MICHAEL PEARLMAN SAYS: Aussies lose class as well as Ashes

MICHAEL PEARLMAN SAYS: Aussies lose class as well as Ashes

CLIFF Richard must be spitting feathers.

If his iconic, rousing and, let’s be honest, cracking Christmas anthem, Mistletoe and Wine told us anything, it’s that Christmas is a time to be quite nice to everyone. The spirit of Christmas, I believe they call it.

It generally leads to a rather lovely time of year, because no sooner have you dispensed with the pleasantries of Christmas it’s time for even more nice conduct. This time you resolve to keep said good behaviour up for the entire year and pledge to stop doing something fun, and a couple of days later you start doing it again.

In conclusion, between Christmas and New Year resolutions, everyone is nice.

And then you have cricket, the ultimate sport for being nice. They even give you a box to protect your most valued possessions when you bat. The umpires hold your hat for you when you bowl. That is thoroughly nice behaviour.

And they do that all year round. So, at Christmas, when you’re acting nicely and you’re playing a nice sport, what’s going to happen?

Well, if you’re an Australian cricketer, you become a complete cheat who forgets decades and decades of Ashes series being fought hard but fairly, who cares little for the fact that cricket is a sport where umpires are shown the utmost respect.

If the horrendous verbal volley dished out by Ricky Ponting to the officials in the fourth Test wasn’t enough, the Australians have now tainted the series with some truly disgusting conduct at the Sydney Cricket Ground. They have blatantly cheated, with Philip Hughes claiming a catch off Ali Cook that bounced inches in front of his hands. They then showed a complete lack of grace in failing to acknowledge Cook’s fantastic century, something I don’t recall in previous series.

I’ve watched England being routinely trounced since the early 90s, but guys like Glenn McGrath and Steve Waugh would hurt players with their brilliance, but show grace and class on the rare occasions English batsman scored big runs, because that’s the spirit the Ashes are fought in.

Apparently no more, too many disappointing sights in this series have really left a sour taste.

Don’t get me wrong, England aren’t perfect – Broad is aggressive, the Barmy Army can be embarrassing (if I wanted to listen to drunk, boorish English people sing football songs, I’d go to football).

But thankfully, all the unpleasantness has been overshadowed by a fabulous display from England who are, as I write, in a commanding position to win the series outright.

The Aussies have lost their aura of invincibility, they have probably lost the Ashes, but most sadly, they’ve definitely lost their class.

If the Ashes was the melba toast of my Christmas sporting banquet, the bread and butter remains Newport County. And what a holiday period it was for Deano’s men.

They were involved in three games, in which 14 goals were scored, and also signed, sold and released players with unrelenting purpose, like Del Boy flogging dodgy radios on a Fools and Horses Christmas special.

It’s hard to keep up really, but for those who missed anything, County won at Kidderminster, lost at home to Bath and drew a total thriller with Wimbledon.

They signed four new players, while releasing a host of others, mainly loan men, some good, Alan Goodall, Kerry Morgan, and some less so, as well as waving goodbye to Jon Challinor, a man I will forever love for ending my big freeze in Wealdstone with a late goal.

It would appear Dean Holds-worth and Tim Harris have had a very productive time.

Most of their thinking appears to be long-term and they have strengthened in the right areas, with another attacker still being sought.

For County to be in the playoff slots heading into 2011 is a tremendous achievement and I wouldn’t worry too much about only taking a point out of the last two games.

County had enough possession and chances to have smashed Bath on another day and could also easily have beaten Wimbledon in what was the highest quality game I’ve covered at Spytty Park.

If that was the benchmark County are setting, then the sky really is the limit.

Predictably, I see that my fellow columnist Robin Davey is far from alone in resuming one of 2009/10s’ biggest trends in Welsh sport… Henson bashing.

What is everyone’s problem with the guy? It reminds me of the way David Beckham used to be spoken about. How dare he be famous and talented? It’s a disgrace!

For those who missed it, for whatever reason Henson stopped playing rugby for ages. Now he wants to start again, and that’s you totally briefed on the situation.

He turned his back on the Ospreys – probably because the Welsh media have got it in for him – and is now playing for a good team in England, Saracens.

In about a month Wales start in the Six Nations and Henson would like to be a part of it. He is training full time and playing a bit and wants a chance in his national jersey again. Fairly normal behaviour one would imagine.

So the coach, Warren Gatland, either picks him or not, that’s the big issue, even though he’ll also pick about 563 other players (one or two of which will be from the Dragons).

It’s also a World Cup year, so Henson has that aim too. That’s the issue. Rugby player wants to play in big rugby games.

Everything else is just nonsense. He’ll upset the dressing room they say. Balderdash! Even if he does, are Wales so successful at the moment that it can’t be risked? Would anyone actually notice a difference? Shouldn’t the players just be happy they’ve been picked, rather than making the national side some cosy little tea party where new faces aren’t welcome?

Maybe a senior player will go up to Henson and say: “We don’t take too kindly to folks who like winning around here, we’ve been doing just awfully without you, so buzz off.”

Who cares if the players’ noses are put out of joint if Henson improves the side?

The fact is that he’s a talented player, a cash cow who transcends the sport and he will be back sooner or later. So why doesn’t everyone just support a Welsh boy who wants to play rugby for Wales, instead of sticking the boot in all the time?

Journalists and the public have hammered Welsh footballers like Paul Parry and Danny Collins etc for turning their backs on Wales.

Henson does exactly the opposite and gets even more criticism.