An old friend of mine plays cricket for Australia. I call him an old friend because he was a friend, a friend of mine invited him to our youthgroup and he came and then when I changed schools for senior he was at that school and he went to the formal with another friend of mine but since school finished I have only run into him a couple of times. I feel silly saying he's a friend since he would likely not recognise me now but an "acquaintance" to me implies that we met a few times and that was it so anyway, it's not as cool as it sounds is my point, we no longer ever see each other and like I said, I doubt he would recognise me if he tripped over me in the street. So anyway, I hear his name a lot in the news, he is often touted as the next this or the up and coming that, he's a sure fire to win such and such award (can you tell I don't watch or know anything about cricket?) it's always been in a good light, even the dropped catches and "giving away" of runs. Today though he's not being portrayed in a good light. It's not the usual texting liaisons or girls in hotel rooms or whatever else Warney made himself famous for but it's still not something you want plastered across the headlines about a friend. I'm not sure how much has been sensationalised by the press and how much is true. But to me the saddest thing is that the accusations appear to have originated with his own mum contacting the press. It hardly seems sensible to air the families dirty laundry in a public forum. Her beef seems not to be with her son, more with his girlfriend/fiance and Cricket Australia's decision to fly the wives and girlfriends (WAGs) of the cricketers to the Ashes and the fact that she feels they (GF and CA) are turning her son against her. But I fail to see how telling a newspaper would help this issue at all. So all that to say that today I am sad for him. Sad that irrelevant aspects of his childhood have been dragged through the press to fill out a non-event of a story. Sad that there is a problem between him and his mum. Sad that although he knows about God he has made the decision to turn away from Him. Sad that the marriage he is heading into is not grounded in God and therefore faces an uphill battle from the outset and on top of that it will be overshadowed by media claims and dramatics, sensationalised stories and photos taken out of context. Sad that his dream is tarnished.
I am not omitting his name to protect his identity, because if you pick up a paper (in Australia) I am sure you can figure out who he is, but rather so that this post would not come up as further fodder for the media in any way.
Not the usual post for us but just what I am thinking about right now.
Oh gosh yes, I know who you are talking about (off course we are also a cricket mad nation). One of these days we are going to have some friendly banter about the tri-nations!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I read the article in the paper today and at first I was angry with his Mum and then I just felt even sadder for him.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't remember him being close to his mum in the years that he and I were friendly. He lived with Dad when we were in high school. In fact, I don't think he was overly close with either of his parents. His parents never supported his sport or his involvement in activities such as youth group in the same way other parents would. I am not going to publish some of thier secrets but I am going to say that I am sure that if he wanted his mum there, she would be there. Maybe she should be looking at her and his relationship rather than blaming others.
She complained that she doesn't get tickets to the games. If my son was playing for Australia, I would buy tickets to the games myself. I'm sure you would too if Dragon and Lion were playing sport for Australia. Money wouldn't be an issue. You would find the money.
I pray that this cricketer will not forget the relationships he saw within our church, the parents of his friends who drove him to many events, who welcomed him into thier homes and treated him like one of the family in an effort to show him God's love. I am sad that I am no longer in contact with him and I pray that God puts someone in his path to show him the true and pure love that only comes from a relationship with Christ.
Sorry for such a long post but I too have had this on my heart today.
@Cat - um, probably not a good idea to talk to me about tri-nations... so I'm guessing it's Australia, South Africa and um... someone else? I got knocked out cold the last time I played cricket and was exempt from sport for the rest of that term :) all part of my evil plan to get out of exercise...
ReplyDelete@Kate - Yep, that about sums it up.
I just did a google search to see what you were talking about because I have no idea about cricket or Australian stars of it or whatever.... :-) I didn't have a name to go on but I typed in "cricket players Australia" and found a link. I don't know much about it all, but I have to say that mother has some serious issues. She should NOT be talking about that in the media. if she is hurt that her son doesn't call or write then she needs to contact him and tell him that, not call a newspaper. What a freak of a woman who needs some therapy.
ReplyDeleteAs for the girlfriend, I know nothing about her, but I hope what he is doing is right and that he turns his eyes back to God at some point -- regardless of who he does or doesn't marry.
WOW! How sad! I just can't ever imagine going to the media in place of talking to my very own son...I think her actions say a lot.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Nurse Boy
We probably should keep in mind the nature of the media. They possibly contacted Mum first and stirred the pot. I assume she is not very media savvy and said much more than she wanted printed. On top of that the media then put their own slant on it and leave out any bits that don't add to the sensationalism. Mum may be feeling very embarrassed at this point in time.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad because he did seem like a really nice young fellow and still comes across that way from what I've seen.
I don't think media can be entirely blamed here. Someone must have contacted the media first to point out there were problems between said cricketer and his mother, and while it mightn't have been the mother, I doubt the reporters suddenly thought "oh, I wonder if Cricketer A and his mother get along? Let's call her up and see if there's any goss". Someone had to contact them first. Sure it's none of their business, but hey, isn't that what the media does best? :P
ReplyDeleteMaybe it wasn't the mother but she really has to shoulder some blame here, she said some pretty horrible things about the girlfriend that she shouldn't have said at all, let alone to a journalist.