Sledging – bind or be blind?

The two greatest rationale and philosophy of our times, capitalism and democracy, are based on the idea that individuals, through their actions based on self-interest, will drive forces towards the most beneficial state for inviduals and/or society as a whole. In extending this thinking to the cricketing field and the current controversy over sledging, is it not best that the cricketers themselves decide what is acceptable and not acceptable to them, through their actions on the field, instead of expecting an external body such as ICC to define it for them? This thinking takes the exterme opposite view of what Harsha Bhogle tries to recommend in his article in The Times of India.

My sincere opinion is that cricketers should be allowed to use sledging, without any constraints, irrespective of how offensive it is. Most people take offense because they might feel ill-equipped in the approved forms of retaliation. In the newly recommended open environment, one can use whatever means one has, to retaliate. In a bizzare way, nothing will eventually be offensive to anyone, since its free for all. I look at it as a positive development in line with the ongoing changes that cricket has embraced in Twenty20, IPL and Technology.

Also, with every control that has been vested in the hands of the ICC, there have been perceptions of inconsistency and impotence felt by stakeholders of the game across the globe. In the interests of the game and a practical step forward, I feel its best that the players are let loose on each other in the center, so that the public is relieved of the after shocks. This brings to an abrupt end, months of debate and platitudes over whether someone or some society is racist or not, whether a certain person was as severely punished as another etc. I am positive that with each sledging act in the field, players will yell the choicest of abuses at each other without any interruptions from any players or officials, and when the energies are exhausted in that act, each will take their stance to bat or bowl or field the next ball and the game will move on.

– Bharath

Just shuddap and play

Is it just me or are others getting tired of the sledge-fest that is happening between India and Australia, too?

I have reached a point where I don’t care if  Harbhajan really called Symonds a monkey. Nor do I care if Symonds (who earlier said that a cricket field is no place to be friendly) gave Ishant a friendly compliment on his bowling when he got out. I am really tired of the Australian players’ comments about Indian players and I am also tired of the Indian players’ poor attempt at trying to out-sledge the Aussies.

Just get on with the game, will ya? And I mean both teams…

All this is just proving too much of a distraction – not just for the players – but to us Cricket fans too.What would you rather read about in the press – Gilchrist’s final innings in International Cricket or Gilchrist defending Hayden for his stupid comments? Would you rather watch a young Ishant Sharma troubling Ponting and Ponting picking up the challenge or watch Ishant Sharma giving Symonds a send off by pointing the way to the pavillion?

Well, frankly I’ve had enough.  There are just 2-3 games remaining in the tournament and I know it must be hard for players who earn millions to shut their mouth and just play cricket – but can you guys please do just that?

Thank you!

-Mahesh-

Interesting interviews with Jim Maxwell and Harsha Bhogle

I came across a couple of interesting interviews with two respected cricket commentators who are currently part of the ABC Grandstand team – Jim Maxwell and Harsha Bhogle.

– Jim Maxwell : Video link and transcript

– Harsha Bhogle : Audio link

In addition, you can also listen to Cricinfo’s Siddartha Vaidyanathan’s views as well as Peter Lalor’s interview on ABC

Vish

India done in by umpires, groundsmen and bowlers…

I am not one that normally complains too much about umpiring decisions. “Take it on the chin” should be the mantra.

However, after a shocking day in the office for Simon Taufel and, to a slightly lesser extent, Rudy Koertzen, I feel compelled to write. When an umpire of Simon Taufel’s standing and capability starts makes a series of shocking errors, it is quite likely that calls for technology to be used would become more strident.

In yesterday’s game, it is fair to say that the Indian bowlers bowled erratically. On a pitch that was unresponsive — apart from some balls that kept alarmingly low — the Indian bowlers ceded the advantage by being a tad erratic. The spin was slow and was mostly unresponsive to spin. So, one cannot blame the bowlers too much. However, one could expect the Australians to throttle the batsmen with line-and-length bowling, thereby getting the batsmen to make errors. One did not see the Indian bowlers adopt a similar approach. However, having said that, one could mount an argument that Younus Khan and Mohammed Yousuf were ejected in an “Australian manner”. The former, an attacking batsman, was throttled for runs by Harbhajan Singh (bowling around the wicket) and played a horrible reverse sweep. The latter, a dour batsman, was eked out by a sledge — from Anil Kumble no less! One doesn’t know what was said, but words were exchanged and two balls later, Mohammed Yousuf was on his way!

