Margaret Court has asked for the same level of celebration as was afforded to Rod Laver.Credit:Getty
If only they could make me the Media and Communications Director of Tennis Australia for a day, this is the letter I would send:
Dear Mrs Court,
On behalf of Tennis Australia, I note with interest your recent comments concerning the approach of the 50th anniversary of your Grand Slam, and your desire that you be accorded the same kind of public celebration we gave to Rod Laver for his own recent 50th anniversary, to wit: “They brought Rod in from America. If they think I’m just going to turn up, I don’t think that is right. I think I should be invited. I would hope they would pay my way to come like they paid for his, and honour me. If they are not going to do that, I don’t really want to come.”
You went on: “I think Tennis Australia should sit and talk with me. They have never phoned me. Nobody has spoken to me directly about it. I think they would rather not confront it.”
Mrs Court this is a rather difficult situation, as you will appreciate. Once again, we congratulate you on your many tennis achievements – more indeed, than any female player, ever. But we are, frankly, bemused by any suggestion that we haven’t honoured you. You’d surely agree the “Margaret Court Arena” is an extraordinary honour? And you would agree that our resistance – so far – against all calls to change the name because of your intensely unpleasant homophobic remarks, is a sign of our enduring good will?
Which brings us to the most delicate part of all . . .
You will recall a couple of years ago citing the bible as you proclaimed that the only legitimate love is that between a man and a woman. Your starting point was that when it comes to the LGBT+ community, we are not all equal beneath the Southern Cross, because they are the work of “the devil’’. This not only trashed the gays among your followers, it trashed you among our many followers, and it meant that honouring a homophobic zealot became problematic for us. For after you assert those with a different sexuality to you are not your equal, it is frankly a bit much for you to say you want equal treatment to Rod Laver, who has never brought anything but honour to the game and his name. At Tennis Australia, we have no religious views whatsoever, and welcome everyone. Nevertheless, seeing as the bible seems to be the only reference point you recognise, in the face of your loud attacks on us I feel I must cite St Paul’s advice in 1 Timothy 2:12, where the great saint says: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent.”
Or Ephesians 5:22: “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”
Or 1 Corinthians 11:3-10: “The head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man . . . For man did not come from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for women, but women for man.”
Margaret Court and Rod Laver.Credit:AP, Shaughn and John
I trust you see our point? At Tennis Australia, we believe in equality and inclusion. For us to publicly honour those who trash those values is problematic. And for you to ask for equal honouring to Rod Laver, when it goes against the teachings of the very bible you use to trash gays is . . . a bit much, frankly. And yes, I realise you may find it hard when people criticise you and ignore your achievements in tennis simply because they don’t like the views you have chosen to express. But that might be how the gays feel, when you discount and criticise them, simply because of the sexuality they were born with? The alternative to having no tolerance for intolerance is to tolerate it, in which case nothing would change. And we are changing, in tune with the world.
Nevertheless, we offer our regards, regardless,
Peter FitzSimons
Tennis Australia Media Director
Boks of kicks
“There are only three kinds of people in this world,” so the old saying goes. “Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who say ‘What the f**k just happened?’”
Last Saturday evening in Yokohoma for the final of the Rugby World Cup, those spots were filled, in order, by: 1. The Springboks; 2. The rugby public around the world; 3. The English team.
And yet, despite the fact that I am firmly in Camp 2, I still want a piece of the reaction of Camp 3.
How did England falter so badly? Where the hell was the team from the week before that completely decimated the once mighty All Blacks, who had themselves belted South Africa three weeks before that?
I mean, I always knew that England would struggle a little because of the powers of my Kiss of Death, and I acknowledged as much in my column:
“England,” I wrote, “is so strong, soooooooo strong I tell you, that they will even survive my Kiss of Death, and romp home . . . my pick might not knock ten or a dozen points off them, but there will still be plenty of points left over to best the Boks by as many.”
Ash Barty capped an incredible season with a big win at the WTA finals in Shenzhen.Credit:Getty Images
Team of the Week
Matildas In a move that made headlines and led sports bulletins around the world, they are now on the same pay deal as Socceroos.
Ash Barty They don’t call her “Cash” Barty for nothing! Won $US 11,307,587 in this last season, second only to the $US 12.3 million of Serena Williams in 2013, and the $US 4.42 million she won last weekend was the largest tennis prize in history. And though just 23, she is now 24th on the list for most money earned in a career by a female player, ahead of such names as Seles, Capriati, Evert, and Sabatini and surpasses male players such as Rafter, Courier and Safin.
Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry Combined for an unbeaten 199 runs, a world record partnership in any major women’s domestic Twenty20 competition. Tonga. Their victory over the Kangaroos last Saturday means they have beaten Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand in the last two years, giving league a much need fourth contender for what is otherwise a farce of international competition.
South Africa Have now won the Rugby World Cup three times – equal to the All Blacks – a feat all the more impressive for the fact that they did not participate in the first two World Cups in 1987 and 1991.
Melbourne Cup Shed 750,000 viewers in comparison to last year as #NupToTheCup took off on social media, and they had the lowest number of attendees in the last quarter-century. It happened in the same week that the Dapto Dogs – wonderfully – announced it was closing down, even if that decision is now in legal dispute.
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