20 November 2008

It’ll be all white on the night?

Dunedin, New Zealand, will be playing host to a test match against the touring West Indies cricket team in December, and the Dunedin City Council and the Otago Cricket Association have devised a cunning slogan for the match to show the fighting spirit of the locals. Officials are:

...encouraging Dunedinites and cricket watchers to use the catch-cry, "it's all white here" and dress in white for the occasion. The Dunedin City Council and the Otago Cricket Association say the concept mirrors "black-outs" created during the All Blacks' [rugby] games in the city.


I'm fairly sure that the West Indies team aren't close followers of rugby, but someone will probably point out the connection for them. Here's hoping they're not sensitive souls because when a largely white city welcomes a team of black sportsmen* it could be seen as extremely ignorant and borderline offensive to use the phrase "It's all white here!"

- Source: The Press (Christchurch), 20 November 2008

* Note that the current West Indies team has one white player: 30-year-old all-rounder Brendan Nash, who was born in Western Australia. His dad competed as a swimmer for Jamaica in the 1960s.

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