AN online commentary jibe which referred to Test opener Justin Langer as a gnome prompted a fierce backlash from Cricket Australia yesterday.
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Cricinfo, the world’s most popular cricket website, yesterday made three puns about Langer’s stature during its commentary of the second day of the fifth Ashes Test at the SCG, having also described the batsman as a “brown nose gnome” almost three years ago.
That previous reference, in February, 2004, cost an online commentator his accreditation pass and his job and created a major rift between Cricket Australia and Wisden’s online service.
Cricinfo yesterday said Langer would’ve been in “gnome-man’s land” after he dropped a catch off England’s Paul Collingwood in the first over of the day, and also provided a link to a newspaper article detailing the controversy from three years ago.
In two further puns, a reader pondered whether Langer would be a “metro-gnome” if he bowled like team-mate Glenn McGrath, before Cricinfo’s commentator requested for “gnome-more jokes though, please”.
CA slammed the commentary as juvenile, disrespectful and sought a response from Cricinfo.
“This continues to demonstrate their juvenile and infantile approach to covering cricket, and it is disrespectful in the extreme,” said CA’s Peter Young.
“If they wanted to be taken more seriously, then they need to reflect on how they approach things.”
Cricinfo’s commentary of this match is produced from London.
Cricinfo Australasian editor Peter English said there was no malice intended in the commentary.
“We didn’t mean any offence to Justin Langer,” English said in a statement.
“He has been a wonderful player for Australia and we have really enjoyed watching him throughout his distinguished career.
“Our ball-by-ball commentary is often light-hearted, and full of banter and jokes — most of them are about ourselves.
“We regret this has deflected some of the attention from Justin Langer in his final Test.”
Cricinfo agreed to remove the link referring to the newspaper article.
Young said CA was satisfied with the response, and prepared to “move on”.
The commentator who made the “brown nose gnome” jibe almost three years ago was reprimanded by CA and stripped of his accreditation pass, and later lost his job.
The incident put a wedge in the relations between the sporting body and the online service, which was licensed to produce CA’s official website, baggygreen.com.au, at the time.
CA has since created its own website after being unable to control all editorial and advertising content on the baggy-green site.
CA spokesmen stressed the organisation had already decided to create its own site before February, 2004.
The initial reference of Langer as a gnome was made during a domestic one-day match between WA and Queensland.
The commentary had read: “Edmondson to Maher, OUT: bit of a cross slog straight to the brown nose gnome at mid on.”
The commentary was later removed.
Wisden later offered an apology to Langer.