Sydney Cricket Test: Australia descends to the Stables of Stink

"Until that moment India was on top, and the Australian side was reeling miserably; they may not have even scored 200 in the first innings. Sydney Cricket Grounds is where the Australians fear the Indians most and also Ponting has nightmares about Harbhajan Singh. After all it’s not nice to be a bunny always."

by Victor Karunairajan reporting from Sydney

(January, 14, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) The last few days I have been reading Australian newspapers mainly to check on how various sports writers were reacting to the sad Sydney saga of the Second Test between Australia and England. Most writers have fired on all cylinders at the way Ricky Ponting and his all-conquering team with whatever means they use to have their way, and a few even demanding the Australian skipper be sacked.

It has also been noted that a large number of Australians – very large indeed – are convinced that Ponting’s team has consigned sports to the stables of the stink. While a few journalists hidge, hedge and hodge over trivial considerations, it is evident sports writers in general have condemned the Aussie win as nothing to crow about under the circumstances that emerged especially on the final day. Far too many crazy decisions were made by the umpires, pointedly Steve Bucknor who looked anything but capable to do the job properly. When he refused to rule Andrew Symonds out with his score at 30, he handed the game over to Australia in a silver plate.

Until that moment India was on top, and the Australian side was reeling miserably; they may not have even scored 200 in the first innings. Sydney Cricket Grounds is where the Australians fear the Indians most and also Ponting has nightmares about Harbhajan Singh. After all it’s not nice to be a bunny always.

Unfortunately the Bucknor decision was only the beginning; decisions after decisions flowed against India. It appeared at one stage Ricky Ponting was himself instructing the umpire to rule the Indian batsmen out! It was indeed a terrible charade. Whatever one may say, Ponting appeared on that day to ensure victory was achieved at any cost, mostly by means foul. It would not be wrong even to question whether there was Umpire-Fixing involved!

When a person wears the country’s colours, he is under obligation to keep the honour of his nation flying proudly. What Ricky Ponting did at Sydney, something he has done on other cricketing arenas too, was to bring Australia into disrepute. The journalists who have castigated him were very right to do so. Cricket Australia should have taken the heavy roller against Ponting and his men; instead it makes a pathetic attempt to defend them which amounts to accepting that sports events can be packed with abuses and insults.

It is also a sad spectacle that the match referee Mike Proctor took the word of the Australian players rejecting that of the Indian players on the Harbhajan Singh matter. In this instance case, even the umpires did not hear Andrew Symonds being called a monkey. Whatever protestations he may make, Mike Proctor showed he was utterly inclined towards the Australians; this was most unfortunate. Furthermore, even if the term was used, how can calling someone a monkey be racism? Some years ago Ian Botham reacted like a true sportsman when he was called a pig with a live pig and all.

Weighing the kind of words that are used expressing certain emotional upsurge, one should be careful not to attach much importance to their real meanings. One should not be picking hairs on the egg. There are many every day terms and phrases that are flung sometimes complimentarily, derogatorily, and sometimes in utter dejection and possibly in anger too. This does not mean one is a monkey if he is so called; equally one is a bastard if so challenged and such a list is endless.

Having said that, it is obvious Harbhajan Singh never called Andrew Symonds a monkey because Sachin Tendulkar was sure he never did say that word. The gentleman that he is, one can believe him without any hesitation and not Ponting and his men; their field behaviour is such they would do anything to discredit the Indians. But that could not be said of Brad Hogg for behind that perpetual smiley grin there evidently is a man who thinks the Indians are all born illegitimately.

In this context, it is not necessary for an expert lip reader to interpret the derogatory words that flow from the lips of the Australian players on the field and there are many times when from the slip and other close-up positions the Australian players have provoked their opponents with highly provocative words even fantasizing sexual intimacies with their wives in their hearings merely to unnerve and demoralize them. The Pakistanis too have been subjected to such taunts and derisory remarks. It cannot be the Australian way because a large majority of the Australians are convinced that Ponting and his men have behaved badly and cooked their goose.

They do bat with bats, ball with balls but their cardinal weapon seems to be what flows from their mouths with utter scorn and disparagement. Cricketing I thought was a game of gentlemen; evidently not so in Australia anymore.

Having now defended Ponting and his band, Cricket Australia must seal the lips of Australian players; even sew them up if this ultimate action is demanded, before they take the field in Perth next week. Some habits die hard and the fear is that Ricky Ponting believes that hedging, bad mouthing and even hoping to have bedroom pleasures with wives of Indian players are part of cricket to win matches. They are not; certainly not.

But for India’s gesture to continue with the tour, cricket would have suffered a great blow because of the Australians led by Ricky Ponting and the attitude of Cricket Australia. Once this tour is over, the ICC should take a long, deep and look at some fundamentals of the game that are essential for good sportsmanship. Certain behavioural patterns of players need to be redefined and even the question of further use of technology to aid proper umpiring.