That apart, I felt that the main bowlers tried too much on a pitch that did not allow them that luxury. Ironically, it was Sourav Ganguly that showed how a wicket could be taken on a pitch like this. He bowed stump to stump, giving nothing away. In the end, Salman Butt poked at a delivery and was caught behind. The rest of the bowlers had an ordinary day at the office on a pitch that seemed alarmingly like the Kolkatta graveyard that was prepared for the 2nd Test.

I feel that two groundsmen have, together, done Indian cricket a great disservice just prior to an important tour against Australia. However, being a part of a cricketing system that lacks the capacity to look beyond the immediate future, the groundsmen would perhaps expect a hefty bonus from the BCC!

Apropos, a bad-day-at-the-office, apart from the Indian bowlers and the groundsman, Dinesh Karthik would want to forget his shocker of an appearance! Parthiv Patel shouldn’t be blamed for checking yesterday if his passport is in order. I can’t see Dinesh Karthik on the plane to Australia.

The umpires had shockers yesterday. There were at least 7 LBW appeals that the umpires could have gone India’s way. In one terrific spell of bowling, Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan created plenty of problems for Misbah Ul-Huq and Faisal Iqbal with the new ball. Misgah Ul-Huq is plain lucky to be there. He was plumb in front on at least 6 occasions. Faisal Iqbal was also let off once. Poor Ishant Sharma was at the receiving end of about 4 of these bad decisions. Sharma kept bringing the ball back in at pace to the right handers and troubled the batsmen in this spell of bowling. If the selectors had been there to see this spell, they may have well inked him in the team-sheet for Australia. Irfan Pathan suffered at the hands of Rudi Koertsen. Two overs from the close, Anil Kumble was at the receiving end of yet another shocker from Simon Taufel. One can only hope that these two gentlemen get up on the right side of the bed on day-4.

— Mohan

An interview with Peter Lalor (Part I)

During the recent ODI series in India between India and Australia, Peter Lalor [See picture to the left, picture source, “The Australian“] has been in the news in India and elsewhere – perhaps even for the wrong reasons. Peter Lalor is a respected writer on cricket for “The Australian”. He is a passionate supporter of the Australian cricket team and is fervent enthusiast for the way Australia plays its cricket. He has been writing about cricket for a long time. However, he shot into prominence in the consciousness of the Indian public and Indian media because of his open and direct criticism of BCCI’s handling of racism taunts that Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds received from crowds in Vadodhara and Mumbai in the recently concluded ODI series against Australia and India.

Following this, Peter Lalor has been derided and lampooned in the Indian media and on blogs that carry Indian cricket content. He was also needlessly – in our view – branded an insensitive racist in some quarters of the Indian media. Some of this criticism was, we felt, way over the top. We, at i3j3cricket.wordpress.com, have been consistent in denouncing the ugly face of racism in India, while acknowledging that it is not a problem that only India faces. We did also, however, have a go at some of Peter Lalor’s views.

On his return from India, Peter Lalor took the trouble to visit this blog and commented on it.

We thought we would use the opportunity to talk to Peter Lalor – to get his views on cricket, Australian cricket, racism, sledging and a bevy of other things. If nothing else, we wanted to ensure that we did our bit to understand Peter Lalor, the man and his views.

Some of Peter Lalors’ articles are available here

i3j3: Tell us something about Peter Lalor, the person. Where were you born? Where do you live? Where did you study? Your cricket/sporting past?

Peter Lalor: Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way. I was born in Bendigo, a central Victorian town where I played cricket simultaneously for the junior and senior sides until I was 17. I retired [from cricket] when I went to Melbourne University as I had to work weekends to pay the rent. Cricket was the richer for my absence.

I now live in Sydney with my wife and two children who I am proud to say have learned to love the local Indian cuisine despite being only 9 and 12. They have been subject to years of their father’s obsession with all things from that region and grew up eating the roti and raita from their parents’ thali-s, before graduating to curries.

Our family goes to Australian Rules football matches in winter and tries to have a thali at a restaurant near the SCG before most games.

I spent almost two years in India as a younger man, falling in love with the country from the time my feet first touched a Benares road. I have travelled far and wide and often dreamed of living there.

i3j3: How and where did you start writing? And how did you start writing about cricket?

PL: I’ll take you up on one issue in your generous introduction. I have been writing about cricket on and off for some years, but have rarely been a dedicated cricket writer. More your drop in and out type. My first Test series in “cricket writer” capacity alone was 2004.

