Time To Confront Sport's Culture Of Silence

AUSTRALIAN cricketers were perturbed by the publication of A Private Man in January. The novel, by the Herald's literary editor, Malcolm Knox, paints an ugly picture of the game, with professional players who are obnoxious sledgers cheating on and off the field. In one scene, an innocent autograph hunter is stripped and gang-raped as Chris Brand, the player who invited her back to his room, lies unconscious on the bed next to her.