The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 48

46 SPORT THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1996 Expats keep game alive CRICKET The world's best golfer had had enough enough of the bad press, enough of the strained friendships and enough of the public bagging. Friend and writer PETER STONE was there in the middle of it all emotion of the moment, expecting people to understand what he means even if it is not conveyed with much logic. All too often the media go along for the ride Australian golf is in urgent need of some perspective in its view of Greg Norman. Let us continue rejoicing in his immense talent, but let's treat him as a flesh-and-blood sportsman with faults, not a demi-god." Norman felt even more hurt and wronged and later that Wednesday came the brunch which almost turned into a brawl as he refused to comment on most questions put to him. That evening he picked up the phone.

Norman wanted to talk the next day with me and anyone else who I cared to bring along. It would be us alone without Williams or Collins. I invited Jim Webster, former golf writer for the Herald and now senior editor of Golf Australia, and British golf commentator Ren-ton Laidlaw. Laidlaw declined, saying it was none of his business as an outsider. Phil Tresidder, managing editor of Australian Golf Digest, was another senior writer I approached but that Thursday morning he was only in the media centre long enough to drop off his resignation as a member of the golf writers' association.

Tresidder felt ashamed of the media treatment of Norman and wanted to distance himself from it. (A day or so later, Norman phoned him to thank him for the gesture, but suggested he had over-reacted. His resignation still stands.) Webster and I met Norman after his round, but not before Norman had had a private conversation with Ramsey after his media interview. Norman had heard Ramsey had written that the media were banned from the locker-room at The Lakes, on Norman's direction. It is true that for an hour or so that day, some representatives of the media were not allowed access to the locker-room, but Norman insisted it was not his order, but rather a mix-up by security guards.

Norman, Webster and I met in a small hut behind the 18th green. His close mate John Cott, an Irishman who works with IMG, stood outside to ensure no-one entered. It would be a betrayal of trust to reveal all that was discussed but, without doubt, it was the sympathetic treatment given Graeme Grant by the media which was the spark. We thrashed all manner of things around and Norman agreed it was in everyone's best interests to thaw the situation as quickly as possible. It was suggested that at times Norman was too accommodating with his views on any subject thrown in his direction.

"You're telling me I shouldn't be honest! That's not my way," he replied. Nor is it. He had wanted to tell the media the previous Sunday night that victory in the Open had been most satisfying, but because of the impasse he chose not to. We jokingly suggested he should load the entire Australian media on board his plane and take them to every tournament he played. Then he would never lose.

"No," he replied with a smile, "The temptation might be there to dump the lot of you in the ocean." Webster and I departed, confident things were on the improve. Cott was asked to invite Trevor Grant to the hut and he talked for an hour or so with Norman. PHILIP DERRIMAN The Maltese are a dogged breed. They resisted German air raids in World War II and they are still resisting attempts by the English to get them to play cricket. So when a Maltese team took the field at Curl Curl yesterday, it was noticeable that the batting list in the scorebook contained names such as Appleyard and Harris distinctively Anglo yet all solid citizens of Malta.

They belong to a strong contingent of expatriates playing in this week's Golden Oldies' World Cricket Festival in Sydney. Significantly, the festival seems to have a special appeal for cricket-lovers living in countries that are almost entirely indifferent to cricket, such as Malta, Canada and the I all of which have fielded teams. Jerry Harris, a former English comedian and a seam bowler of the old county type, is typical of the expats. When he married a Maltese and moved from Britain to Malta 17 years ago, he quickly gravitated to a local cricket ground. For reasons he cannot fully explain, the trappings of the game whites, blazers, willow and leather had a strong pull for him.

So he began playing and soon found himself with a motley collection of other expats in Malta's national side. At 65, he is still one of Malta's leading cricketers. The others include a Pakistani pathologist, a second Pakistani doctor, British film producer David Kent-Watson, and several Maltese-Australians who learnt the game in Australia and are living in Malta. But there are no home-grown Maltese among them. Malta was a British colony for more than 160 years, but it seems the English were content to play cricket among themselves.

