India’s much-hyped cricket tour of Australia has run into an air pocket. Rank mediocre umpiring by Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson has cost India the second Test in Sydney and robbed the series of all the excitement it promised in the remaining two Tests. The relationship between the players is at a nadir—Andrew Symonds says Harbhajan Singh called him a “monkey”, and now India says Brad Hogg called a player a “bastard”.
The integrity of the Australian players to play the game fair and square is under severe question after Andrew Symonds refused to walk; Ricky Ponting claimed a grounded catch off Mahendra Singh Dhoni; and Michael Clarke claimed Saurav Ganguly‘s catch was fair. Anil Kumble has said only one side played the game honestly. And the Indian media’s has complained to the BCCI about Ricky Ponting’s behaviour at a post-match press conference.
Question: Since the rest of the series can only go downhill or be completed in a cloud of mutual suspicion, mistrust, rancour and animosity, should India call off the tour and return to drive home the point to the Australians and the ICC that enough is enough, even at the risk of very heavy financial damages? Or should India stomach the insults and go through the remainder of the series in the “spirit of the game” and try to make the best of a bad situation?
churumuri 
Yes. With Bajji being banned for three tests, it is time to make a drastic statement. It looks there is a strong case for racial discrimination against India by both the Match referee and Umpires. It is true it has never happened earlier but such a situation never surfaced earlier either.
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Well the Indian captain has displayed such bad sportsmanship by questioning Australia’s integrity they might as well go the whole hog and walk out of the tour – which would be the biggest ‘dummy spit’ of all time.
Get over it, Australia won and your accusations are totally biased.
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We have been licked both ways . It is the same old story, winner takes all. What a gall to call of all the people Anil Kumble as unsportsman like. That shows how things are stacked against us, the media, cricketers and the people and if BCCI has any credibility they shoudl say enough is enough and call it a day
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Although there was no proof of charges against Bhajji, he is found guilty which is deplorable. I think India should to see if similar punishment is meted out to Hogg. Else, show these Aussies what ind of power we wield in the world cricket and threaten to ban the rest of the tour. That would send out a strong message. As far as the B(s)ucknor is concerned, i think he should be given an immediate farewell.He is an idiot with totally incompetent decision making abilities.
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When an Australian batsman is out of form, we were told that he goes back to the drawing board, plays county or State cricket, sorts out his troubles and fights his way back in. But Ricky Ponting, who has fallen to Harbhajan Singh so many times, seems to have found a foolproof of avoiding his nemesis. By getting the bowler banned by the ICC. How’s that for power?
The tour must go on because we should not appear scared or peevish. But we must tell Symonds and the Aussie bonzers that the monkey is worshipped in our country. And that in Himachal Pradesh, the government has just announced a scheme that will use unemployed youth to sterilise monkeys.
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Let’s not unfairly ignore the heartfelt applause Tendulkar and Laxman got on their centuries.
Umpires-willing, the Australian cricket loving public deserve one last opportunity to see the Indian batsmen on their grounds.
Why should we punish them for the behaviour of their players?
I don’t think any cricket lover would want to be associated with a team that prides itself on winning by putting pressure on umpires, refusing to walk, claiming grassed catches, accusing the opposition of abuse, refusing to walk even for a straightforward catch, claiming a non-existent catch of a non-existent edge, and abusing the other team members when they can’t get them out.
I don’t see why Australian cricket lovers should be deprived of watching at least one side play proper cricket in the right spirit.
Besides, to boycott the Border-Gavaskar Trophy would be an insult to two of the greatest living cricketers. That is reason itself not to boycott it. This is not some run of the mill ICC-mandated-FTP-compliant-money-spinner, but a trophy instituted to honour two of the best sportsmen produced in either country.
The only appropriate response would be to come back at Australia, hard as ever at Perth.
Running away, crying foul is not the answer if you ask me.
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Yes, I agree with Alok. Why didn’t we appeal to match referee through the umpires when Indian players were insulted? That is the procedure! You cannot do a tit-for-tat appeal after the Symonds incident.
