Does that mean the passionate Indian cricket fan should participate in his neighbourhood protest rally and burn effigies? Should the BCCI cancel the tour altogether, since 'unfair treatment has been meted out to our team, and the Indian national pride has been hurt'? Should Ponting be pressured to relinquish captaincy owing to his team's growing behaviour issues? Was Kumble right in saying that only one team played the game in the right spirit? Was he wallowing in self-pity? Are Indians crybabies - as seen in the South Africa series in 2001 under similar circumstances?
Too many questions, too few answers available... But we maybe ignoring the most important question of them all...
Is this what the Gentlemen's Game is coming to? Racism, Sledging, Intimidation, Mind-Games, Allegations, Counter-Allegations, HEARINGS and suchlike?
* * * * * *
Before I begin with the crux of the article, let me issue a small disclaimer... If you think that I am an Anglophile or a Traditionalist, well so be it... I am none of those... All I am is a cricket fan, and this is my vision of cricketing utopia, and dystopia...
* * * * * *
Okay so Australia are a dominant side in World Cricket and no one comes close to challenging them nowadays... But what has given rise to this muck is their attitude towards their opponents... They treat the defeated as beneath contempt, and do not even seem keen to interact with them... Australia have been dominant for a long time now, but this is a more recent phenomenon, perhaps as recent as the last 3-4 years. It is not as though they were saints before that - on the field, there was no team who played mind-games like the Aussies or their captain Steve Waugh... But no series ever got to the level of being called off, 'JUST' because of 7 bad decisions in a test match and two players taunting each other in, shall we say, 'unparliamentary terms'...
The problem with the Aussies, and in particular with their captain Punter, is that they are perfect examples of the saying - 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'... Now consider this, Punter and his cohorts all came into the team AFTER the era of Aussie dominance had begun... And they went on getting hungrier, since nothing succeeds like success itself... But with the control they had over everyone on the field, they inadvertently started thinking of themselves as lords and masters off the field as well... Gavaskar hit the nail on the head, when he asked what right Ponting had of claiming to be an honest fielder, when he stood his ground upon nicking the ball in the first innings? How is a fielder's word trustworthy but not a batsman's, when both are the SAME INDIVIDUAL! But Ponting asserts that this is a TRIVIAL MATTER BLOWN OUT OF PROPORTION! Is this guy sleeping?
Symonds, on the other hand, is that bully you knew at school... He has been known to verbally assault his opponents, and has never, in my memory, shook the hand or even acknowledged an opponent's 100, unlike most other cricketers in the world... There is not a courteous muscle in the man's body... And yet, every time someone stands up to his bullying, be it the opposition or the crowd, he takes advantage of being of West Indian descent and cries 'RACISM'... There are various forms of racial abuse in the world, all equally contemptible, but taking advantage of your ethnicity to get another person/group reprimanded for returning your on-field abuse ranks perhaps second lowest on the scale, to bonded labour...
The West Indies dominated world cricket right from the 60s under Frank Worrell, to Viv Richards in the 80s... Most players of that era were descended from either Afro-Carribean or Asian ethnicity... They had the most fearsome bowlers in history, and perhaps till eternity, in Wes Hall, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose... How many of them ever uttered a word to the batsman, let alone question their parentage? You may argue that there was no way to find out, since there were no rules and no policing/refereeing at the time... Yet there is a way to find out - ask the batsmen - Sunil Gavaskar, Geoffrey Boycott, Graham Gooch, Zaheer Abbas, Glenn Turner - they are all alive and can vouch for it...
All I'm trying to say is, when the Brits invented this game, they called it the Gentlemen's game... A languid, elegant 5-day affair that was played at the empire's outposts by servants of the crown, more than in the home country... But its devolution over the last 10 years has been drastic... Cricket has become more akin to Pro Wrestling than the game of personal or team brilliance... And Punter, has led the way...
Much like George W. Bush has led the world...
...to Apocalypse... Now...
The problem with the Aussies, and in particular with their captain Punter, is that they are perfect examples of the saying - 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'... Now consider this, Punter and his cohorts all came into the team AFTER the era of Aussie dominance had begun... And they went on getting hungrier, since nothing succeeds like success itself... But with the control they had over everyone on the field, they inadvertently started thinking of themselves as lords and masters off the field as well... Gavaskar hit the nail on the head, when he asked what right Ponting had of claiming to be an honest fielder, when he stood his ground upon nicking the ball in the first innings? How is a fielder's word trustworthy but not a batsman's, when both are the SAME INDIVIDUAL! But Ponting asserts that this is a TRIVIAL MATTER BLOWN OUT OF PROPORTION! Is this guy sleeping?
Symonds, on the other hand, is that bully you knew at school... He has been known to verbally assault his opponents, and has never, in my memory, shook the hand or even acknowledged an opponent's 100, unlike most other cricketers in the world... There is not a courteous muscle in the man's body... And yet, every time someone stands up to his bullying, be it the opposition or the crowd, he takes advantage of being of West Indian descent and cries 'RACISM'... There are various forms of racial abuse in the world, all equally contemptible, but taking advantage of your ethnicity to get another person/group reprimanded for returning your on-field abuse ranks perhaps second lowest on the scale, to bonded labour...
The West Indies dominated world cricket right from the 60s under Frank Worrell, to Viv Richards in the 80s... Most players of that era were descended from either Afro-Carribean or Asian ethnicity... They had the most fearsome bowlers in history, and perhaps till eternity, in Wes Hall, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose... How many of them ever uttered a word to the batsman, let alone question their parentage? You may argue that there was no way to find out, since there were no rules and no policing/refereeing at the time... Yet there is a way to find out - ask the batsmen - Sunil Gavaskar, Geoffrey Boycott, Graham Gooch, Zaheer Abbas, Glenn Turner - they are all alive and can vouch for it...
All I'm trying to say is, when the Brits invented this game, they called it the Gentlemen's game... A languid, elegant 5-day affair that was played at the empire's outposts by servants of the crown, more than in the home country... But its devolution over the last 10 years has been drastic... Cricket has become more akin to Pro Wrestling than the game of personal or team brilliance... And Punter, has led the way...
Much like George W. Bush has led the world...
...to Apocalypse... Now...
