Cricket Australia s decision to snub Australia Day the biggest nonsense ever heard 22/01/2021|11min
NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham says Cricket Australia’s removal of any references to the day is “the biggest nonsense” especially as the person who made the decision has accepted an Australia Day honour.
“Cricket should be celebrating Australia Da because it’s the 233rd anniversary of cricket coming to Australia on Tuesday and if there was no First Fleet and no settlement, there’d be no cricket,” he told Sky News host Chris Smith.
Mr Latham said Mel Jones, co-chair of Cricket Australia’s First Nations Advisory Committee, had herself received an OAM in 2019 and should “give the honour back”.
Removal of Australia Day from Cricket Australia games ‘totally unacceptable’21/01/2021|6min
Sky News host Chris Smith says the decision for Cricket Australia to remove any references to Australia Day for the January 26 game is “the greatest betrayal of this country by a sporting body”.
The name change comes from Cricket Australia’s First Nations Advisory Committee which is co-chaired by former cricketer Mel Jones.
“This disgraceful edict from cricket authorities has come after a season of misguided firsts no doubt encouraged by this First Nations Committee too, including taking a knee,” Mr Smith said.
Mr Smith said if Cricket Australia were to include an indigenous ceremony before the games would be a “respectful and inclusive” move rather than removing references to Australia Day.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has advised Cricket Australia to stay out of politics and stick to cricket after a recommendation to dump the words Australia Day from promotions for Big Bash League fixtures on January 26.
But Mel Jones, a CA director and co-chair of CA s First Nations Advisory Committee, declared this was never about tokenism and said this was never about politics for us, it s purely about cricket.
Sydney Sixers star Dan Christian shakes hands with Liam Livingstone of the Scorchers, who are wearing their Indigneous strip.
Credit:Getty
Morrison was touring country Queensland on Thursday and made his feelings clear about CA s proposal ahead of the three BBL games set down for Tuesday.
By WWOS staffJan 21st, 2021
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The Big Bash League s two Melbourne teams will reject Cricket Australia s move to drop the words Australia Day from its January 26 promotion.
It was a recommendation made by CA s First Nations Advisory Committee, which is co-chaired by board member and former international Mel Jones.
Teams are free to not follow the recommendation and the
Fletcher falls early
Nick Cummins, the general manager of Melbourne Stars and the commercial manager of both of the Victorian city s BBL franchises, said on Thursday that they would continue to promote the two games at the MCG on January 26 as Australia Day matches.
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He later told reporters it was not cricket and said: It s not about that so much, it s about how far we ve come together since that day. You can t just airbrush things that have happened in the past. I think one of the great things about Australia . is we are pretty up front and honest about our past.
Laborâs Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Linda Burney said Mr Morrison should know better and his comment makes no sense . As the leader of the country, he has an example to set for the rest of the nation, Ms Burney said. How can we expect to see real progress on issues such as Reconciliation and Closing the Gap when he makes such ignorant and unhelpful comments like this? Suffering is not a competition.