Cricketer James Faulkner announces his relationship with boyfriend Rob Jubb

Hmm judging by the comments it is the Indians who are obsessed with Cricket that are making such a big deal and are quite homophobic about it the others are quite happy for him.

Hot couple

Hott

Is there something different about cricket that allows male stars to come out as gay? You don't really see that in other pro sports.

[Quote] Is there something different about cricket that allows male stars to come out as gay? You don't really see that in other pro sports.

Yes. It sucks so no one cares.

It’s for the elite

With bae

Jiminy!

[quote] Yes. It sucks so no one cares.

[quote] It’s for the elite

Neither state is accurate. Cricket is more popular around the world than baseball and its popularity is certainly not limited to the elite classes. Between Indian and Pakistan it’s used almost as a proxy for war to diffuse tensions among the populations.

[quote] With bae

What does that mean?

Why are they eating in a jail cell?

What a lovely way to come out. No fuss. Here is my boyfriend. Deal with it. Wishing them both happiness

Very cute couple. I bet they have great sex

[quote] Cricket is more popular around the world than baseball

Lol, damning with faint praise.

Sorry to disappoint, but the [italic]majority[/italic] of the world doesn’t give a heck about either of those sports. Cricket is not popular in Continental Europe or Central, Northern & Eastern Asia or South America, or most of Africa. The majority of the world don’t even have a clue about the basic rules of cricket.

Because it is BORING.

R14 it is boring, but you are wrong about it’s popularity. Basically everywhere the brits (aka most of he world) colonised it’s a big deal. Cricket is popular and a big business even if it’s irrelevant where you live.

And even if it was only big in the Indian subcontinent, that’s still over a BILLION people ffs. And believe me it is big. That’s all they wanted to talk to me about once they found out I was kiwi as many of the players in the Indian league are from New Zealand. Cricket and more cricket.

It’s not popular in most of The world

R17 by country numbers, maybe not, but by viewership and following, yes it really is. Americans don’t get it. It’s on a par with football (soccer to you) in terms of people.

There’s a lot that Americans don’t get, R18. Yet we’re all supposed to be enthralled each time some obscure player for a college football (American football, that is) team comes out.

Not really a contact sport, right? Maybe that's why it's easier to be out.

5 years ? Wooow

Great film about cricket is 'Lagaan', really shows what a bunch of cunts the British are, and how they used cricket to repress the inhabitants of the dot Indian continent

They look like twins

R23 I could've sworn they're twins

IFHH

[quote] how they used cricket to repress the inhabitants of the dot Indian continent

Dot Indian continent?

The mom is serving up Lily Tomlin character realness.

So instead of talking about an athlete who came out, we'll just argue about cricket?

R28 New here?

[quote] Basically everywhere the brits (aka most of he world) colonised it’s a big deal. Cricket is popular and a big business even if it’s irrelevant where you live.

“A big deal basically everywhere the Brits colonised”, R15? Pffft, what, like in the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, Brunei, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Kenya, Nigeria, Gibraltar, Malta, etc? I’m sorry, but the British Empire was far more than just India and Oceania. The British Empire stretched over FIVE continents and the truth is the vast majority of the BE can’t even tell the difference between cricket and croquet - that’s how obscure cricket is.

Here’s a full list of countries that gained independence from the British Empire. Even a cursory look will tell one that the vast majority have no cricket culture at all and, with their rudimentary English skills, probably think “cricket” is just an insect.

Preach it bro 🙌🏾

Maybe not!

lol. Is this like the girls I know who say they are out to dinner with the ‘wifey’?

It would be fabulous to have the name Faulkner.

It was a JOKE. At the expense of gays. Making fun of coming out is no laughing matter

Wow, what a douche

Fuck him hes ugly anyway

Did he backpedal because the bf wasn't ready to be out?

So now that the matter of his boring sexuality is settled, R28 - can we please go back to the more entertaining debate about the megalomaniac British Empire and how obscure cricket is? TIA.

Do they even play cricket in America ?

R41 no americans play ⚾️

What a drip

Still more popular across the world than Baseball! Just deal with it my beautiful American Brothers and Sisters and drop the Anglophobic shit..

R40, I'm not sure it's settled

Oh, he's just the best friend, how anticlimactic

And now for the "can't two men just be best friends, why do you have to repress affectionate expression"

And now it’s blown up as Cricket Australia defended him by saying that it was “just a joke” to which most people here are now responding, asking what’s so funny about pretending to be gay?

He’s since posted a carefully crafted follow up on Insta - damage control, anyone?

What a twat.

