Cricket Update: Ashes 2010- Is it fair for the Cricket Wives And Girlfriends's to be banned
It is funny when career comes before family. It seems that the England Cricket Board (ECB) is leaving no stone unturned to defend their Ashes title. England cricket’s team director Andy Flower stated that the England’s Ashes squad has been prohibited from seeing their families for the first five weeks of the tour.
The Ashes 2010-2011 is being played in Australia and England will leave on Friday to begin their preparation for the clash of the rivals. The Englishmen are bidding for their first Ashes triumph for 24 years in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746. The Ashes first Test starts on November 25th 2010 in Brisbane and the team director has “strictly” ordered the squad to not see their families “until after the second Ashes Test” which takes place on December 3rd in Adelaide. Flower defended his stance on banning the families as his side needs “that period at the start of the tour with no families present to focus fully on the game.” Newspaper stands were full of headlines such as “Ashes WAGS barred from touring” and “Ashes WAGS banned as English coach gets tough.”
The word “WAGs” is an interesting term. It is an acronym for Wives and Girlfriends of players. It was initially used by the British tabloid for the international football players of England. Their glamorous wives were blamed for the under – performance of the England football team in the FIFA World Cup 2006. The WAGs found more coverage in the British media than their counterparts play on the field. The WAGs were even accused of eating up the wealth of the celebrated players as they lavishly spent their money in shopping. The media went one step ahead in declaring that the wives and girlfriends influence their husbands and boyfriends to move to other clubs which might suit the WAGs to help begin their career.
Subsequently the term evolved and found its way in describing the wives and girlfriends of cricket stars as well. CWAG (Cricket Wives and Girlfriends) was a more subtle way of putting it. The term was extensively used by the tabloids to criticize the English team after their 5-0 loss in the 2006-2007 Ashes. The team was heavily scrutinized due to their lack of interest in the play and their undying interest in their wives and girlfriends. In the past, the ECB paid heed to the need of families during long tours. But in the times of recession, it seems that the Board is not ready to pay for the long tours.
The thing to ponder is the need for “banning” the families. If a person’s significant other or child or anyone related to him/her for that matter would be playing in the most anticipated rivalries of cricket ever, they would be fully charged up to watch it. And watch does not mean to watch the live coverage on television with all the overly repetitive commercials and sponsors, they would want to watch live from the stands, cheering for “their” player. They would want to be there when the team loses and when the team wins.
Well, of course when a person is in a profession that includes travelling away from home and giving 100 percent to their work – the family often takes a backseat. It is not fair on part of the players as well as their families. It is, however, not right to be skipping training camps and being caught shopping with their wives and girlfriends and children while they should have been clearly present at the training session. Likewise, the CWAGs or WAGs must also keep their shopping list limited.
Though the media can be partially blamed as well, as they are the reason why the hype is created in the first place. While the paparazzi are busy feeding the gossip mills with pictures and stories highlighting when and where the girls were strutting their stuff, whereas the space could have been utilized for highlighting the glorious play of the men.
Now it is not the fault of the wives and girlfriends to be beautiful after all, or is it?
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