There have been some belated attempts recently to spread the game among the Maltese, although so far with little success. The teams Malta compete against are full of expats, too. "Not long ago, we played Switzerland," Jerry Harris said yesterday. "I went into a dressing-room and saw 1 1 Pakistanis and Indians sitting there. 'What team are I said, and they said, 'Switzerland'.

I said. 'Which one of you can Harris is playing for a golden oldies team called Normandy Nomads, although he has no idea why a Malta-based side should be named that. It is one of 31 teams from seven countries, the other six being England, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, the US and Bermuda. Japan did not send a team, but a lone Japanese a cricket-mad real estate agent named Kenichiro Matsumura -was keen to take part and was slotted into an Australian side, the Whitsunday Wanderers, which was a man short. Altogether, 850 cricketers aged from 40 to 78 played in the tournament, which ended yesterday and will be rounded off with a dinner tonight.

Jerry Harris began the tournament badly, bowled first ball in a match against a Sydney team called the Gentlemen of Longueville. Did he play over it or perhaps misjudge the line? "I didn't see it," he said. "The wicket-keeper said to me, 'You've come a hell of a long wav to be out first ball'. So I had." Shocked Victoria save face Victoria's Ian Harvey scored a career best 85 and took a wicket to save the visitors from disgrace on the opening day of the Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania in Hobart yesterday. Victoria were dismissed for 275 and Tasmania were 1-17 at stumps in reply.

Harvey, who came in at 4-131, was the cornerstone of the innings after captain Dean Jones went for for 53. Tasmanian captain David Boon helped Harvey on his way by dropping a chance at second slip with the batsman on 22. Jones paid tribute to Harvey, who also dismissed Jamie Cox for eight in the last over of the day. "He's just showing his potential," Jones said. "He can field, he can bowl, he can bat he's something special, and we've just got to persevere with him.

He's good enough to play for Australia." Right-arm quick Josh Mar-quet's 4-63 runs off 21.1 overs was also a career best for the former Victorian, bettering his previous 3-53 and signifying a welcome return to form. Scores in Scoreboard Australian Golf Writers' Association came up with the airfare for Norman to make his first international trip to England the following year. Friendships were forged, and he never forgot. He was always accessible, no matter where he was in the world A phone call to his home or nis office was always returned within 24 hours. An open invitation was always there to drop around for a few beers any time we were in the vicinity of his Florida home.

His might have become a world of helicopters and private jets, of corporate deals and boardrooms, but primarily he is a golfer and a sportsman and we, the golfing media, were part of his world. Many an official cocktail party have seen Norman, just a little weary of the backslappers, seek sanctuary in company of the media. And, as British Open champion in 1993, he came home for his national Open with the Old Claret Jug, The Open Championship trophy, but because of illness cancelled all official functions, save one. It was the Australian Golf Writers' Association annual dinner on the Saturday night and Lawrence was retiring as our president because of ill-health, which led to his death in August 1994. The Shark had promised he would be there and he was, for three hours, and practically every Tom, Dick and Harry in the golf writing fraternity now has a photograph of himself with Norman and the Open trophy.

Norman came home again last February for the Australian Masters at Huntingdale in Melbourne. An event which began so humbly in 1979, it is now second only in prestige to the Australian Open and that success was primarily due to one man Norman. He and the Masters were synonymous; he'd won it six times. It was the Melbourne Cup of golf. Folk not interested in the sport for the other 51 weeks of the year attended for the party and to see Stormin' Norman strut his stuff.

I walked a few holes with him as he played the pro-am. Along the way, he observed that he felt the tournament had lost a little of its magic. I duly reported his comments the next day and all hell broke loose, with a slanging match developing between the International Management Group, owner of the Masters, and its one-time client Norman, who had quit the fold a couple of months earlier. Tensions were high that week, too, with some sections of the press belting him around the ears for daring to suggest the Masters may have become a little tired which, in truth, it had. So we had a situation developing in golf in this country in which Norman and controversy courted each other, built around Norman forthrightly and honestly expressing his views.

