My reaction to Amit's post on the ongoing cricket controversy
I started out writing a comment but midway, I realized that it's too long a comment. So here is my reaction to Amit's post.
About strong protests
India lodged a ‘strong protest’ when Mike Deness banned Sachin Tendulkar for ball tampering. Nothing happened.
Steve Bucknor mocked Rahul Dravid on the field by pretending to tamper the ball at SCG. India lodged a ‘strong protest’. Nothing happened.
Umpire Darrell Hair has often been biased against Asian teams and so many ‘strong protests’ were lodged. Nothing happened.
Finally, the Pakistan cricket team walked off the ground midway through a match and that’s when the ICC woke up and banned Hair.
Do we still believe in ‘strong protests’?
I rest my case.
About sportsmanship in the modern game
I don’t want to comment much here since I do agree that sportsmanship is a dying virtue. However, it should not die.
Amit asks in his post,
“However, is suspending the entire tour and jeopardizing an otherwise excellent cricketing relationship the answer?”
It’s not. And that’s exactly why sportsmanship should not die. And grassed catches should not be claimed.
P.S: Do read the mail that Arpit forwarded everyone this morning. That says what sportsmanship is and why it’s important.
About strong protests
India lodged a ‘strong protest’ when Mike Deness banned Sachin Tendulkar for ball tampering. Nothing happened.
Steve Bucknor mocked Rahul Dravid on the field by pretending to tamper the ball at SCG. India lodged a ‘strong protest’. Nothing happened.
Umpire Darrell Hair has often been biased against Asian teams and so many ‘strong protests’ were lodged. Nothing happened.
Finally, the Pakistan cricket team walked off the ground midway through a match and that’s when the ICC woke up and banned Hair.
Do we still believe in ‘strong protests’?
I rest my case.
About sportsmanship in the modern game
I don’t want to comment much here since I do agree that sportsmanship is a dying virtue. However, it should not die.
Amit asks in his post,
“However, is suspending the entire tour and jeopardizing an otherwise excellent cricketing relationship the answer?”
It’s not. And that’s exactly why sportsmanship should not die. And grassed catches should not be claimed.
P.S: Do read the mail that Arpit forwarded everyone this morning. That says what sportsmanship is and why it’s important.
Labels: cricket, India australia
posted by Ullas @ 5:15 AM
4 Comments:
At January 8, 2008 5:53 AM ,
Amit said...
Fair point. Strong protests in the past have probably not yielded desired results. That said, I don't think that is reason enough to validate walking off. Yes, you can probably cite one case and say, it worked. But in the long haul such measures are only going to dilute the purpose itself. For all you know, teams that are agitated may start walking off. There were racist chants against the Australians in the recently concluded one-day series against India. Did they walk-off? No, they went on to win the games. I have seen crowds in Ahmedabad throw eggs and tomatoes at players. This isn't racist, but is it acceptable. The teams can very well justify their walking off by citing unruly crowd behavior (which can be far more daunting than sleding by players). Walking off to me is never the solution.
Sportmanship is critical - I'm all for sportman spirit. But questioning a sportsman's dignity just because he doesn't walk isn't great either. The fact is sporstman spirit is dying and we can't really fault Australia alone for that all the time.
At January 8, 2008 6:59 AM ,
Ullas said...
It's not a solution. But at times they work!
At times, when the governing body sleeps with its back towards Asia, such measures become necessary.
Had there been another way, I would have never supported walking off.
If India or Pakistan or SL walked off, it reflects ICC's incompetence more than anything else.
And I still believe Australians play to win and they succeed too. I am a huge fan of McGrath unsettling the best players in the opposition. But I am not a huge fan of McGrath using foul language against Sarwan.
I am a huge fan of Australians playing hard but I am not a fan of them trying to resort to underhand tactics. Is it a coincidence that Harbhajan was doing to Australia what McGrath did to teams across the world - unsettle the captain?
Problem here is that Australians have been so successful that we have now come to put up with their negative traits as well. The common sentiment is, 'they win everytime so whatever they do is right'.
I'll use a line that Steve Waugh loved to use often - nobody is a bigger than the game. No, not even Australia.
At January 9, 2008 2:20 AM ,
~:Dennis:~ said...
Looking at the things happening in the game, i would give my vote to call of the tour, as there wasn't much decision in favour of India. If we would have countinued the tour, we would have got more things to discuss in the posts this month.
At January 10, 2008 7:39 AM ,
Ullas said...
I read my comment and I nearly threw up due to the number of language and grammatical errors.
A LITTLE CONTEST FOR THE CONTENT TEAM - whoever points out the most number of errors in my comment here gets an ice cream/chocolate.
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