Aussies are “Bad Winners”…there you go. I just added a new phrase to the benefit of boys and girls of India.
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YOU SOB “RAYDIXON” !!!!! you are talking about questioning the integrity of Pointing … i agree with you… what is the point in questioning something which is totally devoid in the entire team….. The bloody aussies origin (roots) is so strong that they will never ever understand the terms “right spirit” or “integrity”
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All the blame hither to was on umpires and the Aussie team. Now we are blaming the match referee and the whole white establishment. If the Indian team feel that they were cheated victory by the Aussie team and the umpires, they should show how good they are and win the rest two tests. They should let the willow and leather talk. Indian team simply did not have enough runs on the board with many failed batsmen -Jaffar, Doni , Yuvaraj etc..and except Kumble and Singh the bowling attack were not good. Looking at the run rate,they did not add runs quickly. Perhaps Indian team thought that they won in England ( a flash in pan and many good English criketers injured, and could not take part) and they are good enough to win in Australia. Before the tests, listening to the hyped talk of Indian team, one wondered.
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Yes, you are right ! There is no point in carrying on the series. It is already dead and the environment is vitiated. India should come back.
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Alok says: Border-Gavaskar Trophy would be an insult to two of the greatest living cricketers.
But Mr. Gavaskar himself is going hammer and tong against the umpires despite being a ICC official – which to say very mildly is not only unprofessional and unethical too . He has not learnt lessons from his earlier boorish comments against Hook, when he had eat humble pie and apologize.
Greatness and Gavaskar does not go together except he was great cricketer.
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No doubt Indians got Bucknored in this test also!! The best way to retaliate at the Aussies is to play better cricket and win matches (or else atleast hang on for those 72 overs in the fourth innings!!)
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I dont think money hungry BCCI will recall the Indian Team … They shouldnt … Finish what you started … atleast the true color of Ricky pontings Australia is out in the open ! …
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YES, absolutely……oh wait we are from the land of Gandhi. You slap one cheek, we show the other!!!
And it’s also time Bucknor is forced to retire.
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The tour should go on. There is no question that the umpiring and on-field behavior was poor. However, Indians should have protested both the umpiring and bad behavior as soon as it happened so things were on record earlier rather than seeming to appear as an afterthought.
The other important thing is to appeal the ban as well as ask for specific reason for the ban. India should refuse to play under the same umpires and also wear a badge protesting bad umpiring and bad behavior during their next tests. The BCCI should make a more forceful statement specifically explain to the players that they have the board’s backing, so the players’ feelings are assuaged and feel motivated enough to continue in this series.
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True we had a more than an acceptable umpiring decisions against us and not sure if Harbhajan deserved to be banned. But our cricket wasn’t good either. Jaffer and Yuvraj are they in the playing 11.You can fail to score runs but the way Yuvraj walked to and back from the wicket didn’t seem to suggest he was too keen to play. And apart from Kumble the rest of the bolwing is not upto mark, but that has been the case for a long long time. The Indian fielding, well not much to talk about.
The umpires should be punished and Harbhajan should fight if he is innocnet and the BCCI should support the team.
Apart from these we should also look to improve our cricket. If we had a better bowling attack, decent fileding and all the regular batsman contibuted at some point the result would have been different inspite of the umpiring blunders.
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Harbhajan deserved the ban and Yuvraj deserved punishment in the first test as well. What are we complaining about? What cricketing knowledge did that journalist poses to pass judgment that Ponting had faked that catch? And when Ponting understandably gets angry, the media complains?! What crap. Media has ruined the past two Ind-Aus tours by glorifying thugs like Harbhajan and Sreesanth. Australia won. Yes, luck smiled on them. But is it their fault?
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Aatmasakshi,
>> But we must tell Symonds and the Aussie bonzers that the monkey is worshipped in our country.
WOW, you have the nerve to tell churumuri, that the people of Kishkintha in Karnataka including Hanuman are monkeys?
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The seniors have the power to decide the fate of this tour. Given the injustice and open cheating that the umpires and the australians have resorted to, these senior players should voluntarily refuse to play the reminder of the tour. The BCCI will as usual not do anything and neither will the ICC. Their excuse: setting things in motion will take time since they need to be presented before committees. However, the situation has reached beyond all excuses and action needs to be taken now.
