Why isn't Panesar a pommie bastard?: multiculturalism and the implications of cricket Australia's racial abuse policy

Prior to the start of The Ashes in 2006 in which England and Australia played five five-day long games of cricket, Cricket Australia, the country's governing body for the sport, announced that it would be cracking down on racism. The words 'Pom' and 'Pommie', however, were deemed by Cricket Australia to be inoffensive. Unacceptable, nevertheless, was racial abuse directed at Monty Panesar, a Sikh member of the English cricket team. The author analyzes why abuse hurled at white English players is acceptable and abuse hurled at non-white players unacceptable. He does this by using the work of Ghassan Hage and an episode of the cartoon South Park and briefly examines the implications for multiculturalism as a policy.