Sport should unite people, not divide
As SOMEONE who has spent a great deal of time playing, watching, writing and talking about cricket, I have found the recent crisis in Yorkshire cricket very disturbing.
I have had the good fortune to play cricket in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Holland, Hong Kong, Canada, United States and South Africa.
My stumps have been scattered and my bails dislocated by Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Protestants and Jews. In all that time, with the exception of South Africa, racism did not feature. We treated each other as cricketers, ate and drank together and stayed in the same hotels.
In Guernsey we have entertained visiting county teams from Hampshire, Middlesex and Northamptonshire. Middlesex in the 1980s had a multi-racial side which included Roland Butcher, Wilf Slack, Neil Williams and Norman Cowans, all born in the Caribbean but played test cricket for England.
I had Mushtaq Mohammad and Bishan Bedi staying with me when Northamptonshire visited the island. Muslim and Hindu shared my hospitality without any problems.
Sadly we have no respect for others these days. No tolerance or desire to accept the past for what it was, or promise to improve the future by learning from that past.
You do not get respect unless you are prepared to extend it to others.
No doubt I am considered a dinosaur by my great nieces and nephews, but I hope they will learn from the experience of my generation, as they text and tweet their way forward.
C J BURLEY
Cedar Hill
Mount Durand
St Peter Port
GY1 1DX