If Kumble is mad about the grassed catches that Australia claimed then he should go back and review the India-England test series that took place six months back when Dhoni claimed a similar catch of Kevin Pietersen. If he is mad because the Australian players did not walk after nicking it to the keeper then he should slap his own team mates Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid for doing the same. In recent years, almost all the teams have failed to live up to the spirit that is expected from them . Kumble, as the captain of Indian Cricket team has no right to question Ponting's team for the spirit (or lack of it) that they have shown during the Sydney test .
I have problem with only 3 things:
1. The ever increasing umpiring errors and the reluctance of ICC to embrace the technology. If the umpire has any doubt about the Caught behind decisions in his mind and if he is not supposed to refer it to the third umpire then why cry if he gives the decision in the batsman's favor? On the cricket field, there is always a scope for humans and technology to co exist and ICC has made a blunder in undermining the importance of technology. I sy
mpathize with Benson and Bucknor, unfortunately they made too many errors in a single test. They would have easily escaped had they made some decisions in favor of India but then a wrong decision is a wrong decision , whichever way it goes. Referrals should be brought into the game as early as possible.2. No audio or video evidence is available which proves that Harbhajan abused Symonds racially, neither the umpires heard it. Ponting, Gilchrist, Lee were far away from the action and the only people who could have heard the banter were Tendulkar and Hayden. If Bhajji is guilty then a three match ban is lenient according to many but when Harbhaajan is denying it himself then on what basis is he found guilty? ICC should be transperent to the media to stop it from drawing its own conclusion which may stir up the fans even more.
If Tendulkar is ready to stake his reputation on bhajji's innocence then BCCI should stand behind Harbhajan and fight against the suspension. There is , however, no point in abandoning the Perth test. Its the duty of our team and the team management to make sure that Cricket and its spirit should not be hurt at any cost.
3. The reactions of Indian and Australian commentators to the errors made by umpires were astonishing. Whereas the Indian commentators failed to leave the matter for time being and get on with the game, their Australian counter parts deliberately suppressed the umpiring errors as if nothing had happened. None of the lot including Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry and Sunil Gavaskar was ready to show some maturity while commenting on the controversy.
It was absolutely shameful on the part of the Australian commentators to praise their players in spite of their behavior on the field.
It wasn't the first occasion when a test match/series was won/lost because of poor umpiring. If the third umpire is not awarded to turn down an incorrect decision made by the on-field umpire then such incidences will take place even more frequently in the future.
I hope that the ICC learns from the repercussions of this test and start respecting the use of technology for the betterment of Cricket.
10 comments:
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you. I've been following this whole saga and I think Kumble couldn't have summed it up better.
Did u see the michael clarke incident? when he didn't walk after nicking it to first slip. Did u see Ponting appeal after grounding the ball? Forget that, did u see how we reacted when a reporter asked him about it?
Did u hear gilchrist give a whole load of bullshit about not knowing whether the batsman has nicked it?
These people are not honest. They are liars. And they do it coz they know they can get away with it. And their commentrators and press support them in it. They all know what they are doing.
Nobody is honest enough to walk in today's game when there is no money involved. But to lie so openly and then be brazen about it is something that should not be tolerated.
Coming to Harbhajan's case, I have to say I couldn't be more angrier. What the fucking hell dyu think they're doing? Just coz they got a player who's half black, they think they can accuse our players of racial discrimination? Our players have been discriminated against, abused and treated dismally for years. Where is the punishment for that? Who is drawing the line between sledging and racial abuse? Who says sledging is ok while racial abuse is not?
And i'll tell u one more thing. The BCCI and our players will not do nething. At the most they will fight the ban on bhajji. They will continue playing, coz they r all fucking greedy bastards. Players and management. All of them. They should ideally be walking off Australia. We don't want to play you after you treat us this way. Go fuck urselves. We've got all the money there is in world cricket, we'll see how ICC doesn't listen to us.
Unfortunately, that ain't gonna happen.
Also, in the picture you've put up, ponting looks like he's grabbing his dick. hehe...