I have recently rejoined Malcolm Conn as a cricket writer on the paper. Until then I wrote for all sections of The Australian newspaper.

I was always called on to do specialist jobs in the past and that often included covering things like Steve Waugh’s last Test, his 100 at the SCG the year before, David Hookes death, the Ashes 2006-07 and Shane Warne’s complex failings.
The Hookes piece and a number of others were published in a book and a recent magazine piece on Ponting won the Australian Sports Commission Award.

i3j3: In your writings, you come across to us as a passionate fan of the Australian cricket team. Where do you derive that passion from?

PL: Forty years of being a fan are hard to overcome in a couple of years writing, but I would defend my professionalism by saying that when you cover a team as good as Australia you have to laud its achievements and by contrast you become very aware of where other teams fail to match up.

However, I would hope that when Australia plays badly I will be as honest about their failings. Time will tell.

i3j3: Are you passionate about any other team in world cricket today? Why?

PL: No. As I said all other teams fall short of the standard set by Australia in Test and One Day Internationals.

However, I will say that the achievement of Dhoni’s [India] team at the T20 was wonderful and I sincerely hope he can use that to build a good side for the longer forms of the game. The signs are positive but the hurdles are enormous.

I suppose I support India as a second team out of love for the country and admiration for Sachin [Tendulkar] and have to admit that my son and I cheered [India] to victory over England this year.

i3j3: How did it feel when you returned to Australia after the India-Australia ODI tour to learn that you were being branded as a racist?

PL: Shocked and sobered. I questioned myself and my writing a lot. I hope it was an error in reading the direct style of Australian journalism, but must take some blame even when I think I’m misunderstood as it is my job to be understood.

i3j3: What do terms like “racist” do to a person like you? How has it affected you?

PL: I suspect I will be more careful, but only slightly more careful, in my communication from here on in.

I was branded a racist in 2004 for posing a very veiled suggestion that Murali may throw. It is a judgment of his bowling not his race.

I have been branded racist this year for referring to Indian Gods in a piece about racism and will take that more seriously, although the piece was an attack on people who suggested the racist sections of the crowd were praying to Hanuman or Ganesh. A ridiculous excuse. I was attacking the excuse not the deity in question.

I was branded a racist for a piece that suggested the secular Andrew Symonds was a man of peace and the religious Sree should count himself lucky. The suggestion Symonds is a man of peace was an attempt to “take the piss” but done to point out that Sree was indeed lucky that he could taunt such a belligerent fellow and survive. This was not understood by many.

i3j3: Do you feel that you are being vilified in Indian media and Indian blogs for the opinions you have openly and directly stated?

PL: I was branded a racist by Headline television but they are unerringly sensational and quite often plain wrong. I was also branded racist on blogs which I take more seriously. I don’t feel vilified, just a little bewildered.

i3j3: How do you intend going about correcting that image that you seem to have acquired?

PL: I think (hope) these people were wrong, but perception is reality and I have to deal with it by being more sensitive to these perceptions in future.

I wish people had read the feature I wrote on Saturday 20th in The Weekend Australian which set out my views at length.

i3j3: What makes a comment racist as opposed to one that is rude or personal? Does there need to be a link with race, gender or some sort of generalisation? What specifically (in your view) made the comments against Andrew Symonds racist?

PL: Racism is clearly an attack on somebody that uses their race as an element of derision.

As a white man in a white-sliced-bread world I have little personal experience but Indians who travel must have great experience of this. Indeed living in a country that has a caste system and an inherent hierarchy of skin tones you should be acutely aware of this.

If I call an Indian a “creep” that is rude, if I call them a “black/brown creep” that has crossed the thin line.

Racism and sexism have been central elements of a dialogue and education process in Australia over the past two decades.

We had a lot to learn and still do.

The attack on Symonds was racist because the suggestion that black people are closer to apes/monkeys than white people is a Darwinian article of faith in the thinking of vile white supremacists.

i3j3: Several Australian crowds would often “send off” a departing Indian batsman with a “You drive a taxi” comment. In your view, is this a racist slur?

PL: It’s getting pretty close to a racist slur. I think it’s humiliating enough to warrant ejection from the ground.

i3j3: Are you planning on writing on this topic of racism in cricket?

PL: I think racism will be a hot topic this summer after the Symonds affair and with Sri Lanka and India in town there will be plenty of talk.

I pray my countrymen are on their best behaviour, but know that their xenophobia has been exploited by a ruthless government and that racism is a deep-seated ignorance that is hard to root out of many Australians.