The Australian cricket team is like what John McEnroe was when he ruled tennis. He could get away with pretty much any offense that included racker abuse, umpire abuse, player abuse, and throwing any tantrum possible to disrupt the opponent’s rythm and game. No one had the balls to question McEnroe let alone take action against him, because he was the game’s biggest draw. It is the same with Australia.
Boycott the australian tour. And please sign this petition to retire Steve Bucknor:
http://www.petitiononline.com/RetireSB/petition.html
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First feed our skinny ass players some nutritious food and make them hit the gym on a regular basis. Maybe then they will start showing better results when they tour Australia, which has the only professional cricket team now and where the public take cricket seriously (besides the subcontinent where it is treated like a religion). In most other cricket playing nations the sport is generally given second hand status and the cricketers come second to footballers, rugby players, athletes etc.
Lets just withdraw from the tour and make a tour of Bangladesh or Zimbabwe. The fans will be happy, BCCI can recover lost revenue and our players can cover up the fact that they are sore losers.
Harbhajan is an a**hole, and so is his pal yuvraj. His racist/uneducated behaviour has only made it difficult for our losing team to come out of this tour with a shred of dignity. Bad sportsmen and bad losers.
Maybe we should stop playing cricket too and stick to kabadi and kho-kho.
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Well said “anonymous guy”. The rest of you are carrying on like sore losers.
If Australia were not such a good cricket team and yours were a better one, you wouldn’t be complaining about the umpires and about our players’ aggresive style. You’d be calling us sore losers if we carried on like you do. But we don’t.
Australia wasn’t always number one in the world but it has been for more than 10 years now. When we were getting beaten by everyone else (except India!) we didn’t complain about the opposition – not even about the poms (i.e. the English side), and that’s saying something.
We just worked harder and got better … and better, and better, and better …..
We’re still improving, isn’t that a scary thought? Not bad for a nation of just 21 million people!
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@raydixon, Aussies used to lose 10 years back because they sucked! India is losing now because of some moron umpires and Aussie thugs, is it that difficult to get that into your dumb convict head? Huchch soo^magane.
barla,
im
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I don’t think we should walk out of the tour. After all, its sports and sometimes things don’t go your way and as sportsmen, the Indian cricketers will have to deal with it. They’ve now realized that their “pact of trust” with the Aussies was illfounded and is something that they should reconsider. They should play the remaining two tests as hard as they can. Even if they lose, I don’t think it is the end of the world, as Australia is just such a good cricketing side.
However, since the Australian players are such bastards, I wish our media does a boycott of them. Ensure that there is no scope for any columns, advertisements or interviews by them. The real power that India wields in world cricket is financial (sadly so) and let’s use it to our advantage.
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Hey Dagar DIXON dont u hav any shame …. u belong rightly at only one place…. ur home … behind bars…. bloody convict
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IrsuMursu, with manners like that it’s no wonder you’re a loser.
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Do the BCCI has the guts of Arjua Ranatunga to walk off, standing for Muruli in their tour of Australia? Will the BCCI stand by Kumble if he does so. All
BCCI wants is money not the prestige of the Country or the players!!
Any way BCCI does not represent India it is a private body making money like Tata, Birla etc.
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I hope the porn stars in the indian cricket team start scoring runs..
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All these players are gay along with their supporters. Steve bucknor’s finger goes up everytime indian players show their back!!
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Yeah let the ‘media’ boycott Australian cricket. You cant beat someone who is better than you, so boycott them? What next? How about organizing ‘boycott games’ where we allow only countries/sportsmen who will lose to us and are nice to us to compete against us. Maybe we will win more medals than in the ‘SAARC games’. No wonder we dont produce winners in any sport from our teeming millions.
And anyway Australia has other games they can play. Wonder what we can do besides cricket for sport.
