Australia won but cricket lost

By Aditya Mhatre at 7 January, 2008, 12:07 pm

�Hey Symo, you are a monkey!� shouted Bhajji and Symonds replied, �Same to you. Mirror in middle! God in middle!� And then, they laughed heavily ever after. Unfortunately, this happens only in the cartoons.� In reality, Symonds and Harbhajan exchanged a few words� and Symonds complained, �Teacher, teacher, Harbhajan is calling me names.� And Harbhajan Singh, the notorious talkative back bencher of the class was sent packing home by his teacher, Mike Proctor.�

And when the studious Sachin Tendulkar intervened, he was asked to �put his finger on his lips!� Proctor took Ponting�s word over Sachin�s and Bhajji was banned for three test matches following a three hour long court hearing.The Australians are a great side and the statistics do not lie, but, they have lost their sense of humor. Like a marijuana addict, they have become immune to winning and possibly want some other drug to keep themselves entertained because in the Sydney test match, there were two teams on the field out there and only one of them was playing cricket.

I respect Ponting for his batting exploits and his captaincy, but, it was sad to see him appeal to a catch which he had grounded while attempting to hold on to it. A captain sets the tone and the culture of the side. So, you cannot blame Michael Clarke getting the umpire to raise his finger to dismiss Ganguly for a catch that he had grassed. Even the normally sporting Adam Gilchrist went up like a jack in the box when there was daylight between Dravid�s bat and the ball.

So, what�s new? The teams from the Indian sub continent have always been taken for granted. It was Glen Mc Grath who invented the reverse swing. What were Waqar and Wasim doing a decade ago when they got that magical delivery to swing in late? Oh, they were �tampering� with the ball! Do you recall the Calcutta Test in 2001, when Michael Slater got at kissing distance to Rahul Dravid and gestured wildly asking him to leave the crease? The whole world saw it, but, I guess the match referee was taking a nap. In Bhajji�s case, there is no audio or video evidence, yet, the match referee seems to have had some divine intervention. When the Australians sledge, it�s termed as friendly banter, but, Indians do not hold the visa to the same jokes.

I still maintain that the Indians should have at least drawn the test match, but, the spirit in which the match was played has put the sport to shame. If the ban against Bhajji stays, and if India decides to walk away from the middle of the series, it will be a sad day for cricket, but, I guess it will be the right thing to do. BCCI, the richest cricketing board in the world should put its foot down and take a stand against the unfavourable and inconsistent treatment meted out to the players. The only question is whether the BCCI has the nerve to do it? Do it, I say. Cricket is not only about money; let�s garnish it with some respect as well from time to time.

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Categories : Sports