Relax, Australia: confected outrage about Sam Konstas hides the real issue

There is plenty of time for England and Australia journalists to hype up the Ashes. Illustration: Robin Hursthouse/The Guardian

Australia: an apology. Earlier this week I wrote an article that compared one of that nation’s brightest sporting stars to a comedic figure with a short-lived pop celebrity lifespan, causing outrage among Australia’s media and elite cricketers. It was cheap, disrespectful and unfair. It is now time to make amends. Raygun, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I compared you to Sam Konstas.

Joke! Just a joke. It was all just a joke. In fact, it was a single line buried 1,400 words into a 1,700-word article about the future of Test cricket. Referring to the fevered public reaction to Konstas scoring an unorthodox half-century on his Test debut, I wrote: “There was a sense during the India series of Konstas being installed as a cricketing version of Raygun the Olympic breakdancer, a fun, gimmicky approximation of the real thing.”