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Australia also has other nations they can play cricket against … and you don’t hear them complaining when they get a bad decision or two. Honestly, there seems to be a real victim mentality with India and cricket. Just try harder, train more, get fit. Gee, you’ve got a big population to pick from, surely you can find some better players?
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If only we had more pride…
…all Harbhajan had to do was face an over, Kumble, who had faced 111
balls, would have managed the last over. But he persished.
…all RP Singh had to do was face 5 balls, but he padded his leg
forward, a dangerous thing to do in front of Bucknor.
…all Ishant had to do was face 4 balls, but he managed only 2.
All three batsman had to do was rough it out for 6 balls.
Then we could have told the Aussies..
Despite the bad umpiring you couldn’t win.
Despite your unsportsmanlike attitude you couldn’t win.
Despite everything we broke your winning streak.
If the Aussie attitude was really bad,
the umpiring was worse,
but worst of all is the way we choked in the dying minutes of the game.
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Why doesn’t the Indian corporates boycott Australian players in Indian ads for a while?? “Chuck” out Brett Lee, Gilchrist et al, who keep figuring in Indian ads and bring in Shivnarain Chanderpaul and Muralitharan :-) !!
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If anyone could be branded racial very clearly in this whole affair, it is ICC.
We have seen Australian players use all kind of abusive language against Indians and other teams. But ICC never punishes them. Its always India or some asian or carribean team which pays the penalty always.
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The issue Krishna is racism not abusive language. They are not the same thing. I don’t see how anyone can be accused of racism except Harbhajan.
And if India wants to “show it’s power” and end the tour that’s fine. We have won already anyway. Then it will be written in the history books that India didn’t have the guts to continue.
Honestly, you Indian supporters are being pathetic.
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If all countries started complaining ICC about Australian sledging then all the aussie players may have to be banned for life!
Gully cricket and its players have more ethics and integrity, without any hard set of rules and codes.
Next time, when aussie cricketers come to do charity in India, they should get trained by those kids about playing fair.
Get rid of politicians from BCCI, ICC and whatever professional sports body NOW!
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I have another point to add to the racism charge on Harbhajan. Firstly, the ban should be retracted if there is no evidence, which seems to be the case here. If that happens shouldnt there be action on aussie players including ponting who testified against harbhajan for reporting a false case with malafide intentions? In football, if you fake a dive you can be yellow carded. Alok Prasanna who famously is being trained to become a lawyer can shed some light on whether reporting a theft or a murder that never took place is a cognisable offence….
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JB, I meant, the ICC, by overlooking Aussies’ on field behaviour which is abusive and uncivilised towards opposition team , is displaying double standards. Because, non-white teams such as India are punished for petty reasons. That way, the ICC is racial.
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The duo, Yuvaraj and Harbhajan are morons band beyond redemption when it comes to manners. in football ( soccer) it is a red card offence to touch a player intentionally as Harbhajan did to Lee.
Indians should stop yelling foul -they were never good as team and use the willow and leather to talk in the pitch.
Pulling out will isolate India as the other ‘black’ teams and the white nations will work together.
Intellectuals like Dravid and Kumble cannot control the’enfant terribles’ like Harbhajan who has a history of misbehaviour in English counties.
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Aussie sooks? Looks like it.
How is the word ‘monkey’ offensive and racist? I am waiting for all the monkeys of the world to commence legal action.
Ricky Ponting is going to go down in the history as the most dishonest cricketer ever! Not just pointing, but the Australian team’s integrity is in serious question. Shame on Australian cricket! Winning a test by cheating and not playing in the spirit of the game is going to be remembered by every Indian for rest of their lives… Over a billion people are asking for the Indian team to return back home…
Don’t be surprised if all the Aussie players lose their lucrative endorsement deals in India.
In event of Team India continuing its tour of Australia, Let the people stop watching any match in this series and let the entire media not report any thing to do with Cricket in Australia.
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yes.
