In praise of … a clean sweep

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/05/in-praise-of-a-clean-sweep

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Australia thoroughly deserved to win back cricket's Ashes. They were superior to hapless overrated England in every aspect of every game.

Their 5-0 victory was wholly merited. Yet if words mean anything, the Australians are unlucky to have their achievement lauded as a whitewash.

An act of whitewash is a shameful act not a praiseworthy one. Let's try to keep it that way. A whitewash is a deliberate attempt to conceal unpleasant or incriminating facts in order to protect the reputation of a person or an organisation.

Many are preparing to use whitewash in this sense if Sir John Chilcot's report on the Iraq war fails to reach the conclusions they wish for, just as they did when Lord Hutton reported.

The archives suggest that cricket's inappropriate use of whitewash crept in unchallenged in the 1980s. It is probably too well-established to stop it now. But the fact is that Australia ought not to be congratulated on a whitewash – but on a clean sweep.

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