The western media has long patted itself on the back for the alleged impartiality of its news coverage. Even though the advent of channels like Fox News and GB News exposed such claims as hollow, the blatant bias has seldom found its way into the sporting space. While most outlets adopt a patriotic or nationalistic stance when it comes to sporting events, it’s pretty rare for political events to have an impact on the playing field or just outside it.
Now, however, notions of neutrality have been blown out of the water. Peter Lalor has been The Australian’s chief cricket writer for well over a decade, having cut his teeth in the political sphere as a younger man. On the fourth day of Australia’s emphatic innings victory over Sri Lanka in Galle, Lalor was stood down from commentary duties for the Melbourne-based SEN radio station.
“I was asked by station boss Craig Hutchison, who was civil, if I didn’t care that my retweeting of events in Gaza made Jewish people in Melbourne feel unsafe,” said Lalor in a report on The Guardian website. “I said I didn’t want anyone to feel unsafe.”
The station’s response was on predictable lines in an increasingly unipolar world. “SEN Cricket is a celebration of differences and nationalities and a place where our SEN audience can escape what is an increasingly complex and sometimes triggering world,” said Hutchison. “We respect Pete as a journalist and long-time contributor to the game but also acknowledge the fear that many families in our community feel right now, and we also need to respect that.”
The hypocrisy is staggering. Jews make up less than one per cent of Australia’s population. According to the last census in 2021, the number who identify as Jews or were born into Jewish families is between 100,000 and 250,000. There are as many Lebanese in Australia, not to mention over 15,000 Palestinians. It’s frankly bizarre that SEN isn’t bothered about their fears or concerns.
“The majority of my retweeted posts have been about the sufferings of Palestinians,” said Lalor’s post on his Cricket Et Al Substack. “The asymmetry of my retweeting reflects what can now surely be seen as the asymmetry of the suffering.
“I cannot remain quiet when so many innocent people are being slaughtered. I think I am a compassionate person. I believe I would do the same no matter who was responsible for the wholesale slaughter of so many innocent people and the destruction of their cities.”
This is not the first time a conflict in Gaza has encroached into cricket. A decade ago, during India’s tour of England in 2014, the Pakistan-born Moeen Ali was fined and warned for wearing wristbands that said ‘Free Gaza’. Now, the most vocal support for Lalor has come from another Pakistan-born cricketer, Usman Khawaja, who scored a double-century in Galle.
“Standing up for the people of Gaza is not antisemitic nor does it have anything to do with my Jewish brothers and sisters in Australia but everything to do with the Israeli government and their deplorable actions,” he wrote on his Instagram. “It has everything to do with justice and human rights.”
While SEN may have sought to muzzle Lalor, we certainly haven’t heard the last of this.