The " Discourteous " Few !

 The threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic caused spectator numbers allowed into the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch Australia play India in a cricket test to be sharply reduced.   Those that got to watch the game live from the stands were the lucky people because the rest of Australia was ordered to stay at home and be content with watching the test on television.

Without that ban, the Sydney Cricket Ground would have been packed to capacity, and yet a small section of the crowd within the ground chose to shame the great tradition of Australian sportsmanship by shouting racial abuse at the Indian players.

Those Indian sportsmen were seriously affronted and the television cameras recorded the action that followed.   The police were quick to descend on the troublemakers and they were escorted out of the stadium and the likely outcome is that they will not be allowed access to any sporting code for the indefinite future.

This was not an isolated incident.  Both Rugby League and Australian Rules codes of football have been plagued by fans shouting racial vilification whenever an Aboriginal or coloured immigrant gains team selection and appears on the field.

In particular, Australian Rules was previously mainly popular in the southern states but its rise to becoming part of the national competition made it popular in Queensland and the Northern Territory, and it was quickly found that young Aboriginal men had an affinity for the code.   As a result, selectors were   quick to sign up recruits and there are now many Aboriginal players in the states mix.

It is a big change for a young  Aboriginal to make the move from a small inland community to one of Australia's great cities and find they have become a celebrity for their football prowess, and it can be very discouraging to receive abuse from the spectators aimed at the colour of their skin.

Unfortunately, skin colour harks back to the days when Europeans thought they had the right to claim land they found in their travels and so the world was mainly composed of colonial empires.  These are now self governing countries  and the integration of economies has resulted in the mix of skin colours becoming normal in most nations.

We live in cosmopolitan Australia and we have accepted immigrants from most parts of the world.  In fact, we are a prime migration destination and at any one time there are thousands of people languishing in refugee camps around the world hoping to be accepted for settlement here

That incident at the cricket in Sydney involved no more than half a dozen people, which was very clear when they were publicly frog marched from the arena by the police.  There will probably always be a few larrikins affected by alcohol who misbehave in a crowd, but the Indian cricket team was warmly welcomed to this country - As Australians are welcome in India.