[to be continued…]

Ponting has been shopping for nappies?

Ponting is apparently riled and upset at the baiting and the taunts that his team has been receiving from S. Sreesanth. He is so upset that he wants the Match Referee to do something about it.

He said, “It was disappointing the other day to see that happening. He chirped me on the way out to bat, as well. When I got a chance to ask him about it later on, he ran away and said he wasn’t talking to me at all. He said he was talking to someone else. It happened probably four or five times the other day when we lost wickets; him running past somebody coming off the ground. But what can you do about it if the authorities aren’t going to do anything about it?”

Oh poor baby! A tight cuddle from his mama should set him right, I am sure!

Now, let’s re-visit what Ponting said ony a few days back. In the context of labelling India’s aggression as “fake”, Ponting said of of Dhoni, the Indian captain. “As soon as any words were said at all on the field, Dhoni went and complained to the umpires, so they have gone from one extreme to the other in a matter of two days.”

So, given his latest charge to the nappy-shop, is Ponting’s aggression also “fake”?

Moral of the story: If you can’t take lip, don’t give it… And once you throw a stone into an open drain, please do not whinge about the splash-back!

Meanwhile, the chin-music nonsense has commenced. Shaun Tait, the guy who wanted Indian’s to show Andrew Symonds some respect the other day, says, “Traditionally they (India’s batsmen) have been exposed to short pitched bowling and haven’t exactly liked it. If I do get a run, it would be nice to run in and stick a few up the noses of the Indian batsmen, for sure.” Sigh!

— Mohan

Aussie Media starts its summer early…

Sreesanth is back in the news…

Sreesanth seems to be so much in the news that it almost appears that he is cornering more newsprint in Australia than John Howard — and this, in an election year!

This just goes to show the obsession that the Aussies have with anyone who is even remotely aggressive towards their own players. Agreed Sreesanth has behaved like a git, but for Peter Lalor to make Andrew Symonds out as a tranquil angel seems to suggest that Peter Lalor has been smoking something to make himself more tranquil. If Andrew Symonds is a “man of peace and tranquility“, then I have a full head of hair!

In the latest episode, Sreesanth appears to have earned the ire of the Aussie players and press for having said, “Hard luck mate, you’re going to lose.” as Symonds trudged out on his way to the pavilion. Sreesanth, who was 12th man in this game, was carrying drinks for the on-field players at the time!

Oh no, that can’t be right. He shouldn’t have said that to these proud Australian angels; these absolute exemplars as human beings and elite sportsmen! Of course, it was perfectly ok — and indeed celebrated with much mirth and enjoyment — for Steve Waugh to quip to Herschelle Gibbs, “You’ve dropped the cup mate” on that fateful day in 1999.

Alex Brown writes in The Age about this spat too and indicates that Lalchand Rajput, the Team India manager as saying, “We were trying too hard [to intimidate] at the start, and now we have learned to relax. That should be a wake-up call to the Australians. They have been dominating world cricket for so long, but there is always a circle, and now is the time for other teams to gang up on them.”

Richard Earle, writing in The Herald Sun, also talks about this incident and says that this marked a new low in relations between the two teams. Hmmm! Lower than when Symonds sledged Sachin Tendulkar — and copped a spray back — during play perhaps?

In another article Richard Earle comments that former Indian captains are tearing away at each others’ clothing and are cracking up under intense pressure by becoming involved in a public spat.

This is all nothing new. It is just that the usual Aussie media ganging-up-against-the-opposition-strategy has commenced a little earlier this summer. Sigh!

— Mohan

Excellent and balanced article…

An excellent article on the sledging wars currently on between Australia and India is by Dileep Premachandran. While Alex Brown’s article in The Age was palpably one-eyed, I haven’t read anything in the Indian media where Sreesanth hasn’t been blamed as an instigator — an instigator-in-chief too perhaps.

But this article on Cricinfo by Dileep Premachandran is by far the most balanced that I have read so far.

— Mohan

Harbhajan retorts at ‘vulgar’ Australians

And now Harbhajan Singh, while commenting on his bat-pointing-antics after he got out stumped to Michael Clarke in the Kochi ODI, calls the Australian cricketers “vulgar”. In a telling comment on their game, he said, “They say they play the game in the right spirit, but they don’t in reality. There is nothing gentlemanly about the way they play.”

This comment does not come as as surprise to me. It is something most cricket fans know. But I do believe the time has come for Cricket Australia to tear up that “Spirt of Cricket” document that all Australian team players signed up to. I sincerely believe that some words written in a portable loo on toilet paper would have more commitement to it from the players than that “Spirt of Cricket” eyewash!

