Dean Jones’s crack terming South African cricketer Hashim Amla a “terrorist” is revealing in more ways than one. And do disregard the Australian’s pointless defence that he thought he was off-air because that would simply expand the circle of implication - because, in that case, what would that tell you about the state of commentary in world cricket that tolerates private shorthand for religiousracial backgrounds?

Yes, it shows that racism persists not just in contact sports like football. It also confirms the changes being wrought in cricket as it is sought to be globalised by national boards, the ICC and content providers — to make it attractive at ever more offshore venues (India versus West Indies in the US, anyone?) by isolating its entertainment quotient.

And, in illustrating the sad point, Jones could not have picked a more apt context. This South African team, in the course of whose failed chase to Test victory Amla helped get a wicket that drove the commentator to such jest, is at a particularly historic milestone in their country’s effort to get past the legacy of apartheid. For these past two Test matches, they were led for the first time ever by a non-white. Ashwell Prince’s was a temporary appointment to the post - with injured skipper Graeme Smith certain to reclaim the leadership. But the occasion was huge. It caught the imagination of the cricketing world that South Africa had got past the legacy of segregation.

Scattered in occasional appearances on the cricketing beat are confirmations of the game’s USP. Take the social composition of the South African team. During India’s “friendship tour” of Pakistan in 2004, Lahore’s greatest bowler, Fazal Mahmood, smiled when asked what it was that kept him returning to the stadium. Give me a paper and a pen, he said. And wrote: C-R-I-C-K-E-T. Let me tell you what it’s about, he said. He was passing through South Africa in the 1960s when he felt the acute racial segregation by its government. He began an advocacy campaign, which finally resulted in South Africa being suspended by the ICC in 1970.

... contd.