The Battle Down Under!
The Sydney Test of 2008 will be remembered for a long, long time, more for the wrong reasons than the right ones. Here are my two cents on the whole affair:
The five frenetic days of outstanding cricket was marred by shoddy umpiring, racial abuses, and a team's dogged determination to win-at-all-costs that drew flak from one and all.
India fought hard at Sydney, came close to earning a stalemate, before madness crept in and
they surrendered the Border-Gavaskar trophy to the (not so) innocuous Michael Clarke. Blame Bucknor and Benson as much as you like, but India could not play out 5 minutes of gentle spin, with 3 wickets in hand.
Before Ganguly appreciated the indomitable Aussie spirit, I had remarked to a friend the day the Test concluded, that one way to view this is to see how hungry the Aussies are for a win. I'd rather support a team that has this killer attitude than have a team of gentlemen coming from a land where people smear tilaks on their foreheads and hope that things will work out in their favour. The problem with Indian cricket in spite of having a fantastically talented team is that a loss doesn't hurt them as badly as it does the Aussies. A part of Australia literally dies after every loss. And from the ashes of that loss, arises a Phoenix which extracts vengeance in the next encounter. Am sure they'll come out all guns blazing at Adelaide!
In spite of being a hardcore Aussie fan, I have to admit that they carried themselves terribly in a couple of instances (Ricky claiming Dhoni's catch was a real no-no!)
However, I think a majority of the issues were blown out of proportion.
Keep Walking?
Standing one's ground is the prerogative of every batsman, and expecting a batsman to walk
in such a high stakes environment is plain dumb! And let's not be hypocritical. No batsman in World Cricket does it! How can we forget the recent 7th ODI against Aus in Mumbai when Murali Karthik clearly nicked one, did not walk, and managed to guide India to a slim victory. He even had the gall to admit that he had hit it in the post match conference!
Claiming Low Catches
About the much disputed Michael Clarke catch - None of the TV replays could conclusively show either way whether the catch was clean or not! The other controversy regarding the touching of the ball after rolling can best be left alone. Sunil Gavaskar did not have a problem with the catch, only with the touching after the catch was taken. On the contrary, Ian Chappell said that the touching was permitted since the catch was completed. Now two men who have played cricket for so long interpret the rules differently. Who do you believe, because both are tremendously biased towards their respective countries!
Sledging
Coming to age-old debate on sledging. The Aussies are again allegedly the culprits, though every team does it today. We live in an age of 'Might is Right' and the Indians may look feeble in front of the "Ugly" Australians. The same Indian players however, assume an air of superiority when they play Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. I can still see Munaf mouthing obscenities at the Bangladeshi batsmen who were carting him around the ground in their upset victory over India at WC '07.
Racism
The racism incident is best left alone, since no one can really be sure of what transpired. One thing I'm dead sure of is Harbhajan banging his bat against the bowler - It won't be the first time he's done that too.
And now that India has won the Perth Test, is almost feels as if Sydney happened a long, long time ago. As Ravi Shastri mentioned, it was probably karma that India got the decisions their way, and for once, Andrew Symonds was deserted by Lady Fortuna. Perth is an outstanding example of what this Indian team can achieve without superhuman individual contributions! Hope that India continues to fight every time it steps on the field.
So did Perth make matter even-stevens? I don't think so. I have a feeling that both teams will be going for the jugular in the final test, to have the last laugh.
It's a matter of pride now!
The five frenetic days of outstanding cricket was marred by shoddy umpiring, racial abuses, and a team's dogged determination to win-at-all-costs that drew flak from one and all.
India fought hard at Sydney, came close to earning a stalemate, before madness crept in and
they surrendered the Border-Gavaskar trophy to the (not so) innocuous Michael Clarke. Blame Bucknor and Benson as much as you like, but India could not play out 5 minutes of gentle spin, with 3 wickets in hand.
Before Ganguly appreciated the indomitable Aussie spirit, I had remarked to a friend the day the Test concluded, that one way to view this is to see how hungry the Aussies are for a win. I'd rather support a team that has this killer attitude than have a team of gentlemen coming from a land where people smear tilaks on their foreheads and hope that things will work out in their favour. The problem with Indian cricket in spite of having a fantastically talented team is that a loss doesn't hurt them as badly as it does the Aussies. A part of Australia literally dies after every loss. And from the ashes of that loss, arises a Phoenix which extracts vengeance in the next encounter. Am sure they'll come out all guns blazing at Adelaide!
In spite of being a hardcore Aussie fan, I have to admit that they carried themselves terribly in a couple of instances (Ricky claiming Dhoni's catch was a real no-no!)
However, I think a majority of the issues were blown out of proportion.
Keep Walking?
Standing one's ground is the prerogative of every batsman, and expecting a batsman to walk
in such a high stakes environment is plain dumb! And let's not be hypocritical. No batsman in World Cricket does it! How can we forget the recent 7th ODI against Aus in Mumbai when Murali Karthik clearly nicked one, did not walk, and managed to guide India to a slim victory. He even had the gall to admit that he had hit it in the post match conference!
Claiming Low Catches
About the much disputed Michael Clarke catch - None of the TV replays could conclusively show either way whether the catch was clean or not! The other controversy regarding the touching of the ball after rolling can best be left alone. Sunil Gavaskar did not have a problem with the catch, only with the touching after the catch was taken. On the contrary, Ian Chappell said that the touching was permitted since the catch was completed. Now two men who have played cricket for so long interpret the rules differently. Who do you believe, because both are tremendously biased towards their respective countries!
Sledging
Coming to age-old debate on sledging. The Aussies are again allegedly the culprits, though every team does it today. We live in an age of 'Might is Right' and the Indians may look feeble in front of the "Ugly" Australians. The same Indian players however, assume an air of superiority when they play Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. I can still see Munaf mouthing obscenities at the Bangladeshi batsmen who were carting him around the ground in their upset victory over India at WC '07.
Racism
The racism incident is best left alone, since no one can really be sure of what transpired. One thing I'm dead sure of is Harbhajan banging his bat against the bowler - It won't be the first time he's done that too.
And now that India has won the Perth Test, is almost feels as if Sydney happened a long, long time ago. As Ravi Shastri mentioned, it was probably karma that India got the decisions their way, and for once, Andrew Symonds was deserted by Lady Fortuna. Perth is an outstanding example of what this Indian team can achieve without superhuman individual contributions! Hope that India continues to fight every time it steps on the field.
So did Perth make matter even-stevens? I don't think so. I have a feeling that both teams will be going for the jugular in the final test, to have the last laugh.
It's a matter of pride now!
posted by sajetspeaketh at 11:11 PM
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