Can you imagine Ponting's team continuing their tour of India if they had this done to them? A series of bad, questionable decisions. Umpires trusting the word of Indian players and not theirs. Match refrees refuting the testimony of say, Glen McGrath. Shane Warne being accused of, charged with and banned on account of sledging.
well, can u?
@"It was absolutely foolish and childish on the part of the Indian captain Anil Kumble to question the integrity of the Australian players"
-Being a Captian of a touring country in the foreign nation It is obvious on the part of anil Kumble to doubt the very integrity of Australian Players when the team looses a match against the spirit of the game. Not only the baseless attempts were made by the Australian Captian Ricky Ponting to appeal agaisnt the grassed catches and the poor LBWs but the pointing of the FINGER , indiacting an "OUT" decision in the role of FIFTH UMPIRE utterly looked shameful on the part of a person leading a world class team. Not to forget about the Bhajjis incident when Ponting and his fellow team members charged him of "Racial" slur when everybody knows what Kangaroos are best known for ?
Looking at the Umpiring decisions , sometimes i feel if the australian Players bribed the umpires to make sure that Ponting and his team make a record of winning 16 test matches in a streak which was the honour of their very own Mr. Steven Waugh. Not only this casts a doubt on his ability in winning this test match but also about the fifteen matches he won earlier.Not only the field umpires erred but the "not Out" decision given by TV umpire in favour of Symonds when everybody including both Australian and Indian commentators were convinced of him being clearly out, shows something was fishy.I remember when similar incident occured some time back with pakistan player Rashid Latif being charged of racial comments , at that time Match refree Clive Lyod acquitted him due to lack of evidences, so why the change of rules for Bhajji ????
Even the Australian Media and their Cricket Lovers critisized their Team's behaviour against the foreign team terming it as the worst ever incident in the history of australian Cricket.At the end of the day I would like to stand behind the Indian team and really praise Anil Kumble and his team for behaving decently and like gentlemen even being treated like this.
Would like to state Anil Kumble's comments during the press conference -
"At the end of day only one team Played in the spirit of the game "
First of all, I liked your post. It made a good read.
I agree with you when it comes to the umpiring decisions as well as the part where Bhajji is charged with "racial" comments. But when it comes to the integrity of the Australian players, then this is what I have to say:
Ponting sure did a very good thing by not claiming the catch of Rahul in the first innings, but this was after he had not walked off to a clear edge in the first Australian innings. Of all the persons in the world he should have known better. Everybody plays the game to win, I do not expect him to walk off when he edged the ball, but to assume a higher moral ground and to rule Sourav out in the second innings when umpire Benson asked him whether it was out or not is not agreeable to me at all. His decision was based on Michael Clarke who stood his ground when he clearly hit(not even edged) the ball to first slip. Is Ponting the fcking fifth umpire of this test match??? If he is then where was he when Symonds edged the ball in the first innings, and I am sure the nick was loud enough to be heard in the dressing room, did he come running down and tell the umpire that Symonds nicked the ball?? Better still did he rule him out???
Coming to whether or not Kumble should have commented the way he did, I leave it up to him. Another thing, this is not a question about what Rahul, Dhoni or Sachin have done, as you have pointed out. The question here is, playing the game the way Australians have played and continue to claim that they play the game "hard and fair". Hard I agree, but fair, I have my own reservations.
Sorry, Ricky, you do not deserve to be trusted [as in Prem Panicker's article]
I would want to add a few comments regarding the Bhajji issue. As of now Sachin has requested the BCCI to stand behind Harbhajan and I agree with you, if Sachin is willing to stake his reputation for Bhajji then so should the cricket board. A 'racial' comment is a very serious allegation to me and I do not think that Bhajji will want to live the rest of his cricket life with that slur to go by. I think (or rather hope) that the Indian players SHOULD stay in Sydney until the ban is lifted off of Bhajji. If they do not lift the ban then should contiue to stay in Sydney or come back home.
After all this, I hope that the game of cricket is the eventual winner and not Ponting, Bhajji, Kumble or Symonds for that matter. Nobody is above the game, not even Sachin.
