Your Player Cards

[Gentoras]

@Eugene yeah man,,,I say unlock it too.

@Ross, this game is mostly gonna be played by mature gamers, by that I mean, age group of say, 18-40's at most, cricket loving people who have a clear understanding of our stand as a country, obviously some would want to relive those memories as those players of that era, we only read about and have not seen them play...

And is there a scene in the game where crowds fly the flags?

Unlock it

 

[Lebanna]

To be honest, with what happened to Ashes, any excuse to crucify DBC will be jumped on by the media because of the current atmosphere with regards to cricket games. It might be safer to keep it locked. Just my 2c though

 

[Ajh1977]

Personally its only goin to be used for a few teams, and its bein used for historical accuracy, so its not like you're creating a 1930/40s German team and using the nazi flag. People are way too sensitive these days.

 

[Gentoras]

To be honest, with what happened to Ashes, any excuse to crucify DBC will be jumped on by the media because of the current atmosphere with regards to cricket games. It might be safer to keep it locked. Just my 2c though

*sad face*

 

[IceAgeComing]

Its something that I'd want to talk to black South Africans about. It wouldn't be a decision for a white Scot, a white Aussie or a white South African to take. Personally; I wouldn't, but the majority in South Africa was OK with it, then I'd feel free to include it.

I also wouldn't say that its simply people being "too sensitive" if they don't want it in the game. Its not our place to say that people are being "too sensitive" if we haven't lived through apartheid, and especially if we wouldn't have been victims of it (I'm making assumptions here, feel free to correct me).

 

[ChinamanSpin]

Don't worry. Even if the whole of South Africa couldn't give a hoot about it, which I don't know if they will or not, the English media will probably convince everyone the game is racist and ignore the facts. Like IceAge, I'm a white Pom, so I can't say much about it. However, I don't think it's worth the risk of the negative reaction.

 

[Gentoras]

Well I'm a black South African, and having said what I said above and seeing no problem with,,,I also take into consideration the post of IceAgae and Chinaman, if it'll create problems for Big Ant, then my suggestion would be, if it'll label the game as been racist, lock it and rather use the current national flag, this to save what "might" be attacks on Big Ant,,,for me personally, it wouldn't raiese any issues as it is a game I'd be playing

 

[Ajh1977]

Don't worry. Even if the whole of South Africa couldn't give a hoot about it, which I don't know if they will or not, the English media will probably convince everyone the game is racist and ignore the facts. Like IceAge, I'm a white Pom, so I can't say much about it. However, I don't think it's worth the risk of the negative reaction.

Yep our media, and the government love to poke their noes into other people's business, and then try to tell them how it should be done, which us ironic when our own land is filthy, corrupt and shows no resemblance to our empire or our glory days!

 

[blockerdave]

tbh i raised it originally as a it'd be cool to play with/against pollock, richards
and maybe re-creating the rebel tours etc. then thinking about the accuracy of the flag. i'm incredibly anal about stuff like that.

i can see the potential downsides, and i can understand big ant not wanting to touch it with a barge pole, considering few people will want to play these forms and fewer will care about the flag.

i could always use the dutch flag of course - it'd look pretty close if i squint

 

[angad]

Could people use it in an offensive way? Would it be offensive for people to make the current team with that flag? (As in not recognise the accepted national one?)

Obviously with Mandela passing it could also allow people to make something from nothing to get a headline. I am leaning towards keeping it locked.

I am unfortunately very ignorant of the debate (if any), SA is one of the very few countries I've never visited.

I say keep it locked

 

[Gentoras]

Could people use it in an offensive way? Would it be offensive for people to make the current team with that flag? (As in not recognise the accepted national one?)

Obviously with Mandela passing it could also allow people to make something from nothing to get a headline. I am leaning towards keeping it locked.

I am unfortunately very ignorant of the debate (if any), SA is one of the very few countries I've never visited.

With all being said about how it might create problems for you and Big Ant, I say Lock it and rather use the current one if not a fake one

 

[IceAgeComing]

The thing is; I can understand that people may have an issue with using the current flag with apartheid-era South African teams, because they only represented white South Africans and a majority of people could not play for their country regardless of how good they were. Its a no win situation in a weird way; as many of these complex issues are. That's why Ross should really discuss it with people who know much more about the issue that random idiots on the internet...

e: I also reject the idea that the wider British press are in some way "politically correct". The whole thing is a huge dog-whistle by the likes of the Daily Mail and other right-wing rags when they get called out on being racist, sexist or homophobic. Its like the whole "They're trying to replace Christmas with Winter Festival!!!" thing; its all a big load of rubbish talking small cases in one local areas and taking them both out of context and out of proportion...

 

[blockerdave]

Not to turn this into a media studies discussion - though we have had just about every other digression in this forum - there is a lot of manufactured outrage on both sides of the divide.

In respect of the Flag, I would personally like it for reasons of historical accuracy. This is a Don Bradman game, and though he never played in South Africa, he did play against South Africa - in fact he holds the record for the highest average in a 5 match series, 201.50 in 1932-33; this would have been scored against Union of South Africa. I would also distinguish between the flag and the National Party symbols, in the same way one might distinguish between the Eagle flag and the Swastika with Nazi Germany.

It's a tough one, and in Ross' shoes I might be inclined to err on the side of caution, but it's sad since at the end of the day this game has lots of historical artefacts in it - this would just be another. And a game that included Lagaan kit at the request of Indian fans has a pretty good defense against the race card.

 

[isrararrafi]

In my opinion, this could be a sensitive matter for quite a few people and the flag should not be included just to get historical accuracy...specially given the fact that very few people would bother trying to create a series like that. On the other hand many people will go through the teams/flags in CA and very likely to notice the flag and get offended without realizing the back story of including it.

If we want accuracy, there are a lot more other finer details to worry about than the flags. Just my two cents....

 

[SuperSharky]

It's really sad that politics must ruin sport again. When I liked the option to use the old flag for historical reason, I didn't want to offend anyone. I found it really sad that a lot of people are yet still too sensitive about this stuff. I idolize more my mature Jewish actor friend who can play a Nazi in an act, without feeling offended. But one of the comments on the blog was true. A Few English have proven in the past to spread sensitive propaganda stuff too gain political ground. So maybe it is too risky to use the old flag on behalf of all the too fragile & sensitive players. But I can tell you that the old flag was created 1928, without mentioning or degrading any race, under British rule. I know also that those seventies cricket players felt proud about their flag, but not about their governments policies. Just like a few Americans love their flag, but didn't agree with their government's role in the Watergate scandal. Sorry that the sensitive fan must spoil the mature cricketers? correct detail, but in the commercial life it could be too risky. We shouldn't discuss politics on this blog, back to the cricket. Has someone created Basil D?Oliveira? He was also a brilliant cricket legend who showed amazing timing on uneven pitches. I would love to play against or with Basil.