Ohh so our so-called hero is actually a homophobe who loves to mock and ridicule gay men

Are there any active gay cricket players then? The article in the OP says a lot of gay cricketers have married their partners, but the English is very sketchy, so.......

[quote] The British Empire stretched over FIVE continents and the truth is the vast majority of the BE can’t even tell the difference between cricket and croquet - that’s how obscure cricket is.

R30 Wrong. There are 104 cricketing nations. Most of those (90+) are not full members of the sports association, but they participate.

The only part of the former British empire that doesn't know about cricket is the USA because it gained independence before the game fully developed, Cricket didn't catch on in Canada because of competition from baseball. It's not as well established in the Middle East but it's there and growing. Some Africa nations and the West Indies have local leagues and they field national or regional teams. As you mentioned, in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh) and Oceania it's very popular. So it's not obscure at all.

R30 re Afghanistan you may be surprised to know that, "On 22 June 2017, Afghanistan and Ireland became the 11th and 12th ICC full members, enabling them to play Test cricket."

Zimbabwe and South Africa are also full members of the International Cricket Council ("ICC").

Cricket does not seem to be very popular in Scotland.

Here's the link.

Cricket isn't boring, its a very subtle tactical game.

But back to boyfriends James and Rob. The restaurant/prison pic looks like closeted boyfriends have one guest at the birthday and that guest is birthday boy's mom who 'knows' and who looks very awkward. Rob doesn't look that thrilled in the pic either. It may be that after dinner and posting the pic, James and Rob had second thoughts (no doubt after an argument) and so now we have all this back-pedalling. It is all rather tacky. And, I would add, I have never heard str8 'mates' refer to each other as 'boyfriend'. So will James Faulkner now re-announce his relationship with boyfriend Rob Jubb; or are they going to split over this announcement?

He is deplorable just like Kevin Spacey who came out when exposed of showing affection to a minor. Faulkner is making fun of gays and gay Kevin Spacey using his coming out to limit the fall out of his pedo behaviour.

So, they are just friends?

The thing about cricket is its all about the state of the ball; at the beginning of the game it is smooth and bowls fast but as time goes on it becomes rough and starts to swing, this in turn affects the way the batsman hits the ball. A fast ball is easy but dangerous while swing is difficult to hit but not a lethal throw. The state of the turf as the game progresses is also a factor in the game.

R56 Yes, and poking fun at gays. He should be blacklisted.

Such a commotion.

If they were a couple he wouldn't have explicitly said he's not gay.

I don't think he was necessarily poking fun at gays. More making reference to the fact it's pretty unusual for two straight men of their age to live together. He had nothing to gain from saying he's not gay. If he were in a relationship with his 'boyfriend', judging by the reception they got they'd be better off coming out.

R60 James told the truth with the announcement the he and Rob are bfs. Now he's lying that he and Rob are business partners!

Women commonly refer to their female friends as “girlfriends.” Why can’t dudes do the same?

insensitive creep

I want to scratch his eyes out for playing with my emotions.

I don't understand how relatively wealthy people in sports and entertainment always seem to have roommates.

Lol Cricket is played seriously in no more than ten “countries” (some are not really countries). .These are England (not a country), Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the West Indies (not a country, but includes several Caribbean island nations). Not only don’t most of the countries of the former British empire in Africa and Asia care about it, its not taken seriously in some of the other “home countries” of the U.K. like Scotland or in neighbouring Ireland. Also doesn’t exist, even as a niche hobby, on continental Europe.

Like the baseball “World Series” which really is just about US teams playing themselves, the cricket “World Cup” features these same teams with a little over 200 countries in the world not giving a fuck. But it has to be mentioned that the support in in the South Asian nations is fanatical and it is the number one sport in those four highly populated countries.

Finally confirmation that cricket is indeed extremely boring with test matches, especially, that last for days. Outside of South Asia, the sport is not growing but declining because of its boring, crusty archaic English rules.

R55, Those... are not the same things.

I guess you just want to talk about Spacey. There's probably a thread or two on him around here.

In terms of viewership, cricket attract more eyeballs than the superbowl. Albeit brown curry eyeballs

29...? 29 what?

I think he was gay all along, but backpedaled. Lives with a "housemate" for 5 years, takes him out to dinner with mom?

I don't really buy the backpedalling either. I think a straight guy would be more careful to signal that it was a joke, e.g. labelling the guy "my platonic life partner".

He should have written "my gardener".

It's some hefty back-pedalling to explicitly deny being gay.

The denial is too strong. If they were actually gay, the media reaction had been too positive for it to make sense for them to have to deny it.

Yes, some famous people have denied being gay only to then come out later, but they tended not to be in supposedly open LTRs. I do genuinely think it's a case of people putting two and two together and coming up with five.

