Governing Body Wrong To Point Finger At Media

Adam Collins says Cricket Australia and James Faulkner missed an opportunity to right a wrong after the player’s ‘coming out’ post this week

The modern media age, so it has long been observed, is defined by the 24-hour news cycle. As cable television news grew and the ‘blogosphere’ quickly followed, the need for speed in production of content resembles something of a perpetual motion machine. Faster! Faster! During my time in professional politics, you could almost park that in favour of four six-hours cycles, such was the thirst for the next thing, whatever it was...

During the week, we saw evidence of that window narrowing again when Australia rose to an Instagram post (and tweet) from James Faulkner, seemingly outing himself as the nation’s first openly gay professional cricketer. There’s a lot to unpack about the rise and disappearance of what was on track to being one of the biggest cricket stories the year – rightly or otherwise. To begin, in case you missed the flash storm, let’s recap.

Faulkner, who is on the outer concentric circle of international cricket nowadays, but four years ago was player of the World Cup Final, posted an image with his mother and a man he identified as his ‘boyfriend’ on his birthday. “#togetherfor5years” he hashtagged. In the replies, several cricketers – including Australian colleagues David Warner and Glenn Maxwell, issued what appeared sincere and supportive messages. News stories, in India to begin, reported the post. Australian newsrooms followed suit. It exploded online.

The all-rounder, upon waking up himself, quickly added “best mate!!!” in brackets next to boyfriend. Uh oh.