Harbhajan Singh goes on to say: “I don’t have any problem with chitchat on the field, so long as it is about the game. But when it is very personal and vulgar, that is not on. They think you cannot fight back and they do not like it when you do.”

And therein lies Andrew Symonds’ — and perhaps even the Australian teams’ — problem, in my view. Symonds and the Australian cricket team must think that an Australian passport and a baggy-green are the only two possessions that give anyone the automatic right of passage for chit-chat on the field.

In talking about the run-out incident Andrew Symonds, that veritable Zen Master of good behaviour pontificates sanctimoniously from a pedestal placed at 30,000 ft above sea-level, “I didn’t see the need for him to be at Brad [Haddin] like [Sreesanth] was. When I go to another sport I like to see confrontation, I’ll admit that, but you don’t want to see ugly confrontation and you don’t want to see confrontation that degrades your sport.”

I saw that interaction and that was not in the least bit ugly as confrontations go. What Brad Hogg did to Gautam Gambhir off the very first over of the Indian innings was ugly — Symonds was at gully! What Matt Hayden said to Harbhajan Singh just a ball before the spinner got out was ugly. Symonds was at point. What Michael Clarke said by way of a send-off to Harbhajan Singh — any lip-reader on probation could make out what was said — was ugly. Symonds laughed and giggled like a 5-year-old who had heard his very first fart-joke!

In my view Symonds and Sreesanth should both check into the same shrink and get their heads cleared. They should take Matt Prior and Andre Nel with them — taking due care to book Matt Prior for an extended buy-one-stint-and-get-five-free-stints period of stay!

The Harbhajan Singh article which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age goes on to say, in the words of the Indian spinner, “Ask any team. They will tell you that when [the Australians] get beaten, they react badly. In this game, you win some and you lose some, but regardless of the result, there is no excuse for their kind of behaviour.”

Oh well. If the cricket-contest needed any more chillie and spice, it has just been delivered a generous dose of it.

Shaun Tait has also come out against Sreesanth, asking for some respect towards Andrew Symonds from the young Indian pacer! The usual customary, bland and meaningless threats were made about Sreesanth getting his skull cracked when he visits Australia in the summer! Tait said, “But I think he got a bit carried away with that wicket of Symonds. There’s got to be some respect there.”

Hmmmm! Let’s see. Would the same sort of respect that Brad Williams showed to Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar do Tait? Or perhaps Tait prefers to go blind when the Aussies continue to carry-on in ugly way?

I just do not see the need for artificial “lines in the sand” and “respect”. Once you throw a stone in an open-drain and once you determine that that is kosher, for heavens’ sake acquire the maturity to accept the random splash back that comes with it. In other words, if you sledge be mature enough to accept crap in return!

Period.

— Mohan

Sreesanth gets under Aussie skins

Malcolm Conn, writing in The Australian — he is not one-eyed, he is just blind(ed) — says of Sreesanth, “The volatile paceman may also face sanction from match referee Chris Broad, who was looking at Sreesanth’s boorish and unnecessary send-off of Hayden after claiming his wicket.”

Agreed that that celebration by Sreesanth was a bit over-the-top. But I thought bowlers were allowed to celebrate in any way they can/want as long as it does not lead to abusive behaviour. I do not believe Sreesanth provided Hayden with an abusive send off, although if one were Malcolm Conn and if one was totally pissed off at losing a high-intensity match, one could be lulled into a state where one thought that that was an abusive send off. Moreover, where was Malcolm Conn when Brad Williams, the two-bit player who played but a handful of Test matches for Australia, provided choice send offs to the likes of Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar when India toured Australia last? Perhaps Malcolm Conn was busy looking the other way then? Or maybe he was just totally cheesed off on Saturday night and indulged in some sour grapes. This possible mental-state was further illustrated by this bit, possible written with clenched teeth, “The Indian players were overjoyed with their victory, celebrating wildly as if they’d just won the soccer World Cup.”

Peter Roebuck, writing in The Age, has this to say about Sreesanth.

Sreesanth was the bowler of the semi-final, a firebrand antidote to notions that Indians are deferential and that pace bowlers can be found only in the warlike and mountainous north.

Sreesanth comes from Kerala, a state that has not produced many cricketers. He is a hero there, of course, and the selectors are loathe to send him home because he comes back a stone heavier and several yards slower.

The entire article can be found here.

— Mohan