But it was a random 'joke' for him to make, no?

Supposedly open LTR? Where are you getting that from?

Eh.. Luke Evans came out in print... Years later, he had a female PR friend of his give a quote to a newspaper that their "relationship" was in its early days...

R75 People are suggesting they've been living openly as a couple for 5 years or so. They've actively refuted that to be the case. If they were indeed living together as a couple it would be a bit silly to deny it so strenuously.

Ian Thorpe was very vocal a out not being gay. Ditto Colin Jackson. I think Marl Foster was too.

Dirk Bogarde lived with his manager. It didn't stop Bogarde referring to him as the gardener while being interviewed.

*Mark Foster.

It's possible that he was referencing some personal joke between the two of them, or like someone else suggested, mimicking the way that women call each other "girlfriends", (which I find really annoying).

Some people don't realize that humour doesn't always translate into writing.

But why would he call attention to his relationship in the first place if he's closeted? Celebrities who deny being gay don't 'joke' about having a boyfriend. I think he posted the pic without consulting the closeted boyfriend or his agent/manager and then had to issue a denial.

Ever heard of cold feet?

Do you put your mate in your Twitter profile pic?

R84 I hope they are still happy together after this debacle.

I await for the real coming out in a few years. Probably when retired.

Athletes are very dumb and think the idea of being gay is a hilarious joke.

They’re a couple - the denial is ridiculous

R88 - I agree.

For what it's worth I think he's gay. His father was a cricketer so would not be surprised if he grew up in a homophobic household. Not to mention he was playing twenty20 within Australia only a couple of months ago and probably hopes to go and play county cricket in England. Being publicly gay probably wouldn't go down so well and after the headlines of other Australian cricketers within the last fifteen months I'm sure Cricket Australia would not want any averse publicity. Yes like any sporting codes it's deeply homophobic. Also he might be hoping to go to the IPL (Indian t20 comp where the mega bucks are) and there is no way they would have an openly gay player.

A lot of cricketers do take the piss, like having theirs fingers touch each other in team photos, but some of them just give off vibes.

Then there was the incident where Chris Lynn almost outed Adam Zampa. Chris started going on about even though what he (Zampa) does in his private life he's still a good bloke and he was about to continue when the commentators deftly shut it down and changed topic.

R90 You make me want to take up cricket!

Interesting post. Thanks, r90.

Do you think the IG post was done with dutch courage after a boozy anniversary dinner? It's hard to deduce what his thinking was.

It's possible he (stupidly) didn't think it would be picked up by the world at large. If he is indeed in a five year long relationship then all his family, friends and teammates are already going to know about it. If he's not and they're just friends, it might have come as a bit of a shock.

The strength of the denial leads me to believe it was something he hadn't given much thought to. If they are indeed boyfriends they might have been overwhelmed by the response. It is slightly amusing how all these public organisations came out gushing their support on social media but no-one actually bothered to contact the people involved.

Unfortunately James, by IG, seems to have outed Rob against Rob's will. The IG pic seems to suggest that only James' mom knew (others, eg team mates, may have suspected).

I don't find it at all amusing (I'm not up in arms either). The post wasn't funny. Even the pic had no humour to it. If it was a pic like Ronaldo being held aloft by that guy, I'd get the caption. Nothing about it radiates humour.

R92 It was testing the waters in a glass closet. They both own a restaurant together, share a house together and have been living with each other for five years. They're both late twenties, early thirties and James through cricket would have at least racked up a 6 figure salary over the years (he did play first class cricket and represent Australia). Point being he isn't poor enough to need a flatmate.

If it was a piss take his mother wouldn't have been in the picture.

R93 Maybe, Maybe not. Though Cricket isn't like most sports. Often times they are only together for a short period of time then go to play in various other comps around the world or different formats. Teams change regularly and players are assembled from all different countries. Most aren't close with each other like contact sport games. He isn't part of the current Australian squad (which would require a significant amount of time together) and the t20 competition he plays in lasts eight weeks. Most of those games would have been played where he lives so he could go home whenever and not need team accommodation in hotels. Plus this year he would have been playing with a lot of new faces in his team and he missed quite a few games from the back half of the competition due to a bad knee, so would have spent even less time with his new team than usual.

Yeah, I don't think it was meant as a joke or banter between mates.

R96 thanks for the info. Haven't really followed cricket that closely. Are there any (rumoured) gay players? Preferably hot ones like KP and Freddie Flintoff.

~ ~ ~

^Which one is he?

The blond.

So who’s the other guy?

Marcus Stoinis