January
13, 2008 Australian
Indians Peeved at Crooked Cricket Down Under By Neena Bhandari
Sydney
Cricket has consumed all, even those who otherwise would show scant
interest in what was once a gentleman's game Down Under. Australian
Indians and Australians at large are peeved at and embarrassed by
the cricket story unfolding in one of the greatest sporting nations
of the world.
"The win at all costs" attitude has muffled the spirit of the game.
Prabhat Sinha, immediate past president of the United Indian
Associations (UIA), told IANS: "Australia is a great sporting nation
and the recent behaviour of (Ricky) Ponting's cricket team has
undoubtedly damaged Australia's international reputation. Australian
Indians and Australians at large are quite concerned about recent
unseemly behaviour and abusive language used by some team members."
"Blighted by racism, wrong umpiring decisions, poor sportsmanship,
arrogant and amateurish leadership by Australian cricket captain
Ponting, the tour will continue thanks to sensible and timely
intervention by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and
International Cricket Council (ICC)."
"Ponting's pontification does not augur well for the reputation of
Australia as a great sporting nation. I would absolutely agree with
Sydney Morning Herald columnist and former cricketer Peter Roebuck
that Ponting should be sacked as Australia's captain for bringing a
bad name to a traditional, friendly game of cricket."
While Australia have taken a 2-0 lead in the four-Test series and
retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Ponting and his team had come
under fierce criticism for bad behaviour during the second Test
against India in Sydney a week ago.
The match was also marred by poor umpiring from Mark Benson and
Steve Bucknor and charges of racism on Indian off-spinner Harbhajan
Singh, following which the bowler was suspended from three Tests.
After a strong protest from the Indian cricket board, the
International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to remove Bucknor from
the remainder of the series and also upheld the ban on Harbhajan
till a fresh hearing was conducted.
The third Test starts Wednesday in Perth.
A Sydney-based IT specialist, Anil Verma says, "Cricket seems to
have gone more interesting outside the field now. But it is sad.
Change is the call of the day. Cricket has gone through major
evolution from Test match to Twenty20.
"It should now evolve in the area of umpiring. Technology should be
used for accurate assessment and judgement, leaving the umpires only
to officiate the game will minimise the controversies currently
plaguing the game. Containing the empires of umpires, their status
may evolve from referee to referrer.
"There should also be a controversy index for a match and if a match
goes beyond a certain measure, the record books should contain a
star (or scar) for posterity. Otherwise all the unfairness in
winning will get lost in memories, and a team will continue to
rejoice their winning streak in record books as if nothing happened.
It will also curb the temptation to win at any cost."
All the action on and off the field has, however, not affected the
filming of "Victory", a film on cricket.
The Australian Indian producer of the film, Anupam Sharma, says,
"The cricket controversy has generated a lot of interest in the film
and the crew is amused at the questions the film crew and cricketers
are being asked about the controversy which has nothing to do with
the film, crew, or the cricketers involved."
Hemchandra Rao, who was at the Sydney Cricket Ground for all the
five days, says, "The first three days were excellent and engrossing
cricket and then aggression on the field beyond sportsman spirit was
unpleasant to watch. In all walks of life, the greatest winners are
humble. Ishant Sharma, who should have got the wicket of Symmonds
but for the umpire, by congratulating Symmonds has shown the Indian
behaviour pattern in the worst times.
"The captains have to become leaders than just tacticians to win
matches. Only then, the sports can win. The real people, who paid a
lot of money to see the match enjoyed and one can hear and read the
good Australians express their opinions abundantly in the last
week," adds Rao.
Shailja Chaturvedi of the Hindi Samaj says, "It shows huge
insecurity underlying the over inflated pompous self-image of the
Australian team."
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