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Controversy In Sydney


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Has anyone been following this? I don't particularly like the way in which the Indian board is going about making its threats, but I do have a lot of sympathy with them. They haven't had the rub of the green with the umpiring decisions at all.

As for the situation with Harbhajan Singh, I'm wondering how the match referee reached his decision, considering the apparent lack of independent witnesses, namely the on-field umpires.

As always, though, cricket is the loser. It's such a shame that a series which promised so much has been soured to such an extent.

Tour at risk after Harbhajan ban (BBC Sport)

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Well, I'm no cricket fan and haven't really followed the test series or the last test in particular. Butas you could imagine, this is major, front-page news here. And the commentary here is not all pro-Australian, a lot of the press comment is quite sympathetic to India (though also noting that their actions are akin to blackmail).

It does seem, though, that the Sydney Test was a particularly mean-spirited affair that wasn't true to the spirit of sport in general and ccricket in particular. As usual in such cases, I don't think either of the sides are complete villains or total innocent angels.

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I did hear that Peter Roebuck, a man who certainly divides opinion in certain parts of England (read Ian Botham's original autobiography and you'll soon get some idea as to why), had called for Ricky Ponting to be sacked as Australian captain. All I know is to take his comments with a pinch of salt. I do find it quite amusing, for example, how he talks in his Sydney Morning Herald column about 'our' team and 'our' game.

Anyway, the guys whose views I'm most interested to find on this are the likes of Jim Maxwell and other seasoned cricket writers and broadcasters. In particular, I've listened to people like Jim Maxwell and Richie Benaud for years (in Jim's case mainly through BBC Test Match Special) and always found them to be the sort of men who, when they talk, you need to listen to. It takes a lot for any reporter, let alone one with as much experience as Maxwell, to talk of umpiring 'incompetence', as he does in a clip on the ABC website. And from everything I've heard and read so far, I think the parties involved would do well to listen to them. But somehow, I'm pretty sure we haven't heard the last of this.

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The actions of the Australian team in Sydney have led to fierce criticism back home, with Ponting's role in the game coming under intense scrutiny.

The Sydney Morning Herald has called for Ponting to be dismissed, saying that Cricket Australia should not tolerate the "arrogant and abrasive conduct seen from the captain".

And an online poll in Australian newspaper the Daily Telegraph 79% of respondents said the team did not play in the true spirit of the game while 83% said Ponting was not a good ambassador for the game.

That`s from the BBC Sport page I looked at. Looks like Australia has come in for criticism too.

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Frankly, about bloody time as well. In saying what I'm going to say, I am not, in any way, condoning what Harbajhan Singh is alleged to have said to Andrew Symonds. But let us be clear. This Australian team, particularly under its current captain, shows all the hallmarks of playground bullies. They can dish it out to people, but they can't take it when a team stands up to them.

Look what happened when Ponting himself was run out at Trentbridge during the last Ashes series over here. Never mind whether the run was there or not, he was more bothered about gobbing off at people and complaining in general. Why? Because here was a team that was beating them at their own game and he couldn't handle it.

There are some fine sportsmen in that Australian side, but they are being overshadowed by certain individuals, led by their captain, who seem to believe that winning at whatever cost to their own or the sport's reputation is all that matters. As somebody said on another discussion I read earlier - what on Earth would Sir Don Bradman make of it all?

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Look what happened when Ponting himself was run out at Trentbridge during the last Ashes series over here. Never mind whether the run was there or not, he was more bothered about gobbing off at people and complaining in general. Why? Because here was a team that was beating them at their own game and he couldn't handle it.

I dont think that would be his motive exactly. I have met Ricky Ponting personally during the last Ashes series and from what i could gather hes no different to any other player in the world. At times, players will get it wrong, they will get frustrated after 5days in the sun and they may become over passionate to win. This happens with all players. Ponting cannot change the decision of umpire so i dont know why he is coming under such scrutiny.

Ive read many times this week of players from other countries complaining about Australias sledging tactics. I think, within reason sledging is perfectly fair as long as it stays away from racism, sexual preference (if there is any gay cricket players...i dont know)etc.

Ponting is without a doubt the best player going around at the moment and i kind of get the feeling many are targeting him as the driving force behind all this because of that. As far as i know Mathew Hayden is the worst Australia motor mouth, yet he has recieved little attention over all this.

Billy Bowden will umpire the Perth test....if it goes ahead...thank god! (shut up james)

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But as captain of the Australian team, it is Ricky Ponting's responsibility to ensure that his team plays the game in the right way, in exactly the same way as it is Anil Kumble's for India or Michael Vaughan's for England and I do believe that this Australian team has been allowed, whether by accident or design, to overstep the mark. And, to me, it stems from Ponting himself. He may be a perfectly personable, pleasant character off the field. But when we had them on the run in 2005, he could not handle it and the evidence was there for all to see in his wail of Nottingham.

Now, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with playing the game 'hard, but fair' as the Australians seem to love telling us that they do. Lord knows we've wanted a bit more of the Australian psyche in our teams over the years. But there are limits. For example, was it 'hard, but fair' for Andrew Symonds to blatantly admit that he should have been given out on 30 in the first innings but because of the umpire's mistake he went on to make 162 not out? While he may have been answering the question honestly, all that tells the paying public is that the game they are watching has been twisted to some extent because he was not prepared to acknowledge that he was out and go of his own accord.

And what makes that particularl incident even more sickening is the way we see Ponting raise the finger to Sourav Ganguly on the last afternoon as though he is some kind of fourth umpire before the people who are actually there to do that job adjudicate. Whether or not there was an agreement between the captains on accepting fielders' words before the series started, to me, is irrelevant. If you are prepared to not walk when you yourself know you are out, as Symonds admitted, then how can you possibly expect an opposing player to walk just on your mate's word? You can't have it both ways.

Now, sledging. I actually think that sledging, in some forms can be quite funny. Shane Warne's quip about Paul Collingwood's MBE is a case in point. But successive Australian teams have had a reputation, dating back decades, for taking it too far. Now if Harbajhan said what he is alleged to have said, that is not a defence. But, as a neutral interested observer of all this from afar, it does strike me as being a case of giving it but not being able to take it. And if I feel like that, how on Earth would an Indian player or supporter think?

I think we've got to a stage now where everyone has to realise that enough is enough. For James Sutherland to simply say it's Test cricket, not tiddlywinks, is not good enough. I wouldn't go as far as to say sack him, sack him, sack the tea lady and so on, but I think it needs to be made clear to all parties that any more of this nonsense will mean major sanctions. For the good of the game, something's got to be done.

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Everything seems to have blown over, in Australia at least, which i am really happy about. Speed did the right thing by stepping in but if you ask me the Indians (and some of the Australian public/media who supported a case against the Australian team) were whinging for nothing.

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I cant believe people are making such a big deal of this.

When Fabio Grosso took a dive he openly admitted to to put Australia out of the 2006 FIFA World Cup nobody cared. Bad sportsmenship exists everywhere...why is this attracting so much attention.

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I think it's primarily because cricket still has this image of being a game played in what may be perceived as a gentlemanly, perhaps more old fashioned spirit. With respect of the 2006 incident, I'm afraid there seems to be an acceptance that things like that happen. I'm not saying it's right, more that trying to compare football and cricket is like trying to compare apples and oranges.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So the ban is overturned and Harbhajan is fined 50% of his match fee for using "obscene language". Even if the judge would have given him a ban if he'd known about a previous misdemeanour, this is the only logical outcome in my view.

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