A park cricketer has left his club after a massive fight.
Adam is a right arm leg spinner for the Norman Park sixth grade Sub-District side and joined them two years ago.
While his team has been dogged by in-fighting and regular drama, Adam has persisted with them as he loves playing cricket.
But that changed after a message in their Messenger group chat kicked off on Australia Day.
“One of my ‘true blue Aussie’ teammates posted ‘I hope everyone’s celebrating AUSTRALIA DAY and not ignoring it like a silly woke person!”
Adam chooses not to celebrate the day and decided not to join in while his teammates gave updates on their Australia Day parties, photos of them wearing garish clothes with the Australian flag on them, and videos of them singing along (badly) to various songs from Cold Chisel, Jimmy Barnes, and Midnight Oil.
It wasn’t until he was tagged in a post asking about his day that he decided to participate: “I’m glad you’re all having fun, but I choose not to celebrate Australia Day as it’s way too problematic and I can’t celebrate it with a clear conscience.”
But Adam was unprepared for the wave of abuse that followed.
“My phone was blowing up to the point I had to mute the group and went out to see a movie to forget about it and clear my head. I knew this was going to end badly if I engaged with their racist and ‘un-woke’ nonsense.”
After getting back home that evening, Adam went back to the group to another 50 unread messages, with a lot of teammates abusing him for not responding.
Adam decided enough was enough and posted one last message: “I decided to go out as I didn’t want to engage in your nonsense! I’ve had a decent time playing cricket with you boys, but I’ve seen your true nature today and I think it’s best if I leave the club and never speak with any of you again! Good luck for the rest of the season.”
With that, Adam left the group, unfriended and blocked all his teammates on Facebook, and deleted their phone numbers.
“It was probably a good thing as there was so much drama in this team and I was getting sick of it. I was thinking about leaving at the end of the season anyway. But I can’t play another second with those racist d***heads! Not after today.”
Still wanting to play cricket, Adam spent the evening researching new clubs before finding a local indoor sports centre that has Monday night leagues. He emailed the main contact on the website and arranged to turn up as a fill-in when the season resumes in February, with the promise that he’ll get a game most weeks before finding a permanent team.
“I play indoor cricket a bit as a teenager and I enjoyed it. This could be fun. And it’s only a short drive. No more massive road trips trapped in my ex-teammates’ crappy cars.”
The Gurgler presents stories of the Park Cricketer, where we explore the lower reaches of the great game of cricket from the suburban ovals and rural grounds across Australia.
