Good morning to the sporting community and the cricket association and thank you for taking the time to listen to me today. I am Gordon Smith, a reporter for channel 7, this morning I will be illustrating to you why I strongly feel that the sporting community overreacted to Chris Gayle’s treatment of the reporter Mel McLaughlin. I will be addressing the following points throughout my talk: The reaction to Chris Gayle’s flirtatious behaviour being exaggerated, the racist component in the criticism that Chris Gayle had received.
And the fact that other woman reporters have not been caught out on their flirtatious behaviour when interviewing a male. I have been a reporter for 15 years and I have been subject to some flirtatious behaviour the same way Mel McLaughlin had been. I remember when I was interviewing professional tennis player, Kerry Reid, after her game at Melbourne Park and she was clearly acting flirtatious, the same way Chris Gayle had acted. However I could understand that she was simply ‘joking around and I let it go.
But after that interview I was being presented with comments from co-workers and the general public on how lucky I was to be subject to Kerry Reid’s behaviour. But I did not get a single comment to ask me if it made me uncomfortable as a reporter trying to do my job as a professional. As matter of fact it did make me uncomfortable but I understood that she was joking and I didn’t let it affect me too much. However the fact that no one even considered the position I was put in hurt me a lot. Why is it that a male and a female are treated differently when it comes to these types of situations?
When the female is the victim then only we see justice present however when the man is the victim in these kinds of situations then they’re disregarded. Is this right? Is this Just? Does this reflect gender equality in any positive way at all? What I am trying to say is that Chris Gayle did not acknowledged how the reporter was going to interpret his joke and he should have kept from saying it and Tagree that it was not right. However the disgusted reaction he got from the sporting community I think is wrong because the same response isn’t present for the opposite sex.
Chris Gayle’s behaviour towards McLaughlin was not appropriate however clearly exaggerated within the media and the sporting community. Gayle has made a formal apology to Mel and stated that it was never his intention to disrespect or offend her in any way, and it was just meant to be a harmless joke. Renegades CEO Stuart Coventry said in a statement, “Chris’s comments were completely inappropriate and disrespectful. There is simply no place for these type of comments at the Melbourne Renegades”.
This issue has been escalated into something bigger than it should have been and has resulted in an outrageous ten thousand dollar fine, conviction and an exclusion from contributing columns in the media, according to the Big Bash League team, Melbourne Renegades. As a reporter Tadmit that other reporters and I like to exaggerate a story to gain more publicity however the articles and comments on Gayle is completely blown out of proportion and is taking exaggeration to another level.
A comment made by Dale Hughes on the ABC’s current affairs opinion site, quotes him saying, “we are living in the age of the social media lynch mob, where crime rime and punishment is dictated via the emotions of the masses. A cricketer makes a clumsy advance on a reporter and then we are subject to an entire week’s worth of analysis. ” Gayle’s incident is treated as if he has committed a great crime and it is truly worrying that it is getting more attention than an Australian boy who was murdered 3 days ago. Focus has to be put into more worrying matters, then a cricketer who was joking around with a reporter. And you would think that the focus would change after he apologises and faces his absurd consequences, no!
He is constantly badgered on social media of his so called ‘crime’. Not only is Chris Gayle facing absurd consequences but he is also subject to a component of racism within people’s criticism. Racism? From where does racism come from? It is clear that people are now just using their grudge or hate towards Chris Gayle in a sporting point of view as a way to offend Chris Gayle. No one is talking about the racist comments that Gayle is receiving however he is constantly being dragged through the mud by the sporting society while having to deal with racism.
On January 8, 2016, the lamaican newspaper The Gleaner, published an opinion piece by Chelan Smith titled ‘White Beauty and the Black Beast’. Seriously? How that was even allowed to be published just makes me question if we are living in the 1930s. This is not the only racist piece that was allowed to be published. The Sydney Morning Herald published a comment by one of its sports writers, Malcolm Knox, in which he criticises Gayle’s conduct using a parody of Jamaican patois.
And how this was managed to be published on an Australian newspaper, I, again, have no clue. Do you still think that Chris Gayle’s behaviour was ‘outrageous’. Do you still think that the aspect of gender equality is in support of both genders? Do you still think that that the reaction to Chris Gayle has nothing to do with racism and unrelated sporting disputes? If you do, stop yourself, and think again because the unfair way Chris Gayle is represented will reflect poorly on the cricket association in coming years.