Will, you’re scratching.

You’re unhappy and you’re scratching for insults!

ban the aussies from playing international sport!!!! all cause we don’t speak your type of english. u r right we speak australian, mate! and we r not paying no royalties.
The ponsie english team should stick to playing minnows
and yes u should stop writing.

The problem for you, mate, is that they were having a Sunday knock around in the park. Normal service has been resumed against you clowns, and you don’t like it, do you?
Kathy: Fiona made a reasonable response to a completely spurious - and fatuous - comment by Will. If you Poms (or in your case, wanna-be Poms, like half of NZ) can’t take it, don’t start it. Stop bringing knives to gunfights. Hell: stop bringing a ‘team’ to matches - you’re only wasting everyone’s time.

We have to say ‘mate’. It’s in the Mates’ Act.

One of the points about the Australian team is that we don’t restrict our team to the upper-middle classes. Maybe if England made cricket a friendly sport to working class people they’d be good at it too. Over recent years, we’ve had the likes of Ponting, McGrath, Symonds, Michael Clarke and Jason Gillespie play matchwinning roles for Australia. If they’d been born English, I doubt they’d have been made welcome in the English set-up.

Needless to say, with this proletarian outlook, the average Australian cricketer’s grammatical expressions do sometimes have terminological inexactitude.

I say, my dear old things, there are some jolly good eggs making absolute spiffing comments here, what ho! Simply splendid. Gosh. And mine, oh a large one please darling, ice and a slice! Top stuff!

and there goes another red bus …

Maybe the excessive use of ‘mate’ between wickets was in response to Nixon’s incessant trash-talk behind the stumps. I have no doubt that it would drive me quickly insane. And the Aussies that I saw looked under significant pressure although they played it pretty well (Ponting and Clarke, and Symonds in the end). So if they were to act in command and cocky between the wickets it may be a bit of a pressure release.
Am I stretching?

That’d be like stopping the West Indies calling each other “man” (or should that be “mon”) and outlawing the high five.

So Will, mate, she’ll be apples, it’s “too easy”…mate… (or would you prefer Pommie B@stard?)

Kiwi, SA and Zim cricketers use the term, as well as us and you lot, so the post does come across as tinted by a little hostility.

On the claim itself, I think you’re just tracking Roy’s influence on the game. He’s the only regular user of ‘mate’ in run calls. There’s nothing at all mannered about it; he’s just a better example of the broad Australian accent and lexicon than anyone else in the current Oz batting lineup. A well-known Australian social imperative then requires those batting with him - Clarke, for instance - to use the term more often themselves. That’s my theory, anyway.

I know the article here is more like poking fun, but I think it does bother some English commentators since I’ve heard it referenced in the past.

To me, the usage of “mate” by the Aussies is just one of many positive team-mate supporting thing they do in batting partnerships. They are always talking mid-pitch between balls etc. Many other teams (particularly England) don’t communicate verbally much at all. I really think this communication between the Aussies is a contributor to why they are so strong a team. The usage of “mate” automatically makes you feel like you’ve got a mate there batting with you, rather than just a colleague propping up the other end. It’s a psychological positive. England should try it.

And I.

Full name Andrew Symonds
Born June 9, 1975, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England

England fluffed that opportunity didn’t they?

And regarding “terminological inexactitude” Scott, it pisses me off when people can’t talk with the slightest sense of grammar and spelling. No matter where they come from.

U no wot I meen?

javed miandad was alleged to have three calls: ‘go’, ‘no’ and ‘whoah’ - must be urban myth; wouldn’t he have called in urdu?

we played against a guy we called deon - his call was ‘deon one’ (or two etc).

the call i would like outlawed is ‘can you?’ - should be answered with ‘none of your fucking business, MATE’.
nearly as bad is ‘not now’ - so you’re going to wait a couple of minutes ’til the ball is actually in the keeper’s gloves before attempting a run? also sounds like you’re treating the guy at the other end like a naughty schoolboy.

don’t be so daft! there’s a world of difference between : ‘wait, mate’, ‘wait; yes’ and ‘mate, wait; yes, mate’. and aren’t we missing the point? symonds doesn’t exactly need to run much when the bloody thing keeps disappearing ever deeper into the crowd.

We’ll stop saying mate if the poms stop that stupid glove touch. Bell ducks under a bouncer, Pieterson calls him over, presumably to say “well ducked old chap”, and they glove touch. An easy push for a single to long on, great shot, glove touch. Save it for the big shots.

Using mate in cricket has been around for a fair amount of time…

For certain in the 8 years I’ve been playing competitive cricket, ‘yes, mate’ has been occasionally uttered - in particular when you are batting with a good mate (heh). You’ll find whenever an Australian player does it, he will be with a noted friend within the team; Ponting with Hayden, Hayden with Gilchrist, Symonds with everybody.

Friendship and unity within a team is better than chaos and fractures right?

Clearly the most logical conclusion here is that Australians in fact don’t speak English, and therefore “Yes/No mate” is as natural and right as “Oui/Non” or “Ja/Nein” would be.

Heaven knows, while us Englanders continue to enunciate with (near) perfect diction, much the of the world is shoehorning the language into various new configurations. Perhaps in a few hundred years’ time, it will be taught in its pure form in schools, like Latin is today.

Cor blimey, ma, say it aint so… *sob* [stiff upper lip trembles]

Wraye, just to get back to you 10 days later, and answer your little question about “what was R(icky P(onting) doing at the BBC?”

Dear Wraye! RP is not Ricky Ponting, but Received Pronunciation! Wot used to be known as “pure” spoken English! as spoken byQueen and BBC newsreaders once upon a time! No doubt Queen still does.

Such glory days are obviously long gone, especially if you lot don’t even know what RP is!!