NEWS DESK
Talent spotters on the bus
Cricket tours can take family toll
MUSICIANS in Frankston and on the Mornington Peninsula will get a chance to show their talents later this month to a busload of music industry insiders. The second Victorian Music Crawl includes artists, managers, booking agents and representatives of Music Victoria. Local and visiting artists, representing diversity of gender, age and genres including rock, jazz, blues, will perform at the sites. On Thursday 24 August the bus will transport the delegation to Frankston’s Pier Bandroom, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, God’s Kitchen and RPP FM, Mornington, Hickinbotham Winery, Dromana, and Baha, Rye. On Friday 25 August the bus will be at Red Hill Bakery, Balnarring before heading to South Gippsland. Performances at Hickinbotham and Baha will be open to the public. The state government-backed Music Crawl tour aims to build connections between Melbourne-based music industry figures and bands, venues, bookers, events, promoters and media. During its tour of rural Victoria he delegation will visit a range of live music venues including small and large pubs, a church, a festival site, a mechanics hall, a winery, a cafe, a radio station, an arts gallery, a brewery, a nightclub and a Mexican restaurant. Local and visiting artists, representing diversity of gender, age and genres including rock, jazz, blues, will perform at the sites. “Because of Australia’s expansive geography, regional touring can be difficult and expensive so the need to continually discover places is extremely important to make touring viable. I found the Crawl to be invaluable in joining the dots when piecing together a regional tour,” Premier Artists booking agent Sean Simmons said. For details about the Victorian Music Crawl, go to www.musicvictoria.com.au or follow the tour on twitter at #vicmusiccrawl.
Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au KATHRYN Whatmore knows all about the pressures felt by the wives and girlfriends of professionals cricketers – especially when their partners are on tour. “There’s a lot more expected of cricketers these days as they are full time and there is so much travel involved,” the wife of former Test cricketer and now international coach Dav (Davenell) Whatmore, said on Monday from their home in Bittern. “There are many more competitions now; people don’t realise how difficult it is for wives to have their men so far from home and away from their young families.” Players are required to arrive overseas a couple of weeks before the start of a series, meaning a six-week tour is really a nine-week tour. “It’s incredible that some marriages even keep going. The wives are the ones who bring up the children.” Dav Whatmore, 63, is an international cricket coach, now in India, who started his career in Australia where he played seven Tests as a right-hand batsman and slips fieldsman, before retiring in 1989. He attended Mentone Grammar School. Whatmore coached Sri Lanka (where he was born) to a famous World Cup win in 1996, then led Bangladesh to its first ever Test win, followed by coaching stints in India, Zimbabwe and Pakistan. He coached the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League and recently signed with Chennai-based Sri Ramachandra University to head the Whatmore Centre for Cricket, as well as coach the Kerala Cricket Association. Ms Whatmore said Tina Walker, first wife of former Test legend Max Walker who died last year, and Helen Yallop – wife of former captain Graham Yallop – helped lay down informal
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Mornington News 8 August 2017
Insight: Kathryn Whatmore knows the highs and lows of life as a cricketing wife. Picture: Gary Sissons
guidelines and customs to assist the younger wives and girlfriends fit in and feel comfortable while on tour. “The new wives started to be better looked after and, as they say, ‘happy wife, happy life’,” she said. Ms Whatmore remembers settling at Bittern after selling the family home in Carnegie a decade ago. “I’d always loved the Mornington Peninsula but was looking at the Port Phillip side. Someone suggested we look around Western Port and we loved it. “We were in Sri Lanka when I asked my daughter to take a look at a house for sale at Bittern and she said: ‘That’s the one for you, mum’. So we sold the family home and moved down here and have loved it ever since.
“People don’t realise how fortunate we are to live in Australia, she said. “I hear people complain, but we live in such a beautiful part of the world.” A constant in their married life is that Whatmore has travelled continually, both as a player and coach. “He’s been home once this year but won’t be home again until next year,” she said. “We’ve been married 36 years and I am incredibly proud of him. He is very fit and has no plans to retire. He’s terrific in the way he just gets on with it. “People think he is strict and serious but he can also play jokes. He’s a wonderful manmanager who puts himself last and has great integrity.”
LETTERS Assisted dying Eighty per cent of Victoria’s population want the right to have the choice of how they depart this world. We want dignity without suffering and less stress on our loved ones. Ten per cent want us to suffer and die in pain and in our own dirty nappy; 10 per cent don’t care. To all the Victorian parliamentarians and to all the religious groups, if you are against assisted dying, you can choose to suffer, it’s your decision. Eighty per cent of Australians are happy to let you suffer. Some say you deserve to suffer and some would like to make you suffer. Eighty per cent just want to be able to make our own choice on how we die. If your local member of parliament votes against this bill then they are expressing there opinion, not what the 80 per cent of their constituency wants. Let your member of the Victorian parliament know how you feel on this issue. Geoff Budge, Village Glen, Capel Sound
Liberal side effect I recently received a glossy brochure from Flinders MP Greg Hunt. In it there were several stories regarding federal grants given to local community groups such as bowls clubs, pony clubs and $200,000 towards CCTV in Rye. I thought this odd, given that this sort of support looks more like a state responsibility. With nothing better to do one cold and wet day, I went through the state Labor government’s 2017/2018 budget. Now I know why there is direct funding from Canberra. For 2018 I struggled to find any significant capital expenditure or service improvements for the electorate of Nepean [held by Liberal MP Martin Dixon]. I did notice that South East Water was making improvements to water treatment plants at Boneo and Somers and motorists will be pleased by more spending for speed camera upgrades on Peninsula Link. Maybe because Nepean is a Liberal held seat it gets neglected, although even when the seat was
marginal it was still deprived. With Labor holding power in Victoria for 15 out of the last 19 years, I fear for Nepean that this trend of neglect will continue. Chris Spillane, Blairgowrie
Feral calls On a recent Wednesday at about 7.15pm, [Flinders MP] Greg Hunt instigated a phone call to, it appears, all in his electorate, for an interview with himself and Josh Frydenberg. This call was not asked for by anyone in his electorate. I asked Telstra about the legality of doing this and was told that it was a federal initiative. Of course they would say this as they were getting paid for these thousands of unwarranted calls, all at taxpayers’ expense. Should such blatant political propaganda be allowed, and at the expense of the taxpayer? On another issue, we know there are a lot of foxes in this area and we know that Parks Victoria has a baiting program for areas under its control, such as the national parks. However, what about private properties? If one was to catch a fox on one’s property, legally and humanely, what to do? Parks Victoria, Mornington Peninsula Shire and the state government all refer one to the other. So it is left up to the property owner to dispose of, or release, this animal. And just how is this disposal done legally and humanely? I was told the shire could not do this as it is too expensive, which is odd as I believe many cats and dogs are regularly put down. I could not imagine they would get a influx of “foxes caught” to blow their budget. It’s just another “pass the buck” by authorities. Andrew Raff, Fingal
Gum problems To live in a nice green leafy area would be lovely. Back in the 1980s the Shire of Mornington planted gum trees on nature strips in estates such as Padua in the north east end of Mornington, presumably with this aim in mind. Continued page 44