The past few days have been really horrible. News channels, papers, internet and mail boxes are flooded with mails against Australian cricket team and Steve Bucknor.
Sydney test will certainly be remembered for long, not just because Australia scored their 16th successive record equaling win, but for providing an aftermath which will be a blot forever in the history of cricket.
Lets look into the issue of Harbhajan. Though there is no conclusive evidence that Bhaji has called Symonds a monkey, lets assume him that he had. Bhaji did not call Symonds as a monkey straight away, all of us know that Symonds had a big go at Harbhajan after which only bhaji spoke. So, if Harbhajan gets a ban, then Symonds should also get it for provoking him. If it had been truly a Gentleman's game, Pointing should not have reported this to the umpires itself. What happened was not Gentleman's behavior but Aussie spirit, or thats what Ponting and fellow Australians say.
I can't stop myself from laughing whenever I read the what Ponting and CA chief James Sutherland said. (Ponting said that " We played the game in the right spirit" and Sutherland "It has always been the Australian way to play the game of cricket hard but fair").
I don't believe Australia is such a bad country where no one knows the meaning of the words Spirit and Fair. A humble request to my Australian friends, please gift Ponting and Sutherland a dictionary on our behalf.
Australia are the World Champions and may play the game hard, but are the playing it in a fair way and in a right spirit?
Is sledging your opponents vociferously right spirit? Is claiming a catch when it has been grounded spirit? When it has been decided that players will give indicate whether they have taken a catch cleanly or not, Clarke should have acted in a proper way. That is what Kumble meant by saying "Only one team was playing in the spirit of the game".
At the same time, when Kumble has come out with such a strong statement, then he must make sure, in future whenever Team India takes on to the field, his boys should not appeal for a wicket unless otherwise they know for sure it is a wicket. In case even if one of them sees that the ball didn't hit the bat, he must inform his team mates when they are appealing. Can they do it? Lets wait and see.
The biggest disgrace in the happenings over the past few days had been the handling of Steve Bucknor. I agree Bucknor had a poor test, but he didn't have a vengance against India. Ponting was given out when he was not out, Sachin was given not out when he was out. BCCI should have bought this to the notice of the ICC after the series was over and ICC should have talked to WCB pointing out that Bucknor has aged and asked them to take a decision. Instead, everything was done so clumsily. BCCI should be blamed for riding the media wave with respect to Bucknor. We need to remember that it was of this same Bucknor that we won the test series in England.
Under all these confusion everybody seems to forgotten the failure of Yuvraj, dhoni and Jaffer. With the exception of Dhoni's first innings at SCG, the remaining 11 innings altogether played by these three was nervy and incompetent. We need to remember that these three were not even able to manage what Kumble has managed to score in the series and in the last innings. Australians have easily sorted out Yuvi and Jaffer. In case of Dhoni, you don't need a big plan to get him out in the longer version of game on wickets like this. With no foot movement and an obscure technique(which might be good on flat wickets) he will not be a force to reckon with in future, unless otherwise he reinvents himself, just like Dravid did a few years ago when everybody wrote him off. I don't even want to think of Dhoni captaining India in the longer version of the game in the next few years. Think Laxman might be suited for the job until we get a good one.
It is really sad that a very good test has finally turned out to be so sour.
Now the onus is on the Indian team to go out and remove themselves the tag of sore losers. Lets play hard cricket, but in a fair way and in the right spirit.
But a sincere request, please don't call Cricket a gentleman's game anymore.
Sydney test will certainly be remembered for long, not just because Australia scored their 16th successive record equaling win, but for providing an aftermath which will be a blot forever in the history of cricket.
Lets look into the issue of Harbhajan. Though there is no conclusive evidence that Bhaji has called Symonds a monkey, lets assume him that he had. Bhaji did not call Symonds as a monkey straight away, all of us know that Symonds had a big go at Harbhajan after which only bhaji spoke. So, if Harbhajan gets a ban, then Symonds should also get it for provoking him. If it had been truly a Gentleman's game, Pointing should not have reported this to the umpires itself. What happened was not Gentleman's behavior but Aussie spirit, or thats what Ponting and fellow Australians say.
I can't stop myself from laughing whenever I read the what Ponting and CA chief James Sutherland said. (Ponting said that " We played the game in the right spirit" and Sutherland "It has always been the Australian way to play the game of cricket hard but fair").
I don't believe Australia is such a bad country where no one knows the meaning of the words Spirit and Fair. A humble request to my Australian friends, please gift Ponting and Sutherland a dictionary on our behalf.
Australia are the World Champions and may play the game hard, but are the playing it in a fair way and in a right spirit?
Is sledging your opponents vociferously right spirit? Is claiming a catch when it has been grounded spirit? When it has been decided that players will give indicate whether they have taken a catch cleanly or not, Clarke should have acted in a proper way. That is what Kumble meant by saying "Only one team was playing in the spirit of the game".
At the same time, when Kumble has come out with such a strong statement, then he must make sure, in future whenever Team India takes on to the field, his boys should not appeal for a wicket unless otherwise they know for sure it is a wicket. In case even if one of them sees that the ball didn't hit the bat, he must inform his team mates when they are appealing. Can they do it? Lets wait and see.
The biggest disgrace in the happenings over the past few days had been the handling of Steve Bucknor. I agree Bucknor had a poor test, but he didn't have a vengance against India. Ponting was given out when he was not out, Sachin was given not out when he was out. BCCI should have bought this to the notice of the ICC after the series was over and ICC should have talked to WCB pointing out that Bucknor has aged and asked them to take a decision. Instead, everything was done so clumsily. BCCI should be blamed for riding the media wave with respect to Bucknor. We need to remember that it was of this same Bucknor that we won the test series in England.
Under all these confusion everybody seems to forgotten the failure of Yuvraj, dhoni and Jaffer. With the exception of Dhoni's first innings at SCG, the remaining 11 innings altogether played by these three was nervy and incompetent. We need to remember that these three were not even able to manage what Kumble has managed to score in the series and in the last innings. Australians have easily sorted out Yuvi and Jaffer. In case of Dhoni, you don't need a big plan to get him out in the longer version of game on wickets like this. With no foot movement and an obscure technique(which might be good on flat wickets) he will not be a force to reckon with in future, unless otherwise he reinvents himself, just like Dravid did a few years ago when everybody wrote him off. I don't even want to think of Dhoni captaining India in the longer version of the game in the next few years. Think Laxman might be suited for the job until we get a good one.
It is really sad that a very good test has finally turned out to be so sour.
Now the onus is on the Indian team to go out and remove themselves the tag of sore losers. Lets play hard cricket, but in a fair way and in the right spirit.
But a sincere request, please don't call Cricket a gentleman's game anymore.
