The second test in Adelaide versus the West Indies is such a contrast to the first in Brisbane!
Australia will be forced to re-write 107 years of history to win the second Test, after West Indies set a record chase of 330 runs on the final day at Adelaide Oval.
The highest successful fourth-innings chase at the venue was Australia’s 6 for 315 in 1902, and a similar feat beckons after the Windies were dismissed for 317.
The tourists added 33 to their overnight score of 8 for 284, and skipper Chris Gayle carried his bat to finish unbeaten on 165 after a splendid captain’s knock took the fight to Australia on day four.
Ravi Rampaul (14) and Kemar Roach (8) were the last men out for the Windies as Mitchell Johnson finished with a five-wicket haul of 5 for 103.
Doug Bollinger was Australia’s next best with 3 for 50, a total of 5 for 117 in his return to Test cricket, Shane Watson took 1 for 15 and Nathan Hauritz effected a run-out.
— ABC
Right now Australia need 268 runs to win with 9 wickets in hand.
I teach in China, Italy and the UK, and when my students start talking about who my sporting hero is, I always say, without hesitation… Hazem El Masri. Not the greatest player, probably the greatest goalkicker, but more importantly, one of the greatest men on or off the field. A tribute to real Muslims, immigrants, loyalty, discipline, family values and the Bulldogs. You are a legend Hazem El Masri, we will miss you!
El Masri’s popularity isn’t restricted to the boys who, like him, have Muslim backgrounds. He appeals to them all. Helal is a Muslim boy, as is nine-year-old Adam Abdulwahab. Eight-year-old Andrei Bakhos and eight-year-old twins Michael and George Tabet are not Muslims, but it makes no difference. They all love El Masri.
Most of them have met the Bulldogs winger because he gives so much of his spare time to the community and they enjoy the way he kicks goals from everywhere and scores tries, but perhaps more importantly they can tell he is a good person.
“I hope he wins the comp this year,” Andrei said. “He deserves that. I follow the Bulldogs. My dad’s a member of the football club, so we go to all the home games. Hazem’s my favourite player. I play wing or fullback, but I want to be a winger when I grow up.”
When I told my wife that she said, “Well, he’s got my vote” and for my wife to say that about a rugby league player, much less a Bulldog, is saying something.
Hazem and his wife were so delightful it was hard not to feel uplifted by the experience.
One thing summed him up perfectly. After Fatty Vautin had urged league supporters to get along to ANZ Stadium this afternoon to “say thank you” for all the pleasure he had given them over the years, Hazem insisted on having the last word.
“It’s not really about people saying thank you to me,” he said, “it’s about me saying thank you to them for all the support they’ve given me.”
The label doesn’t matter – league player, Bulldog, Muslim, human – it comes down to one thing: He’s one great role model.
Football great Steve Mortimer has this to say:
“It’s an absolute privilege to be mentioned in the same sentence as Hazem El Masri,” Mortimer said.
“For me, rugby league is the greatest game of all and it just seems with all the hardships we’ve been through, Hazem has been a shining light his entire career.
“He’s a silent hero, an unsung hero, who has played the most number of games for the Bulldogs and been a wonderful servant for rugby league.
“With his religion and his faith, he’s just an absolute role model not only as a player on the football field, but as an Australian citizen as well.
There will be many fine things said about Hazem by footballers, coachers, pundits and the Premier in the coming weeks, but you get the feeling it all washes over the kid from Tripoli who made Sydney his home at age 10.
He’s playing for are the kids in blonde-brick apartment blocks around Bankstown and Punchbowl, the ones who attract police attention quicker than an Everlast hoodie.
Very few people can claim to have made a real impact on their community. But when tensions between Lebanese and Anglo Sydneysiders spilled into the streets during the Cronulla riots, it was Hazem who played the crucial role in bringing his community back from the brink. Unlike some Muslim clerics who should have known better, Hazem spoke the language of respect and not revenge. With hindsight, we all recognise things could have been so much worse without people like him.
When Hazem El Magic runs out on Sunday, we’ll honour a footballer, peacemaker, teacher and philanthropist.
