It has been a brilliant trip.
Except for how the Sydney test ended. I was on my way out of Sydney when I heard the commentary in the cab on the way to the airport and on TV in the lounge before boarding. Just before I boarded, we still had about 45 overs to bat with 5 wickets in hand. Was always going to be touch and go.
But it shouldn't have been. Once again, the umpires bailed out the Aussies. This time Rahul Dravid was given caught behind by Bucknor when replays clearly showed it was off the pads. Ganguly was given out to a catch which was not clean. And both of them were well on their way to save the day for India.
We went on to lose the test match in the most dramatic fashion - 3 wickets in 5 balls of the penultimate over bowled by Michael Clarke wrapped things up. No - I won't criticize the last 3 Indian batsmen. You can't expect 9-10-11 to save a game your top 8 couldn't.
Even the forecasted rain didn't rescue India.
On top of all of this, Bhajji has been banned for 3 Tests. He is denying these quite vehemently.
THE UMPIRES screwed with India. They cost us about 250 runs (Symonds and Ponting in the first innings and Hussey in the second innings) and heaven knows how much more (Dravid and Ganguly). This time, bad decisions have well and truly changed the result of the game. India would have won this in 4 days had the decisions been correct.
Oh well - they're gonna argue about the umpires and about the alleged racist comments from Bhajji and everything else. I'm off to KL as soon as I land in Singapore and then Manila the following week.
I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.
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6 comments:
Hey Gajman,
By using irrefutable logic, I conclude that the recent events are all your fault.
By your own admission in one of your earlier posts, India's performance deteriorated everytime you were anywhere close to watching the match in person. Clearly, since vision is nothing but a response to electromagnetic waves, it must be your presence in the continent (or is Australia an island? Who decides? Maybe we should put this to a public poll.) that resulted in the most ridiculous response to the signals that were transmitted to Bucknor and Benson's brain.
Of course, that does not explain the racism charges on Bhajman which has nothing to do with electromagnetic waves, though may have something to do with the microelectric signals within Ponting's brain. Then again, who can underestimate the power of electromagnetic interference?
I support the aus cricket team and followed this from South africa where this was big news. what i would like to say is suck shit and stop whinging to the indians.....but as i see and hear more i am turning the corner and realise some of the truth behind the AUS team. The biggest thing i see is - ARROGANCE - Both good and bad -- the arrogance of getting the 16th victory and no doubt 17th has become a major goal for what i call the 'rat pack'. this rat pack will disolve in the coming 2 yrs as age plays a bigger factor. this rat pack wants to be able to sit down together in 10 yrs in a pub and say were were the best team ever and we did not give a FUCK...no one messed with us.
What is also see is that u unfortunately when ur as good as the aussie team is, u have a right to do this...but i admit, NOT to this extent and not post such a dodgy win...it would have been nice if they did it in style..Very Bad umpire decisions helped aus out and they would not have got the 16th win....
The arrogance will continue until some country decides to improve their cricket skills. Lets face it - in 50 ODI and test, there is no one better. India can play their20/20s and feel better about themself for winning the 20/20 WC, but once more teams get more practice, they will lose that too...=) dont hate me, its true!!! U KNOW IT =)
Also, it does not help that racists slurs are thrown at members of the 'rat pack'!! In aus u can joke about anything!!, really, but when it comes to racism, its a NO - its a multi cutlural society but we have our boundries - u can slur and be witty about it - but racism is unnacceptable - its the same in europe in soccer. Prepare to get punished if u say something racism..
If u slur in a witty way, aussies will find it funny!! If the aussie called an indian a monkey or something else, we would have the same reaction. Nitin, i know u say aussies call indian's curry munchers, THATS NOT A COMPARISON,OR IS IT..?? people call aussies convicts?? This could go on for ages and ages...improve ur cricket or just dont take it so seriously when ur not any good - u may become happier people ;-)
pS - dont kill me!! the last sentence was a bit harsh, but u know i love giving it to u, laal and vikas on this topic...
BRING IT ON VIKAS!!
Agree with you on arrogance...though it needs to be toned down.
My biggest contention is Aussies complaining abt racism. The way the events took place it was pretty clear Ponting was pissed off with Bhajji and wanted to get back at him. Bhajji had got under his skin and he really hated bahjjis guts. So making a big deal about all this to me was "whinging". In a way it seems all of them targeted Bhajji because due to his lack of common sense, he is capable of using the m-word when told not to. Once he did/ or came close to it, they all pounced on him.
Its not clear whether Bhajji used the word or not. However, for argument sake, lets assume that Bhajji did use it. In no way is that racist or offensive in india. You could argue that it may have been offensive to Symonds. However, when Aussies use words like bastard, etc do they stop and think that while these words are common in backyard cricket they could be offensive to other teams. If other teams have accepted this kind of sledging over the years simply because its ok in australia then they should not be making a fuss over the m-word given its not even close to racial in India.
Having said all this, I think Bhajji is no angel and is a complete choot!!
Rafael - Your comments sound like coming straight from a guy who has never been out of Australia. You know better than that to realize the differences in cultures is playing a big role here. For example, "bastard" is unacceptable in Indian society but "monkey" is a friendly banter. Eat that. You can read more in Allan Border/Steve Waugh's column about this, though I disagree with their conclusion that Australia is justfied. I would recomment a Cultur@work training to all of them and to you as well.
Having said that, India is not totally justified either. We do need to improve our cricket. Nonetheless, the meeting at the pub 10 years down the line will be a very lonely meeting for sure.
And next time, post these comments at my blog.
Cheers
ps - What is the m-word?
monkey :)
I though it was the A-word that the aussies had banned?
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