CRICKETERS are not generally known for getting all fired up.
The “gentleman’s game” was certainly not based on players getting up in the grills of a foe.
This made the altercation between Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene and Australia’s Glenn Maxwell in the Twenty20 match on Monday night even more of a novelty.
Maxwell probably had every right to be mad at the Sri Lankan players, who held an impromptu conference before the final delivery of the match.
Having said that, Maxwell probably didn’t need to act like he was invited by his wife to appear on a Jerry Springer episode entitled “I’m pregnant by a giant transsexual” (that is a true episode title for those playing at home).
But regardless of who started it, or whether they deserved it, the crowd was loving it. There is something about a bit of biff that excites the senses.
It reminded me of a DVD I discovered when perusing a book store at Lansell Plaza before Christmas looking for my mother’s Christmas present.
I was looking for some form of highbrow BBC documentary to give mum when something else captured my attention.
It is a television show that really encapsulates people’s enjoyment of watching a good walloping, maybe a jumper punch or two, and a bit of rough and tumble on the ground.
It is a show that is only seconded in class by the Robert Dipierdomenico-fronted Shockers, Screamers and Sausage Rolls (which disappointingly was unavailable for purchase).
It is called Footy’s Wildest Moments: Biffs, Bumps and Brawlers, the seminal special hosted by Rex Hunt, volumes one AND two.
If I wasn’t already excited, I was positively shaking all over by the time I read the blurb.
“The knuckle men, the slipper merchants, the knock-out kings. A who’s who of the tribunal’s favourites,” it says, begging the question why a purveyor of fine moccasins and ugg boots deserves his place among perpetually-angered ruffians and Mike Tyson-tryhards.
“The DVD the AFL didn’t want you to see,” it goes on, defying the fact it features recordings way before DVD, more in the time of floppy disks or VHS.
“This is in your face, relentless and, at times, terrifying.” Wowzer, I thought with quickened breath. Terrifying!
Here is 160 minutes straight from Mr Yibbida Yibbida himself introducing vision after vision of thugs punching the bejeepers out of each other in a way that would probably see you spending a good deal of time in Port Phillip Prison if you did it on a street, or even in a non-professional game of football.
It has more violence than a Quentin Tarantino film; more underhand dealings than Underbelly.
And all for the reasonable price of $39.95!
I shook my head in wonder at how this DVD was covered in dust and at the bottom of the shelf, seemingly looked over for years by people preferring to buy A History of Art in Three Colours or the Best of Antiques Roadshow.
It was mum’s favourite Christmas present this year, I’m sure of it.