The Modest and the Moronic
1
By The Spotter
On one side of the great southern oceans a Samoan sorcerer waved his wooden wand and turned eleven Englishmen to dust. Away over on the side and not long before, a rabid Australian mongrel dog snarled at, bit at and sprayed all over the opposition breed, including it seems one which may just be a bit of a De Kock. *Massive irony alert: Warner targeting a guy called De Kock. Talk about pot, kettle…
Put simply- first case hero, second case zero. Both players were in winning teams. Look at the way Taylor handled himself afterwards. He was modesty personified. Aw, shucks-type stuff. Sporting role model promotion is a fraught and fragile pursuit, but if you are looking for a sportsman for your kids to aspire to, it would be hard to go past LRPL Taylor.
Then there was David Warner. Oh dear, what to say? Affronted? It seems. Self-control? Zilch. Ability to turn the other cheek? Ha. Immaturity factor? Off the scale. Anger level? Scary.
That reaction to AB de Villiers’s dismissal was just ridiculous. it was irrational, spoilt little brat territory. Normal adult people shouldn’t have such abnormal reactions. Not even after alleged goading. To be so hugely passive-aggressive surely logically means there are some underlying issues there. If you behaved like that in a public place the Police would be called.
Even at the zenith of their sledging wars in the 70s the most brash Aussie offenders didn’t go all aggressive like Warner. He makes Dennis Lillee look like Little Bo Peep.
Hey Davey, from a Kiwi sports blogger hack: Take a chill pill, maaate.
It troubles me beyond greatly that @basinbrat and possibly others think I was trivialising mental illness in the original text of the piece, by my suggesting that David Warner was ‘unhinged’ and ‘a nut bar’ and maybe should consider a visit to a psychologist for his burst of absolute rage after the AB De Villiers run out. Those words I used were removed from the article almost immediately, in fact.
I’ll stand by what I originally wrote. I am an adult and I had anger problems within myself back in 2004 (along with dark thoughts about my own place in the world). I maintain that you don’t need to be severely mentally ill to seek help for any anger problems.
And on the contrary, to excuse anger problems as an almost normal everyday forgivable act is setting rather a dangerous precedent to my mind. That’s all I wish to say, thanks.