I also think that the Australian players need to be made to realise that they earn a lot of money from India! Maybe the Indian public should boycot produts that the Aussies endorse!
Great Work Prem...I love this reply...i on behalf of all Indians putting a request here to Mr.Robert Craddock to reply to this point by point without trying to ignore, like ponting who says his integrity should not be doubted because he had not claimed Dravid's catch in the first innings and cleverly says there was only one issue reported from this test match and that didnt involve any Australians.
Are you people Blind & Deaf to what has happened during the course of 5 days of this test match, this can happen only in racist country and with a dictator..who doesnt care for the truth.
Kudos to Prem Panicker, who expressed the feelings of Indians, beyond our expectations. One again I thank Prem Panicker for such an elaborate reply reflecting the feelings of Cricket loving Indians....
Clear and concise writeup. A few questions though: Umpires that officiate in tests are DECIDED BEFORE the series begins and any changes are to be MADE before the series begins. India knew that Bucknor was one of them much before the tour started. Why then did they not oppose and have him changed when most of the team members knew and had experienced his incompetence? Why? Even match referees are decided before the tour and must be agreeable to both parties. Why did India agree to Proctor, a product of apartheid era? Any answers Panicker? Ponting and his boys are players who play the game very hard indeed. They cheat too! So do all other teams. Is it your contention that all other teams are made of saints? So whether the Aussies are arrogant, dishonest, abrasive, or abusive, one thing remains undisputed is that they are BLOODY GOOD AS CRICKETERS! Therefore, the thing to do is to beat the Aussies on the field whether home or away. Dont the Aussies win regardless of the venue or situation or team or umpires? Can India emulate this? Only a couple of months ago, we were struggling to dismiss the weakest Pak team ever to have toured India! Let us improve our playing standards; if we had then all these would not have mattered. Let me ask you: Would this incident have gained this mileage had India won the test?
RE:Good writeup!
by klotus on Jan 08, 2008 02:43 PM Permalink
WHAT YOU WANT TO CONVEY BY YOURS MESSAGE I DON'T UNDERSTAND MR. SRINIVAS. IF A TEAM IS PLAYING WITH 15 PLAYERS AND THE OTHER IS PLAYING WITH 25 PLAYERS, IS IT POSSIBLE TO WIN AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED IN SYDENY ACTUALLY. OUR TEAM PLAYED A LOT BETTER THAN THE AUSTRILANS IN SYDENY BUT ONLY BECAUSE OF SOME POOR DECISIONS THEY LOST IT. I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND ME. I ALSO WAS A FAN OF AUSTRILAN TEAM BEFORE THE SYDENY MATCH BUT NOW I THINK EVEN THEY PLAY GOOD BUT THEY ARE VERY SOUR LOOSERS.
RE:RE:Good writeup!
by Srinivas Kasinathan on Jan 08, 2008 04:53 PM Permalink
What I want to convey is this: Let us keep things in the right perspective and behave accordingly. Agreed the umpires gave decisions against India and favored Aussies. Had Symonds been given out caught behind in the first innings, India might even have won this match. Agreed. But are Aussies always playing with umpires favoring them? Have they been winning only in Australia? Have they not won against India in India? Against Pakistan in Pakistan, against England in England, against SA in SA, against NZ in NZ? How many times has India done the above feat in the last 25 years? Did Aussies cheat in World Cup matches too? The problem here is that other teams hardly get a chance to win against Aussies. India had one in Sydney and this was spoiled by the umpires and hence the outrage. This is why I asked if India had actually won in spite of poor umpiring, would so much outrage been expressed on the decisions? Had India won, would we still have demanded Bucknor's ousting? Had India won, would so much support been forthcoming for Bhajji? So our reaction totally depends on the situation and not on issues. This is what I wanted to convey. It is high time we learned to base our reactions/responses on issues.
RE:Good writeup!
by on Jan 08, 2008 06:00 PM Permalink
Mr Kasinathan, as an Australian born Indian, bravo - an impartial Indian response at long last. It's yet another typical case of tall poppy syndrome, or as I like to call it "any excuse is a good excuse for why India lost"
Buckner must be out of this tour. Bhaji don't deserve anything above a warning since there is no proof even if he did it. Any court of law can't say more than that.
But what about the pathetic display of batting by our eight guys in the 2nd innings [barring Ganguly and Dravid] ???? Why couldn%u2019t our guys hold on for 12 balls which could have get them a draw. We forgot our big failure%u2026%u2026
But why we are not seeing may decisions went in favor of India [best eg:..sachin was lbw on 24, umpire didn't give it and he made 154] In last one day series in India umpire Mr.Sjastri give many decision against Aussies....