Here at Holroyd High School in Sydney’s west — a school with a large number of students who are refugees — he’s come to draw the winning raffle for a school fundraiser.
But his visit is more than just a celebrity appearance.
In this discussion with the school football team the conversation soon turns to one of the boy’s experience of being discriminated against for being Lebanese and Muslim.
HAZEM EL MASRI: The whole community suffers because of a small minority, you know, and what upsets you sometimes is that the culture and the religion and all of that doesn’t promote such a thing but we end up copping a fair bit against it.
I always say to people, “The best way to go about it is let your actions do the talking.”
You know, around the footy and that and a lot of the guys know anything happens outside I don’t get teased about it or I don’t — because they know the type of person I am, the lifestyle I’m living.
I’m trying to lead by example and show them that’s how it’s done, basically.
Hazam El Mazri and his family
Sydney has been fortunate in having this man, his wife Arwa, and their family in our midst. From the man himself:
Kerry Stewart: How about Hazem el Masri.
Boys: Yes, he’s footy, best kicker in the world.
Kerry Stewart: Is he impressive, do you think?
Boys: Yes, yes.
Kerry Stewart: Why?
Mohammed Nurjaman: Because if you can get religion into the way of his other play, like he’s the only Muslim in the NRL, and he’s a good player, and he’s not there to show them that he’s Muslim, he shows that he plays good football.
Kerry Stewart: But I think he brings his religion to the game.
Boy: He brings religion to the game, yes.
Mohammed Nurjaman: You never see him in punch-ups. Yes, he always keeps it to himself. That’s what Muslims learn from their religion.
Hazem el Masri: Well look, I didn’t choose to be a role model. To me, I don’t like to sort of call that as a role model, I prefer to just to go out there and let my actions do the talking. I try to live a wholesome lifestyle. Early on, I had to take that stance of making sure this is what I’m about you know, the fasting, the praying, the eating Halal food for example, not drinking alcohol, the temptation of ladies, you name it, I try to have fun as well but everything within the limits. I love socialising with my friends and I love going out and I love spending time with my family and all that. But at the end of the day I’m my own person, I try to as you say, set the right example for these kids and hope that they can follow the same footsteps. And it’s a matter of as well, because all the misleading coverage and the generalising out there especially of the Muslim and the Lebanese community, that I’ve taken that stance to show everyone pretty much, that we’re not all the same, everybody’s got their bad and good in them….
Yes, his wife wears the hijab — her choice, not his, as she saw it as marking the next step in her religion: she adopted it about a year after her marriage, very much her own choice for her own reasons. (That was in an excellent Good Weekend profile of El Masri in this Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald — not online.)
The man — and indeed the family — is a living, breathing rebuttal of all that paranoia out there about the Muslims in our midst.
There’s not much wrong with sport over all at my old school (class of 1959) and former work-place, as a glance at the currentHigh Notes shows. But guess what: sport isn’t everything, and I know the English Department was rather chuffed when SBHS outperformed Sydney Grammar in English in the HSC last year… And there are other achievements, as the photo on the right from the school’s website suggests.
Nonetheless, a large minority – and you may take large several ways – did in the past secure the school a reputation in Rugby which was highly prized, even if never a majority activity. The cultural cachet it attracted is for anthropologists to explain, but while many dedicated staff and friends of the school, and many gutsy if increasingly outclassed students, have done their best to maintain that particular tradition, the writing has been on the wall for at least a decade – though it should be pointed out the game does continue, even if somewhat diminished.
SYDNEY Boys High School’s chocolate and blue rugby jersey will be no more when the Greater Public Schools First XV competition kicks off this year.
Citing safety, the school has pulled its teams out of top-level competition for the first time in 103 years. Instead it will combine its teams with those of Sydney Grammar, competing in the Second XV and B-grade fixtures. Grammar will continue to play in First XV and A-grade fixtures.
For three years, Sydney Boys High has had disappointing rugby results, because of mismatches in size and ability with those of opponents. The Greater Public Schools rugby convener Mark Ticehurst confirmed that the one-sided results had added to the risk of injury to Sydney Boys High players.