Late last year, though, it was all going to be different. Norman, only too well aware he had not won in Australia since the Masters in 1990, cleared the decks of all but essential business and was in a relaxed frame of mind on arrival. Nothing occurred in the build-up to the Open to change that. Yet he was clearly frustrated along the way to his opening round par 72. A three-putt from about 3m on the par 3 15th, where any shot finishing above the hole, as Norman's did, tested both skill and nerve, left him angry.

Two holes later, he exploded. The approach shots of both Norman and Brad Faxon pitched short of the green and virtually plugged in the new turf laid not so many weeks before at the Kingston Heath course. ing tricked-up golf course. You land in short thinking it is going to run and it plugs. You hit the green and it runs through," Norman muttered.

Faxon nodded in agreement. Norman made no mention of the incident at the 17th in his television interview on finishing the round, but did offer his thoughts on the pace of the greens, saying: "I hope they don't go over the edge." The essence of this was he hoped the greens would not get quicker through the week. At his subsequent media conference, he repeated his remarks on the greens. "I personally think there were some putts out there quicker than I've had in the world. Quicker than Augusta venue of I Ll HE image of an emotional Peter I Senior had barely I vanished from the I television screen when my home phone rang.

"Peter, it's Greg here! How are we going to get rid of all this There's no way I want to get on the plane on Sunday night to go home without clearing all this up." It was just on 7.30 pm on Wednesday, November 29. Senior's words, uttered earlier in the day at a player-media brunch at The Lakes Golf Club on the eve of the Greg Norman Classic, had just been replayed on the ABC news, but one needed no reminding of them. "Some of you guys are just real dirt-Jiggers and I'm just a bit bloody sick of the way everyone keeps tearing Greg down. The Pontius Pilates among us might have washed our hands then and there, saying it was not our business but the fault of others, yet there was still an obligation to our employers to report objectively on what was looming as the biggest bust-up between an Australian sporting star and the Austral; media. Some in the press, in the days when the boss insisted you wear a hat and tie on the job, might not have been close friends of Sir Donald Bradman but almost to a man they admired the man and his achievements and it is inconceivable he could ever have become embroiled in such an affair.

Bradman was aloof still is for that matter but Norman has never been that. He'd always been a mate. Maybe mates take advantage of one another but, then again, they always stand by each other. Norman did get on his Gulf-stream III private jet that Sunday evening and, to all intents and purposes, a reconciliation was in place; the one-time lovers may not have clambered back into the cot with each other, but at least they were holding hands on the couch. He wished each and every one of the media he knew personally the best for Christmas for them and theirs and said: "Good luck.

I'll see you guys early next year." All was obviously not as it seemed, because last week, Norman said in the US that the time may come when he reluctantly might say goodbye to Australian golf. His statement caught even his US manager, Frank Williams, and Australian manager, Bart Collins, by surprise. They thought the matter was closed until one bought the newspapers and faxed them to the other. "It's disappointing to go down there to play golf, when other people have other ideas and agendas," Norman was reported as saying. "It gets difficult to deal with.

You have people who want to cut the legs out from underneath you for being successful. It's the tall poppy syndrome in Australia. I don't understand it, but that's the way it is." The idea that the day might come when the world's No 1 golfer decides enough is enough in the country of his birth is not new. That evening when Norman phoned, I had just finished writing two pieces for the Herald One started: "Greg Norman's relations with the Australian media have deteriorated to the point where he may choose not to play here again once his current contracts run out." The other ended: "It is to be hoped that in the not-too-distant future, Norman and several of the golf-writing fraternity can sit down, rationally and without emotion, to discuss the events of recent days. Right now, we live in an intolerable situation with each other." So where did it all start? How the hell did it all go so terribly wrong? HERE have been i scraps between Nor scr man and certain members of the media in the past, yet normal rela tions have resumed a day or so later.

He had always been a friend of the press ever since the day the late Don Lawrence found him sitting on the steps of the Royal Melbourne clubhouse with no place to stay for the night Lawrence, then a Melbourne golf writer, gave Norman and his Queensland mate, Brian Smith, now a club pro, beds in his nearby family home for the week of the 1976 Chrysler Classic. A week or so later, the III VSjjj '-V' 4 jm? "vj i i VJt-4 mUfWA Kit: Vf- A an incredible nine minutes and Roberts clearly did not know how to end it. Rowland let it run. Some writers were on course and did not hear the interview. Grant obliged when requested to repeat his comments in the media interview.

