Time Team Down Under

[BAJR Host]

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/com...3667616.jp

This attitude is the one that needs consideration.. I quite agree with Hardeep ... tacitly allowing racism to happen around you.. is bad enough.. to allow it to go unpunished... worse still

HARDEEP SINGH KOHLI - Scotland on Sunday

quoteunishment should fit the crime when it comes to monkey business

At the football recently, when one of the opposition players, a Chinese international called Sun Jihai, came tight to our byline, a man behind me shouted a rather derogatory remark about the player selling DVDs, remarks shouted in an equally derogatory accent. Without thinking I turned round and suggested that those comments had no place on the terraces of the club I follow. The torrent of abuse he returned to me quickly made me realise two things:

1 I really should have taken a moment to see how big and fierce the guy was before chastising him. Much as I don't like to admit it, in these matters of social protocol it's always wise to pick your fight carefully;

2 A man that makes dodgy comments is unlikely to react particularly well to a third party questioning the veracity of his comments.

Luckily our stooshie occurred with only 20 minutes to go so I only had to put up with his sarcasm and abuse for less than a quarter of the match.

Now, the football terraces are no place for the faint-hearted or thin-skinned. But what annoys me more than anything else was not the bigoted comments of this knuckle-headed individual: he's a lost cause. It was the singular lack of response from any of the spectators around me. There are sins of omission as well as commission.

And on that point, it seems only right to look at racism on the other side of the world, in a game that appears to be from a different planet for most of us Scots. A Sikh member of the Indian cricket team, Harbhajan Singh, has been accused of making racists comments to a mixed race Australian cricketer, Andrew Symonds. He has been banned from the next three matches.

Of course, when it comes to banter – or sledging as it is better known – the Aussies are masters. But one draws the line at comments that refer to players as "monkeys". Twenty years after Mark Walters' debut for Rangers was greeted with bananas thrown on to the pitch by rival fans, it seems little has moved on. But I ask you this: although Singh's guilt is questionable, based on hearsay alone, if he was in fact guilty of such remarks, is a three-match ban enough? Surely a season's ban or a lifetime ban would send the correct message about intolerance of racism. A three-match ban would follow ball-tampering. Are we equating racism with ball-tampering? And if Singh had punched an umpire square in the face, surely his ban would be more severe than three matches? He would no doubt face criminal charges. If we are serious about wanting to eradicate racism then we need to be serious about punishing it.

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu