Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

Black Caps fast bowler Iain O'Brien has hit the headlines for comments he made in his personal blog this week. The international cricketer only took up blogging in October, to pass the downtime (outside of training and playing) while he was in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

O'Brien continued to make regular 'diary' posts during his international travels with the team, with his personal observations giving a very interesting insight into the thought process behind a game, what players do to get prepared, and how they keep themselves occupied during the downtime.

It sounds like NZ Cricket bosses weren't aware of his personal blog, which unfortunately made headlines after O'Brien commented last Saturday that he'd been called a faggot by some spectators, while he was fielding on the boundary during the game at the Gabba (Brisbane).

"The crowds here are pretty good, ruined by a few, actually quite a few, idiots who think a day out at the cricket is just to abuse the guys playing any way how. You get called anything and everything.

Embarrassing for these guys really, as a lot of the others around them are cringing. I don't know how many times I've was called a 'fagot' this afternoon!"

New Zealand Cricket team manager Lindsay Crocker says he's spoken to O'Brien, who is keen to continue blogging. He was "staggered the blog had made headlines", but had agreed to run future posts past the team's media manager, John Durning.

Hopefully that won't result in a boring santised and edited kind of diary, of the kind that usually appears on "Official" team websites. Unfortunately Crocker does note that it was "standard practice for any published writing by contracted players to be vetted by NZ Cricket".

As Richard at Sportsreview points out, Iain is "simply writing honestly about what it’s like to play international Cricket. And he writes well."

He does. And hopefully he'll be allowed - and feel comfortable - continuing.

* Iain O'Brien's Cricket Blog