Williams, Norman's manager, stood at the back listening and at times interrupting. Williams was trying a little damage control, but it all went wrong as he and Grant clashed verbally after the interview. It was grist to the golf writers' mill and, instead of concentrating on the day's play, most newspapers reported on the day the greenkeeper struck back at the world No 1. ND so the sun began to shine at last On the Saturday, when Norman had an 1 1 on the 14th, press liaison officer Kathie Shearer, wife of Bob, was asked if she would mind getting a couple of comments from him. We knew he would be dark with himself and a full-scale interview might inflame an already delicate truce.

"No, I'll come and tell them myself," said Norman, who knew that one hole had ruined his chances of winning his own tournament. "Do you want to hear about my 18 at Massey Park recently?" I opened up the questioning. For the first time in two weeks, Norman laughed. It is to be hoped we laugh a lot more together in the coming weeks as Norman plays three tournament in a row on the Australasian Tour the $1 million Singapore Classic, the $900,000 Perth Classic and the South Australian Open in Adelaide. Three weeks is a long time to be blueing.

Besides, a giant vacuum would be left in Australian golf should Norman ever feel he has been driven to the point of not playing here again. the talking and to hell with the rest. Most of us were looking forward to a quieter week at the Greg Norman Classic the following week. It wasn't to be. On the Tuesday, Sydney writer Tom Ramsey quoted Senior as saying Norman could "do a hell of a lot more" to help the Australian circuit.

"I am sure Greg could play in a couple of Australian events without asking for appearance money," Senior was reported as saying. He later claimed he had been selectively quoted; Ramsey maintains he has the remarks on tape. Then, on the Wednesday, Trevor Grant, who incidentally is the brother of Graeme Grant, wrote in a Melbourne newspaper what some might say was a harsh article on Norman (others might say it was perceptive). Here in Australia we treat his utterances with the reverence of a Papal decree. No-one seems to mind conversation with Norman is often littered with contradiction.

He is not a considered thinker who always applies logical patterns to debate So often he runs on the which he perceived had sided with Grant and, for the next few days, it was all downhill. On the Sunday, the final day of the Open, I was confronted by an upset Laura Norman in the media centre. Her main bone of contention with me had been a paragraph I'd written in the Sun-Herald that she and her husband had visited a young lad in hospital the previous night. "It was a visit Norman insisted on making and planned well ahead of the bad press he received over the Grant issue," I wrote. Laura felt I had taken a snipe at her husband with the wording of that paragraph.

Perhaps, in retrospect, it might have been worded better. The point I tried to make was the compassionate other side of Greg Norman. Our discussion then became a general one of the media treatment of her husband, especially the coverage given the Grant comments. It lasted for the first six holes of her husband's round that final day. It is history now that he won and then dedicated his victory to the young leukemia victim, Michael Gentile, whom he had visited in hospital.

Norman was restrained in victory. He had let his clubs do the US Masters. I don't think it was unfair, but let's not put it over the edge." Every newspaper in the land reported Norman's comments. Nothing more was thought of it and the next day it was business as usual in the second round. Well, almost.

Open telecaster Channel 7 always splits up the golf action with interviews of those involved in the tournament and Seven's director of golf, Graeme Rowland, had the idea of an interview with Kingston Heath course superintendent, Graeme Grant, about what goes into the preparation of a course for the Open. Interviewer Sandy Roberts was clearly stunned when Grant settled into his chair in the on-course studio and produced a sheaf of notes from his pocket. Not a mention was made of course preparation as Grant proceeded to lambast Norman for his comments the previous day and for critical remarks Norman allegedly had made in previous years about courses prepared by colleagues, including his brother, Bruce, and partner John Spencer. The interview, with Grant doing most of the talking, lasted THE time Norman had finished his second round a 69 which thrust him back into contention he had been fully briefed by Williams. Norman refused to comment on anything Grant had said.

The pair met in the early evening in one of the huts in the tournament compound but, after an hour, their differences remained unresolved. But Norman was at war with the media.