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Bevu Bella, If Harbhajan is a moron to touch the great Bret Lee, what about Ponting. Angel Ponting and his team mates pushed the old man Pawar off the stage, who if you dont know, is and was the President of BCCI, in full glare of media. Especially Ponting ordered Pawar off the stage with his lewd finger gestures. I could see the same arrogant finger gesture when his pal, the umpire consulted him for a “third umpiring decision” on the boy-wonder-Michael-Clarke’s shameful catch. Australian team plays with 14 players when fielding, 11 regular and 3 umpires, with Ponting giving umpiring decisions in between on giving Opponents “out” and sledging. and while batting they are 5 people, 2 batsmen and 2 umpires and a match referee. Ofcourse, when Ponting is there on the field there is no need for any referee or field microphone. I think ICC also agrees about this and gives a free hand to team Australia and a licence to sledge opponents. Now onwards ICC will also be on watch.
The match at Sydney showed the Australians in the poorest light. From now on wherever they play they will be watched with suspicion. Any umpire will think twice before raising a finger to an Aussie call, cricket or non-cricket. In such situations, their legitimate calls may also be turned down. That is enough for them. With no “extra” support from the umpires they will find it difficult to maintain their number 1 spot. I think the Sydney match will herald the fall and degeneration of Australian cricket.
We should continue with the series as we have moral advantage over the Aussies team who are presently feeling peevish and guilty and the umpires are sure to stop consulting Australian cricketers for giving out Indians, for the fear of their jobs.
What a shameful event and what a shameless team, in the land of the great cricketer the Don Bradman!
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The ban on harbajan should be lifted , the 2 umpires must be kicked out, the indians need to talk with the bat (other then to starlets) and ignore the egocentric aussies , the media and the other fans should start closely scrutinizing aussie behaviour on and off the field. If the first 2 conditions are not met they must simply fly back.
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Babuds
I thought the President of BCCI is Sonia or HD Devegowda? You do not touch players while the match is taking place. I thought enlightened cricketers like you understood this. Unlike India, cricket is not the only games Aussies play. Rules football and Rugby are also spectators sports. Unlike the Indian Olympic lackeys ( in Athens, while Aussies sent a large athlete team and small numer of officials, the Indian officials major and minor and their hangers on outnumbered the Indian athelets), they have scored tens of gold medals. They have wimbledon champions, and were even prepared to sell Indian spices grown in their land to India. Indeed they are less pricy in the West than the junk comes from India mixed with cement powder.
It Indians walk away, it will not the end of Aistralian cricket. With Indian cricket manangement at the hands of politicians, Indians have to play with
the brownies- Bangla, Pakistan and SriLanka. Indian teams were never good as teams anyway though it contained good cricketers. England team last time when they played in England were at the receiving end of poor umpiring decisions. They gritted the teeth and played. If BCCI goes on like the way they are doing, soon the Aussie media sympathies will melt away.
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Actually, having followed all of this thread over the last 3 days, here is my take on what India should do. I am an expat Indian btw. Leaving in the middle of the series is monetarily not wise for the board. Play the next two games under protest. Wear a an arm band or whatever. Do appeal the ban and go through with that as well at the same time. Boorish behaviour by the Indian team will just give the Aussies the same excuse to say “see they are the same as us”. What would be nice is to play the game but provide a complete cold shoulder in terms of on-field and off field behaviour. Be correct and COLD and report every little chirp. Let us bury them with complaints. Since there seems to be no camaraderie or spirit one way let us not pretend camaraderie, just do exactly what is needed to fulfil the letter of the law and go home. Just dont sign up for a new series back in India too quickly. i am sure the West indies will be happy to parake of our Dollars and so will any other cricketing nation. Let us not lose money and then hurt the Sustralian criket board where it hurts the most… their pocket books…
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One thing i am 100% sure of is that Australians were dying to win this test match. No team would like to wait for 16 more test matches to break a record. Especialy a person like Ricky ponting who was ready to appeal for every delivery that touched batsman’s pad. Nevertheless, coming to ban on harbhajan, how many instances can you count when an aussie cricketer was banned for sledging. They speak all sort of aussie slangs which indian team would be simply ignoring. I myself have lived in australia for 3 years and know what all those slags mean. I would say Australian team needs a lesson to be taught to them, so that the would stop thinking they are the best hence they are allowed to do anything on the field, while others would only listen to them. On the other hand, i would say they are at this place because of their being cunning, nothing else. Oh i so wish saurav ganguly had imposed follow-on in sydney on our last tour to australia. That would have been perfect farewell for steve waugh. Why indians are so sympathetic… To be continued.