The article is well drafted and is a befitting reply to all who are taking side of the OZ team who tried to win the game ungentlemanly. ICC and its Match Refrees are also biased towards India. Cricket is afterall a game and it must be played in the true spirit of the game. Let the cricketers who play the game and the spectators enjoy the game. Let the better team win the game. THERE IS NO PROBLEM IN THAT. Lalit
Brillinatly argued! Well who is this Craddock guy whom you take so seriously? More than blog can you send your piece to the publishers ofcraddock as counterppoint? If it gets published at least readers in Australia will know what is right and wrong, at least from others viewpoint. By the way Mike Proctors words are very fine indeed & does understand Racial discrimination as he has been party to the evil Apartheid for so long being a white south african! What he does not understand is what is racial context and waht has simple derogatory context. ICC's stamping out racism is ensuring whites do not dominate and use their implied or actual whiteskin superiority. I do not think we brown skins come anywhere near that connotation- re actual racism that is practiced even today in Australia. In the English context, Monkey-Business is doing something mischiveous & irritating and definitely not refering to one's skin colour or origin from the monkey route. Well, fact is Darwin did propose and which is universally accepted fact is, in some ways monkeys and humans had common ancestors( at least!) somewhere in early evolutionary history. Ponting should be repored by BCCI & Indian players to Mike Proctor, by lying to Umpire Benson that the catch of Ganguly was clean, and sould be banned as per ICC level 3 offense, at least for 3-5 games as Mike Proctor the graet himself judged and punsied Rashid latif, setting a clar precedence.
In addition to what he has said, I think the match should be disqualified (or whatever you do to reverse / negate the result), and the recovery be made from the Umpire's pockets.
Firstly, I have always thought India represented the best the cricket world had to offer. Now I'm not so sure. The only things that happened in that cricket match that haven't happened a 100 times before all over the world are three things, the poor umpiring, the Clarke catch being referred to Ponting and the racism incident. 1) The poor umpiring had nothing to do with Oz. Blame the ICC. As for walking, no-one walks the world over so to accuse Oz of this standard is a bit rich. If someone walks its a bonus, always was and always will be. 2)The Clarke catch is the result of a poor match condition agreed to by both captains. If Ganguly (or any Indian player) took a half volley (and genuinely thought he caught it) and said to Kumble he took it, Kumble would have said yep, thats out. Whether Clarke genuinely thought this or not, only one person will ever know and anyones opinion to the contrary is just fiction. 3)Half you guys say Harbi did it but was provoked or its meaningless, the other half say he didn't. Either way, he was warned and barring any ridiculous conspiracy theories, he has gotten what he deserved. If the 'B' word uttered by Hogg is shown to be RACIALLY offensive (and not offensive per se) to Indians, then he should be educated (without penalty) of such like the India team was previously. Same yardstick.
So, everything else is just fiction or perception. India were probably the better team and lost. Won't be the first time or the last. Thats cricket.
RE:Aussie bashing
by Srinivas Kasinathan on Jan 08, 2008 05:03 PM Permalink
Fully agree with you. All said and done, Aussies are a first-class cricket team and it takes one helluva lot of capability to beat them. The problem is rarely does an opposition team get a chance to beat the Aussies. Such a chance did present itself in Sydney but the umpires spoiled the party and hence the outrage. This was augmented by the Bhajji-Symmo episode with characteristic bungling by Proctor (a product of the apartheid era of SA). The whole thing was fanned and fuelled by the media that always wants sensationalizm and will do whatever it takes to sensationalize the issue. That Aussies are arrogant goes beyond saying but whether any other team that plays and wins the way Aussies do will remain polite and humble is anybody's guess. With very little to its credit we have seen what India can come up to in the 20/20 world cup! My take on this: Let Indians win as many games as Aussies do and they have the licence to behave 10 times worser than Aussies do now! Yeah, but win first baby!
RE:RE:Aussie bashing
by Doogie Hauser on Jan 08, 2008 05:38 PM Permalink
What a lot of Indians fail to understand is most Aussies would love to see someone challenge our team and beat them regularly with good cricket. We view India as one of the few teams capable of this. Personally, I think our team is not arrogant, just confident in there own abilities to the point of being obnoxious. I've said this elsewhere, but all you need to do is turn up the microphones. When everyones on record, you'll see decent behaviour. If not, at least when people are suspended there will not be any doubt regarding guilt or innocence.
RE:Aussie bashing
by Bob Hair on Jan 08, 2008 05:23 PM Permalink
Srinivas I have not a problem with what you say. The problem I have with this test (which was incredibly tense and had great drama throughout, so therefore should be seen as a great one but by many it isn't) is that who knows what would have happened without the blunders. You know the what if game? If the umpiring had been right, Australia might have scored 200 in the first innings. But then what would India have scored. Both Laxman and Tendulkar were palpably out LBW in their innings and not given. In both cases, the ball pitched in line, wasn't near the bat and would have hit middle stump at or near half way up. So India might have been out for 200. Who knows? The problem is that we know there were many, many mistakes made, and it marred what should have been a great test. Cheers Bob
RE:Aussie bashing
by Doogie Hauser on Jan 08, 2008 05:43 PM Permalink
And poor umpiring is poor umpiring and tends to favour the home team. There was a time when Steve was the best ump in the world. Look on the bright side. I think Sharma is very raw but could be a world beater as a bowler. He's a real find.
RE:RE:Aussie bashing
by Manavendra Choudhury on Jan 08, 2008 06:30 PM Permalink
I think this is a watershed Test in the history of modern-day cricket. Possibly the beginning of an end. Whatever happens to H.Singh, or Bucknor, or Ponting, cricket will never be the same again.
