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Aussie public backs cricket team

Melbourne: Contradicting columnist Peter Roebuck’s views, Australian public feels the national team was “mature”, “polite”, “hard but fair” and demonstrating “sportsmanship”.

Roebuck had said the Australians played cricket like a “pack of wild dogs” and their reputation was in “tatters” after the controversial Sydney Test against India but according to a Cricket Australia survey, the public feels the players were good role models for children.

“The CA’s research found that 83 percent of people surveyed in the past two months found the players to be positive role models for young Australians,” according to The Australian.

“The respondents said they respected the need for the team to play “competitive and aggressive” cricket to be successful and they were more “mature”, “polite” and demonstrated better “sportsmanship” than the main football codes. The Australian players’ own code of conduct refers to a need to be “hard but fair.” , a term almost echoed in the survey,” it said Another survey conducted by Roy Morgan Research found that cricket was still the king of television viewers of both sexes. The figures reveal that 47 percent of Australians watch cricket “always” or “occasionally”, 41 percent watch Australian football, 33 percent tennis, 25 percent rugby league, 18 percent golf, 10 percent rugby union and eight percent football.

Women viewers demonstrated similar priorities with cricket (36 percent) topping the list, followed by Australian football (34 percent), tennis (33 percent), rugby league (18 percent), golf (12 percent) rugby union (six percent) and football (four percent).

Reassuring response

Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland said the feedback about the way Australia plays the game was reassuring.

“The Australia team will be the first to admit that there is always room for improvement,” Sutherland said. “At the same time I feel it is a real endorsement.

“We tend, at times, to react or respond a little bit to the slant the media or other high-profile commentators might have, but the facts are strong, this is a big sample of the Australian population that gives us this endorsement. — PTI

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