Joe Root has always come across as a thoroughly decent lad on his journey to the summit of international cricket.
So it was heartening to note the way the England captain called out Windies bowler, Shannon Gabriel, during the Third Test in St Lucia after the paceman thought he was being clever by calling his opponent “gay”.
Root, a genial chap with a tough-as-teak attitude was having none of this casual homophobia and made sure the man-mountain Gabriel knew so.
As he said: “Don’t use it as an insult. There’s nothing wrong with being gay.”
The incident was a reminder of how far sport still has to travel on the quest for achieving sexual equality. We still routinely hear football pundits dismissing struggling players as performing like “lassies”, while most of us who have ever picked up a cricket bat in Scotland have had to put up with similar remarks to that uttered by Gabriel.
But the best way to tackle those who resort to such antediluvian attitudes is to address the issue head-on, and follow Root’s approach that there is nothing clever, nothing smart about this behaviour. It should be condemned and one hopes the ICC will take appropriate punitive action at the end of the match.
There has always been sledging in cricket and, if it employs a degree of wit or makes a valid point, it can actually enhance the game. Most people will laugh at the response of one Test star to repeatedly being asked “Why are you so fat?” by an opponent.
He eventually retaliated with the words: “Because every time I make love to your wife, she gives me a chocolate biscuit!”
Such humour is rare at the highest level, and racist, sexist and homophobic abuse has blighted many pursuits for decades. Very few top-class stars or officials have taken the decision to come out as being gay, fearful of the reaction it will provoke.
One of the few, rugby referee Nigel Owens, was in charge of the Six Nations rugby clash between England and France at Twickenham on Sunday. He’s a class act, on and off the pitch, and I haven’t heard anybody using unacceptable language in his direction.
That represents progress. Small steps, admittedly, but an advance, nonetheless.
Root’s retort to Gabriel shows an equal resolve to move forward and cast off the kind of prejudice which should have no place in the modern world.
Hopefully, everybody with an inclusive philosophy will salute his actions.
