OPEN LETTER TO STEVE SMITH

Dear Steve,

I am not a cricket fan and do not watch cricket and, at 91, I never have.

However, I am a South African, and still, after 40 years in Australia, retain close links with South Africa, politically, socially and in several other ways.

I am very aware of what goes on in that country as I keep a close watch on affairs there, and at the moment in Australia, apart from the cricket matches being played there, we also have the spectacle that one of the cabinet ministers in Australia has made an arse of himself with his comments about white South African farmers. This of course is another long political story about which much more time should be spent by the media in telling the truth about affairs in South Africa instead of all the cricket affairs going on.

The disgraceful behaviour of the media in relation to yourself when you arrived back in Australia from South Africa is a scandal, and the media need to be severely sanctioned about their behaviour in relation to how you were treated and humiliated by them on your arrival in Sydney. I used to think that the ABC was above this sort of behaviour, but of course these days the media does what the government wants it to do and that, too is another national disgrace.

Peter Dutton was not sanctioned by Malcolm Turnbull, nor by Julie Bishop, and it shows what racists they all are. When it comes to cricket and what happened on the field in Newlands is a mere dot on the scale of the disgrace about Dutton and white South African farmers.

It should have been Dutton who should have gone to South Africa and brought his white farmers back here with him, together with the Australian cricket team. Alternatively, he should have stayed there and helped to keep the white farmers safe - by his standards and brought his security personnel with him to take over affairs in South Africa.

What a joke, what a farce, what a tragedy the whole set of affairs is.

My sympathy to you Steve for the abominable behaviour of the media in Australia - it is unforgivable!

HOMOEROTICISM, HOMOPHOBIA, AFL, CRICKET, ALL SPORTS

These are recent pictures from newspapers showing scenes from AFL and cricket matches in Australia and the UK.

What they continue to illustrate is that homoeroticism is very real in these spoprts as well as most other sports.

Body contacts show that many sports people do not shy away with body contacts with same-sex people and in fact seem to derive a great deal of pleasure from the contacts.

It continues to be strange that the attitudes projected by the people who control these sports continue to be as homophobic as they are in which the culture of homophobia seems to be predominant, yet many players are still in the closet and are afraid to publicly declare their homosexuality and ultimately be role models for young people still afraid of their sexuality because of society's responses to them.

There is enough homophobia inherent in many countries around the world for Australia to actually set an example about how NOT to be homophobic and develop a culture of support and encouragement for young people to be themselves.

But of course that requires commitment from the sporting bodies and it is just too much effort for them.

PETER ROEBUCK TRAGEDY - SOCIETY - AND SPORT SHOULD BE CONDEMNED, NOT ROEBUCK!

In the aftermath of Peter Roebuck's death and the stories which have been written trying to explain the inexplicable, several issue stand out.

To me, the main issue is homophobia, and this is followed by homophobia in sport, and this again is followed by homophobia in the world of cricket.

If anybody has read about people coming out as gay, lesbian or transgender in the cricketing world, then it seems not to have been in the public arena.

Many areas of sport have produced episodes which have made those sporting bodies challenge their built-in homophobia - not that it has necessarily made all that much difference, but it has brought matters out into the open.

Sports such as tennis, rugby of all codes, swimming, and possibly other sports which need more public airing, have been given a certain amount of publicity which shows just how far we still have to go to obtain equality in the world of homophobia in which we live.

An article in The Age newspaper a few days ago about Roebuck and his life, including stories of his "abuse" of young men who are sponsored by him for educational and sporting opportunities. Roebuck is accused of smacking them on their bare buttockses and other forms of abuse. Nowhere does it state that the young men are 16 years of age or younger - in fact mostly they seem to have been in their early to late 20s, big enough and strong enough to have withstood the abuse and being able to fight back. No stories of this nature have appeared in the public arena.

The letters in the Sunday Age of 8 January 2012 are particularly foul in the accusations made about this unfortunate man who was brought up and lived in a time of acute homophobia and who got involved in a sport which ought to hang its head in shame at its total silence on the issue of homophobia in sport in general and cricket in particular.

In recent years there has been some sort of liberalising in our social relationships in regard to gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV/AIDS issues and the people who happen to be part of these groups who have had more opportunities for self-expression than those of us born 50, 60, 70, 80 years ago.

But we still have such a long way to go.

And yet another few conspiracy theories which may well need more investigating:

1) What were the South African police doing, leaving only one with Roebuck in his hotel room, while the other went out, ostensibly with Jim Maxwell who was answering Roebuck's distress call?

2) Because so many of the young men Roebuck was dealing with in his hostel and elsewhere were Zimbabweans and Mugabe's influence with South Africa's politicians is easily investigated, did Mugabe have something to do with the police investigating the complaint made by a young Zimbabwean against Roebuck?

These are but a few of the unanswered questions, but there are many more.

Peter Roebuck may have been a gay man, but remained in the closet due to the circumstances of the sport and people he was involved with in his professional life.

Shame on so many of them for the role they have played in being silent on the issue of homophobia in thier sport of cricket~