I can continue to keep writing on this forever but I think this should be enough for now.
rahul,
See, the Aussie policy is simple, don't walk even if you have edged it even to the third slip, let the umpire make the decision. Because when you haven't nicked it and the opposition sides appeal for a caught behind, the umpire won't ask you whether you have nicked it or not. And lets not bring sportsman spirit and stuff here, I think Brian Lara and Adam Gilchrist are the only batsmen who don't wait for the umpire's decision. If they are out they walk. No other player, Tendulkar included, has shown the courage and spirit to do that consistently.
So its pointless to call their players as cheats, especially when your own player (Yuvraj Singh) refused to walk in the previous test.
Coming to ponting's catch of Dhoni.
I will still give Punter the benefit of doubt because it happened so fast that he might not have realized that he grounded the ball before the catch was completed.
By the way, did youo notice that when Ponting was claiming the catch and Dhoni didn't walk.The ball had actually kissed his gloves after hitting the pads. But he stayed his ground. Why is nobody doubting Dhoni's moral?
And an Indian captain saying that only one team was playing with the sprit of the game is like "upar se chor Kotwal ko datey" (tell me the equivalent english phrase for this ).
Your number 11 batsman comes to the crease with two gloves for same hand and with less than 10 minutes remaining in the final days play. Tell me, who are you trying to fool here? Was that under the spirit of the game?
and why blame Punter when umpire Benson failed to see the obvious? He should have gone to the square leg umpire and then to the third umpire. How can you expect the player (Punter in this case) to be honest when he is fielding and not so honest when he is batting?
Cricket needs a Ricky Ponting as much it needs Anil Kumble. And you will see more of such incidences in future if the umpiring standards fail to improve.
And Come on, lets not be cry babies. As I said its not the first time that teams have won/lost a game because of poor umpiring. But I haven't seen a captain/cricket board cry like this before. Same Steven Bucknor saved our ass in the Lords test 6 months back. Yes, this has to stop immediately.
Harbhajan case, I second your opinion. Australians are fucking hypocrites when it comes to sledging and BCCI will fight for justice. Personally, I will be really disappointed if the tour is called off. I hope the officials apply some common sense while handling this sensitive matter.
The rising sun and Abhisheik,
My reply to rahul answers almost all of your questions. And I am really proud the way the Indian players have carried themselves on and off the field.
The introduction of challenge-system should reduce the burden and pressure on the umpires - but the playing countries themselves didn't approve of this when ICC introduced it - so just blaming ICC for the umpires is not right. Its a shame that there isn't even a single Indian umpire in the elite panel and it is not helping the ICC to have more umpires in the elite panel.
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you again nilesh. There's a difference between playing hard, not giving an inch and downright cheating.
Let me draw a parallel from football. Ronaldo dives and so does Drogba. I dont mind when United a penalty, but i will still call chelsea cheats if they get one. I'm a United fan, can't help it.
But if tomorrow, ronaldo starts picking the ball out of the net after someone scored and claimed that it never went in, i'm not going to support him. That's what clarke did. You can ask the referee if the ball crossed the line if it bounces out or something... but not when it has nestled in the net.
If don't walk for a bat-pad, its ok.. ur playing hard... nobody is asking u to be swami vivekananda... but when u don't walk after edging it to first slip, ur being arrogant, so arrogant that u think ur above the game.
And that's what u feel when u watch australia play. They think everyone is inferior to them. We came close to beating them, hell i say we wouldve won that match had it not been for the bad decisions. Be arrogant, u got a great team. Play hard. But show respect, if not for the other team then atleast for the game.
I don't know if know this but almost all the press in australia, print and online, has condemned the behavior of ponting and his team.
I'm sure you've heard or Peter Roebuck. Here's what he has to say,
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10485751
Also check out the Sydney Morning Herald.
I just found this. This is awesome...
http://www.smh.com.au/news/cricket/arrogant-ponting-must-be-fired/2008/01/07/1199554571883.html
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