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Enough talk about cricket although I have enjoyed reading the silly explanations about why Brahmins excel in cricket.
Get the Kannada Rakshana Vedike to keep up the heat on the MP’s from Karnataka. That is far more important than any damn sport.
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Bevu Bella,
I didn’t contend with your point about Bhajji touching Bret Lee. If that was a red card foul, there are umpires to decide. What business Seymonds got to go and provoke Bhajji on this. This shows utter lawlessness of the Aussie team.
You didn’t say anything on the manhandling and virtual pushing out of Pawar from the public stage by St. Ponting & co. In my opinion that was a disrespect to the host nation, if not to Pawar. Do you say it was an angelic behaviour by Aussie team off the field.
Thanks for enlightening me on red card fouls.
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What is at stake here for the 100 year old cricketing committee? Lots of money and power.If they don’t play, Australia will lose something like 50 Million US$. India will have to shell down 2Million US$. Star sports something like Rs. 80 crores. Sharad Pawar will lose the power to become ICC President next year!Bitterness everywhere.Even future of ICC will be doubtful. So,What is likely to happen:( They must be working on this right now).
1.Both ICC and BCCI along with CA will decide to douse the fire. As a first step, Steve Bucknor will fall ‘sick’ two days before the match and they will call for Billy Bowden or Aleem Dar to officiate.
2.At Perth, in any case India will play only one spinner and that will have to be the captain. Bhajji will sit the match out in any case. They will reduce the ban from 3 tests to one test which will be the Perth test!
2. Australia will withdraw the racial charge , but Bhajji will be charged with lesser offence of patting Lee and fighting with Symonds for which the ban will be one test.
Bucknor will come back for a Bangla desh-Kenya match which nobody is interested.
Honours of everybody will be restored. Kumble and Ponting will reiterate the friendly sportsman spirit.Everybody happy, money saved, matches can go on. Australia will win 4-0 . Pawar can still become ICC chief.
Any takers for this?
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This has just happened. Sydney Morning Herald reports Bucknor has been replaced by Billy Bowden!
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@ ERR, way to go
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Babuds
Even Pawar’s colleagues in the cabinet will push him if it gets rid of him of their backs. If Pawar is representing India, God help the country.
Symmonds went to Harbhajan only after the latter pushed Lee. Blame the Sikh for triggering the incidences.
No one is an angel here. Aussies sledge in the pitch and Indian crowds sledge outside the pitch. Again giving soccer ( football) analogy, if soccer crowd sledges in an international fixture, the crowd’s club will be punished by fines.
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ERR,
Cricket is the only spectator sport in India unlike Australia where rules football and rugby draw larger crowds and attract better talents. Aussies win gold medals in swimming and athletics unlike India which fields more officials than athletes in Olympics.
The ICC should stop dilly-dallying and upheld Harbhajan’s ban, otherwise, cricket which has lost shine in Britain, West Indies and even in Australia
( where less crows are expected in Perth and Adelide) will be the victim. If India puls out, ICC should split. leaving Srilanakans, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis to form a club.
India and particularly Indian officilas and players who are busy shopping in Sydney will be the losers.
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S i fully agree with you,,in the interest of the country and its cricket fans indian team should immediately return back,,Australia must be banned from playing cricket anywhere in the world,, if the australians have guts let them play a very fair game (AGAIN) and win the test match,,it makes no sense in just winning a match this way,, a local tennis ball team will also win matches against australia if an umpire like BUCKNOR is officiating,,what big deal,,
Throw Ricky ponting into a garbage,,he makes no sense being a human being leave alone a cricketer.
