Double standards?

[miga]

Apologies for the broken up reply - I was unable to post the whole thing in one hit. I also lost the response to your "disproving" thing about the link: the gist was that he's their boss, I don't expect him to sell his commentators up the river, but I expect he told them to stop being idiots and say it wasn't on. Their attitude changed in any case. That's just a guess, obviously.

[Loz]

Look, we can argue, guess and whatever about the incident until the cows come home. The point remains is that most people would agree that men cop it much harder for this kind of thing than women do. I think even you would grudgingly admit that. And that is a double standard. Some may try to justify the double standard, but that is a dangerous ground to tread.

I've come far too close to making it look like I'm defending Gayle's actions, which I'm not. I don't even much like the guy. but I believe in fairness - hell, I even found myself sort of defending Lewis S over in the Save Southwark Woods (SSW...!) thread last night, and I think anyone who has popped their nose in there know I have little time for him, either.

So, I still think Gayle's punishment was way out of line for the 'crime'. He made himself look very stupid and, yes, he very much owed Mel McLaughlin an apology, but I really can't believe that anyone truly thinks that is 10 grands worth of offence or that any women caught doing the same thing would be treated in the same way.

[miga]

Yeah, I'm ready to give up. We disagree - I think the "double standard" isn't so clear cut, and even if it were, there are other extraneous factors around gender relations that further complicate the picture. I'm happy to hold the minority viewpoint, if that is the case. I won't start on his apology. In the grand scheme of injustices, this was a blip - I'm starting to bore myself, so I'll bow out!

ETA: $10k - I think leagues have often predetermined fines for breach of conduct (players rubbishing refs, exposing themselves etc.), in this case I think it was a set fine.