Beware The Hooligans

ã€€ã€€The most popular online cheap gucci shoes,By no means Mind MICHAEL JORDAN. When Peter Vilo of Sydney heard that Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor had retired final week, he was devastated. Why?'' the 10-year-old wailed. Australian fans of all ages reacted with similar dismay towards the news that their national sporting hero, Mark (Tubby) Taylor, the world's highest-scoring Test batsman nonetheless playing, was hanging up his bat for great. His accomplishments around the pitch have won him limitless admiration in his cricket-mad country: in a match against Pakistan final year he equaled the all-time substantial batting score of Australia's greatest-ever cricketer, Don Bradman. As soon as he tied the 334-run record, Taylor elected to stop batting, instead of go on and unseat Bradman. ã€€ã€€To most Australians, it's selfless gestures like that that truly make him a role model. In an age when international competition--including the Olympics--is mired in drug and corruption scandals, Taylor, 34, represents the old-time sportsman who is decent, truthful and humble. He earns a modest residing and doesn't market footwear that children can't afford. He visits kids in the hospital and is a cofounder of the Sporting Opportunity, a charity that raises funds for cancer research. The Australia Day Council, the official organizer with the country's national-day occasions, named Taylor the Australian with the Year for 1999. He's the bloke you'd want subsequent to you in the trenches,'' says his manager, John Fordham.Taylor is leaving at a time when the game needs him more than ever. Cricket's reputation for fairness and gentility--in no other contest do the combatants break for tea--has lately been soiled by scandal. Pakistani captain Wasim Akram stands accused of providing bribes to players on opposing teams to throw matches. (Akram denies the allegations and has not been formally charged.) Australian cricketers Shane Warne and Mark Waugh took 1000's of dollars in secret payments from an Indian bookmaker for providing the bookie reports around the climate and playing conditions before matches. (The stars were fined.) And batsman Ricky Ponting recently earned a three-match suspension--in addition to a black eye--for joining inside a barroom brawl.Behavior around the area isn't a lot better. Cricket's version of trash speaking, known as sledging,'' is rampant, with players screaming epithets at the batter to distract him. During a one-day match against England, the Sri Lankan group loudly insulted an umpire who produced an unfavorable call; the Sri Lankans then walked off the area. And also the players are not the only ones acting up. Increasingly, cricket fans are expanding indistinguishable from football hooligans; at a cricket match in Sydney final month, police expelled dozens of fans for starting the Mexican wave,'' which is forbidden simply because participants hold cups of beer whilst they throw up their arms. Competing fans routinely attempt to out-taunt each other. The Aussies contact English players wankers,'' while England's supporters (recognized in Australia as the Barmy Army'') have been heard chanting: I can't read, I cannot write, I must be Australian!''Taylor insists his choice to retire has nothing to complete using the rising noise degree with the game. He says he is leaving to spend more time with his sons. Cricket is going well,'' he says. The crowds this year in Australia are 2nd to none.'' They'll keep coming now that their national hero is gone, but they will not have nearly as much to cheer about.I found wholesale nike shoes I was looking for.