In 2007 the school lost all seven of its matches, conceding 633 points and scoring only eight points. Last year it contested only one game, which it lost to St Joseph’s 112-0, before forfeiting its remaining six games. Mr Ticehurst said: "It was the safety issue that saw Sydney High withdrawing. It’s an opportunity to develop their rugby, and although they will still be in a very tough competition, the pressure is off them to perform at the First XV level."
Sydney Boys High is the only public school in the GPS and selects its students on an academic basis. It has traditionally been competitive in rugby, but its students have recently shifted to sports such as soccer.
Last year the school had only 32 players registered in its senior rugby ranks, compared with 79 who signed up for soccer…
Seems the GPS has made the necessary adjustments too, and they’d better watch out in football (the real one) and basketball, among much else… Not to mention Debating of course.
My own contribution to Rugby fifty plus years back was one term as a linesman at age 12, which did score me “took an interest in Rugby” on my school reference. Not much interest, I have to say… I wasn’t in the large minority.
Update 26 February
The Sydney High School Old Boys Union published a correction yesterday, which I have just caught up with. See High Rugby Update.
…As the School announced last year, High and Grammar will share rugby fixtures this year, with Grammar competing in First XV and A-team fixtures and High in Third XV and B-team fixtures.
The High v Grammar first grade match will take place as usual in the last round of the 2009 competition and it is possible that High may play some other GPS First XV teams in other rounds of the competition.
These changes have been temporarily introduced as part of our planned process of building the participation rates, skills, strength and success of rugby at High, from the junior school up.
All other sports at High will be unaffected by this temporary arrangement and there is no impact upon High’s status as a GPS school.
There has been a resurgence of rugby in High’s junior years. In 2008 we fielded four 13s teams for the first time in at least 10 years. Last year’s 16As defeated Newington to record High’s first win in an A v A match for many years.
We are planning to field 16 rugby teams this year compared with 13 teams last season. A coordinated, three-sessions-a-week coaching program for all junior rugby teams commenced last year and we now have about 15 old boys regularly coaching our teams…
There was truth in the Herald story, but it wasn’t really news, and the emphasis was skewed by the angle the journalist took. So “SYDNEY Boys High School’s chocolate and blue rugby jersey will be no more…” is more than a bit hyperbolic.
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Naturally I have blogged about Ian Thorpe before; why not, indeed? He seems a very interesting young man. I believe he has been studying at Macquarie University lately, and it appears he has also taken up art.
My Pain, My Gain by Ian Thorpe
According to the story linked to the picture above:
“When I was a kid I used to imagine within my body there were all these mini people and the people in my goggles were the control room,” Thorpe said. “They were kind of like lemmings and they used to power everything in my body. I was always whipping them to make them work harder. That was my form of visualisation.”
The painting will be sold with the proceeds going to “the Right to Play China charity, which works to enhance the health and education of young people through sport.”
I wonder what The Rabbit makes of all this? He did, after all, sit next to Ian Thorpe in class at one time…
“Tales of war and peace as Games end” is an upbeat story, but let’s focus there just for a moment… There are a few video highlights in my previous entry.
INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said his most memorable Beijing Games moment was the embrace between a Russian and a Georgian athlete.
The war between the two nations over South Ossetia was sparked on the night of the opening ceremony as Russian President Vladimir Putin was in the VIP seats waving to his athletes and vigorously discussing issues with US President George Bush.
Since then there have been the magic moments of Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals, Usain Bolt’s world record, openly gay diver Matthew Mitcham winning gold and a first medal won by Afghanistan. But Rogge chose a political example as his defining Beijing story.
His message was that sport and politics were intertwined and that athletes could overcome adversity…
I’d like to revisit a magic moment from the end of the 2000 Olympics. 🙂
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The Discovery of Global Warming -- hypertext history of how scientists came to (partly) understand what people are doing to cause climate change: from the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics.
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There’s not much wrong with sport over all at my old school (class of 1959) and former work-place, as a glance at the current 