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India is the only nation which gets worked up into a frenzy. Bevu Bella is correct, Indians have no other sport. Whenever England and West Indies lost, these teams do not whine, no braying for blood in the streets of London and Jamaica. India should grow up and become good losers. Their team is not good enough just like the Olympic teams they send. As Bevu Bella puts it the officials and the hangers on had their shopping done in Sydney. I would suggest Malcolm Speed to stand form and let Indians and their neighbours form their own Asian ICC.
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Prasanna :
How do you explain the millions of dollars enticement to Ricky Ponting and his ‘sledging mates’ to play in Indian Premier League? This includes Symmonds. According to BCCI, Ponting and his mates did not respect Pawar who was on the dais to give out the trophy and medals during their visit to India. But yet they want these ‘sledging aussies’ to come and play in the 20-20 fixtures! Ponting is not on the scrap heap as you suggest is he? He and his mates, I am sure will collect more money from BCCI than Kumble and his entourage in 20-20.
Strange logic by Indians, and when it suits them, they swallow their pride.
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harbhajan, dhoni, yuvraj are the typical boorish north indian riffraffs who do our country no favour when they wear bcci’s colours.. on the field or off it. it would be a blessing in disguise that harbhajan gets banned for 3 tests. How I wish he gets banned for life. India got ‘bucknor’ed .. yes. But using “Team India c Benson b Bucknor” to extricate harbhajan is slick. And it doesnt surprise me one bit that the slick bastards are trying to do just that.
And for all those kindergarten kids here who keep suggesting that India should call of the tour or that Australia should be boycotted.. or that India is all-powerful etc.. do you for one minute realise that India-Australia is the only contest in world cricket thats worth watching these days? All other teams including Pakistan are simply sub-standard or resemble the utterly boring England team of the 90s. If there was no Australia, cricket would be dead long back. And because there is Australia, we atleast have a commentary team we can listen to and professional coverage of a match. Without them, we’d be watching the utterly boring rp singh(avana mukhakke avanu obba ‘fast’ bowler ante) or ishant sharma bowl to an equally braindead younis khan and listen to amarnath and narottam puri. No thanks.
Also, this claim that India holds all the reins in world cricket is a load of bull. For all we know, Sharad Pawar is busy negotiating a price with star sports and other advertisers to not call off the tour. the bastard that he is, he couldnt stand up for himself when Ponting and teammates shoved him.. and we have idiots here having wet dreams that he’ll ‘stand up for’ a lousy loser of a sardar.
India is great.. indian culture is great.. indian heritage is great.. indian soil is great.. but Indians…
Indians are not great. thoo nam janmakke.
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sisya,
Ugiri maakke :)
I think we have just accepted the fact that we are losers in international sport, and our players/selectors just want a convenient reason to avoid playing the only professional team in cricket.
That way we can just play on dead tracks against the likes of bangladesh or a second rate english team, and keep the hordes (‘fans’) happy. After all the fans dont care what the quality of opposition is or if a country puts out their best team – they just want tendulkar to hit a six and win the match for them. The selections and players have obviously figured this out now and just want to make sure that they can come out of this tour looking good (oh we lost because of bucknor and the cheating tactics of the aussies). Just confuse the fans that we were better than the aussies but lost only due to cheating. And then bangladesh/england/zimbabwe – here we come!
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That pretty much says it all “AG”. The Aussies ARE the only true professional team in the world, the rest are just playing at it, pretending.
Look at England, most players can earn a decent living by playing in their county league. No incentive to strive hard for national selection.
In Australia (and this is to explain something, not to gloat) the only players who can earn a living from cricket are those playing for the country. Otherwise they need “day jobs”. The competition for selection is fierce and there is no shortage of aspiring cricketers busting their guts to make it to the top level.
We also select sides based solely on performance and not reputation. Of course some players like Ponting, Hayden etc would be kept in for a while if they hit a form slump, but not for long. No one has a spot for life, unlike some sides.
Have you ever noticed how very few Aussies have form slunps? That’s because they are desperate to retain their spot and they work hard and they try & try & try & try.
India should try too.
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Ray,
Let it go :)
And dont underestimate our politician-selectors. They may offer a deal to ponting and co. which may be difficult to refuse ;)
Looking forward to the Perth match.
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