Imran Khant
GH at the Junction Oval
Et Al headed to Junction Oval today for the Sheffield Shield final purely in punter capacity, looking forward to a day’s recreational cricket watching with a few mates, sundry Yarras and several subscribers. One of these was Luke Brown, a respected opponent over many years at Parkville United. Looking round for him, Et Al was surprised to learn he had been forbidden entry because of his convergent interests in cricket, human rights and merch - yes, Luke had been stopped at security for wearing Et Al’s Free Imran Khan T-shirt, deemed ‘too political.’
Regular readers will know that Pete has been all over the story of the former Pakistan captain now known as prisoner 804, banged up in solitary confinement in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail. You can check his despatches here, here and here, and also our most-watched pod: an interview with Greg Chappell about the letter he signed with a dozen international Test captains seeking adequate medical care for his great peer and rival.
One of the things we discussed are the efforts of Pakistan’s government to suppress not just the man but his image, and even the mention of his name. In Osman’s fabulous longform essay, he describes the immediate aftermath of Imran’s arrest as commencing this campaign:
One well-known anchor on ARY News used Imran’s name and then immediately checked himself and said: “I apologise … the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf.” The same channel blurred Imran out of a photo from a meeting he had with IMF officials. The most absurd contortion came from Imran’s former employers, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). When they released a video celebrating Pakistan’s greatest cricket triumphs, including footage of the side that Imran captained to victory in the 1992 World Cup, Imran had been cut out entirely – on instruction from the PCB chair (a political appointee).
Well, now Cricket Australia is on par with the freedom of speech standards of a repressive south Asian government aligned with the military. It was all quite polite, of course. The security guard who must be au fait with regional power politics stopped Luke at the gate; two staff, apparently from CA, were called down; the argument advanced was, of course, the usual slippery slope fallacy - ‘If I let you in then I have to let in etc etc’. The distinction between a political and humanitarian message was ignored; likewise the probable application of the Streisand Effect. Anyway, now that it’s officially The T-Shirt They Tried to Ban, you will want to order yours right now. Thanks to everyone who has been sending pics of themselves wearing theirs. Just don’t wear them to Junction Oval…..
What a “Khant” act by security and the Anti Corruption people 🤦♂️
Dear oh dear I got stopped there a few weeks ago when I took , or tried to take my dog, "Chloe on Flinders" into the ground. Gate person he/she did not like this little mutt sister to the late "Freddie Flintoff" in.
What are we coming to and thank you to Andrew Faulkner for putting it so beautifully. I think I will continue my holiday in Semaphore and listen to the ABC team on the wireless.
CA this stinks and just remember what Imran did for cricket in Australia when he was here.
As Uncle Doug used to say on World of Sport "woof, woof"