to be a Somerset supporter. The first related to that decision to declare a one day innings in a Benson & Hedges Cup Cup group match for just one run and thus, though forfeiting the game, hoping to guarantee progression into the knockout phase of the competition by preserving the side’s run rate. Thankfully the cunning plan proved fatally flawed when the club was, in my opinion, quite rightly ejected from the competition. Just because something can be done, doesn’t mean it should be. 44 years on, though, a lot of water has passed under the bridge and all is now forgiven!

The second was more recent and down to the particularly poor behaviour of a small group of what I’ll loosely describe as ‘supporters’ when, by late afternoon on a hot sunny day, the perhaps inevitable effects of putting on a beer and cider festival at a RLODC game came fully into effect. Banter is one thing – but this was way beyond what should be acceptable to anyone.

This week there has been a third, when it emerged that the Somerset CCC Official Facebook Group was being discussed by those outside of Somerset as being one that is particularly critical of the team that it’s members are supposed to support.

Cricket is just a game. A wonderfully enjoyable and thoroughly satisfying game, but a game it nonetheless remains. And it is meant to be enjoyed as such. As was suggested by those who were commenting on the events that unfolded at Chelmsford this week, all sport is unimportant – and paradoxically that is precisely why it is so important. It is in the end no more than a much needed distraction from the sometimes all too painful realities of day to day life. The news of the senseless death of three people in Nottingham on Tuesday, two the same age as the aforementioned James Rew and active in sport themselves, makes that plain.

But there is one thing that is even less important than sport – and that is my opinion on it – and, dare I say it, that of everyone else who also feels the need to comment.

This is not to say that one shouldn’t voice one’s thoughts on what one feels passionate about. It’s OK to express disappointment when our team loses but that should not be an excuse for rudeness or unkindness. Nor is it an attempt to limit free speech, the claim made by some who are sometimes called out for their overly critical remonstrations. But it is a plea for a little objectivity. By all means express an opinion on how a game is progressing and feel free to debate the rights and wrongs of an umpiring decision, but let’s not resort to personal comments about a players character or denigrate those doing their best to make what are often very difficult calls. Because just as not everything that can be done, should be done, not everything that can be said has to be said. Sometimes the wise keep quiet.

Here then are a few reasons why I intend to keep any comments I may make on social media about the summer game positive

1. I’m not very good at cricket! True I once captained my school house to cup success but it was the third eleven and though I opened the innings my average for the season was an astonishingly unimpressive nought. Though others on Facebook may have a better record than I, none that I see comment regularly have played for their county, still less for their country. It doesn’t seem right for me to criticise those who are a zillion times better than me.

2. Even if I did have the combined skills of Sachin Tendulkar, Muttiah Muralitharan and Jonty Rhodes, I’d not consider it appropriate to voice my criticism of someone’s seemingly reckless reverse sweep, expensive bowling figures or embarrassing misfield in public. Having once been on the receiving end of a bawling by a consultant whilst stood in the middle of a hospital ward, I can vouch for how ineffective that is as a means of receiving negative feedback!

3. I am not party to all that is behind an individual’s disappointing performance. Knowing, as I do, those who carry immense burdens which sometimes impact on their day to day behaviour, I recognise that there are often hidden factors that might explain the otherwise inexplicable. Kicking someone when they are down is neither kind nor helpful. The constructive criticism that is undoubtedly sometimes necessary, and indeed helpful, comes best from somebody who has a relationship with the one in need of help. And that’s not me. As such I’ll leave the coaching to the coaches.

4. Any hurtful comments I make won’t just affect the player, they’ll affect their friends and family too, many of whom who are part of the Facebook groups where their loved ones performance is dissected. As one with children myself, I really don’t want to see them being vilified in public, especially for something as trivial as an injudicious waft at a ball passing outside their off stump which results in them getting caught in the slips.

5. As a fan of my team, the players are important to me. They may not be family, but I do care about them. Having in many instances watched them come up through the ranks, they are more to me than employees contracted to make me happy. As such they shouldn’t be discarded the moment they don’t deliver. Though I suspect they are best advised to stay well away from Facebook groups which analyse their performance, I know for a fact that some players do read some of what is posted online. And so, because they too have feelings and I don’t doubt they’re trying to do their best., if any player were ever to come across something I’d written, I’d want them to feel better for reading it not worse.

6. Not infrequently I’ll be made to look stupid! Happily those who have come in for the sharpest criticism and been dismissed by some as no hopers have proved their detractors wrong. When things are going badly it’s important not to give up. As such posts should be encouraging for those we long to see come good, not an attempt to finish them off completely.

But over and above all, I’ll endeavour to remain positive on social media because the game is so much important than the result. What one achieves is less of an issue than how one achieves it. Furthermore we should care about our online performance every bit as much as we care about the on-field performance of our team.

Because unsporting behaviour on Facebook…we’ll it’s just not cricket.

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Other cricket blogs:

To read ‘Cigarettes, Singles, and Sipping Tea with Ian Botham: Signs of a Well Spent Youth!’, click here

To read ‘A Tale of Two Tons’, click here

To read ‘A Somerset Cricket Players Emporium’, click here

To read ‘A Cricket Taunt’, click here

To read ‘Scooby Doo and the Mystery of the Deseted Cricket Ground’, click here

To read ‘Brian and Stumpy visit The Repair Shop’, click here

To read ‘A Cricketing Christmas Carol’, click here

To read ‘At Season’s End’, click here

To read ‘A Historic Day’, click here

To read ‘On passing a village cricket club at dusk one late November afternoon’ click here

To read ‘Cricket – through thick and thin’, click here

To read ‘A Song for Brian’, click here

To read ‘I’ve got a little CRICKET list’, click here

To read ‘My love is not a red, red rose , click here

To read ‘Stumpy – a legend reborn’, click here

To read ‘A Cricket Tea Kind of a Day’, click here

To read ‘A Day at the Cricket’, click here

To read ‘The Great Cricket Sell Off’, click here

To read ‘How the Grinch stole from county cricket…or at least tried to’. click here

To read ‘How Covid-19 stole the the cricket season’, click here

To read ‘Life in the slow lane’, click here

To read ‘Frodo and the Format of Power’, click here

To read ‘If Only’, click here

To read ‘Eve of the RLODC limericks’ click here

To read ‘It’s coming home…’, click here

To read ‘A Song for Ben Green’, click here

To read ‘Enough Said…’, the last section of which is cricket related, click here

A Jack Leach Trilogy:

To read ‘For when we can’t see why’, click here

To read ‘WWJD – What would Jack Do?’, click here

To read ‘On Playing a Blinder’, click here

To read ‘Coping with Disappointment’, click here

And now a couple of cricket blogs with a theological flavour

To read ‘Somerset CCC – Good for the soul’, click here

To read ‘Longing for the pavilion whilst enjoying a good innings’, click here