India should be ready to get heckled too
Posted on Oct 20, 2007 at 14:09 | Updated Oct 21, 2007 at 17:04
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New Delhi: The Indian team’s performance during the ODI series at home may not give the assurance of a remarkable display when they embark on a voyage Down Under this December, but what they are sure of is cricketers, spectators and the media hounding them during the testing tour.
The sledging by Indian cricketers and the ‘monkey taunts’ by spectators on Andrew Symonds in Vadodara, Nagpur and Mumbai are sure to lead the Australians to try and see that the Indians get homesick pretty early during their 86-day tour.
Arrogant Aussies
Australia have been dominating world cricket like never before but the flip side has been an arrogance that is threatening to put the game into disrepute. The Aussies have been the masters at sledging over the years, but when someone like Tony Greig suggests that matters are getting out of hand, one has to sit up and take notice.
The former England captain had said after South Africa’s tour of Australia last year that he had never heard anything like the mouthful the home side were giving the opposition. A popular commentator, Greig never fought shy of exchanging a few words and often positioned himself in the close-in to have a go, but what he heard when they upped the volume of the stump microphone, shocked him.
Racial slurs in Australia
That tour also saw the South Africans being heckled by the crowds and their skipper Graeme Smith warned that England spinner Monty Panesar would have a hard time during the Ashes series, and the Sikh player did face racial slurs from spectators.
That Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan and Australian spectators have no affinity is already well documented and now the fans are readying to hound the Indian team, ensuring that they do so without being evicted from the ground and are even using cyber space to discuss their plans.
When Panesar was taunted with shouts of ‘stupid Indian’ last season, Cricket Australia’s Peter Young had said that there was little that could be done.
"It is very hard to do anything after the event because the crowd’s gone home and we don’t know who it was," Young had said then but the Australians sure expected more during their tour of India.
Indians getting under their skin
If Aussie players are waiting to sledge India, their spectators are planning to heckle them from the stands, and the media, which has been instrumental in highlighting each and every incident in India, is ready to have a go, does it mean that the Indians have actually got under the Australians’ skin?
One would think so. India and Australia had their fair share of needling each other over the years, but things definitely took a turn for the vigorous after the 2001 series that became famous for VVS Laxman’s knock of 281 in Kolkata.
Ganguly, a self-confessed admirer of Steve Waugh, frustrated his hero no end as he went in late for the toss time and again during that series. Around the same time, Michael Slater and Rahul Dravid as well as Ricky Ponting and Harbhajan Singh, too had episodes which went beyond mere banter.
Crying babies
The Australians are known to start sledging but cry foul when they get it back. They probably feel they have the prerogative of deciding where to draw the line.
Who can forget the Glenn McGrath-Ramnaresh Sarwan episode when the Aussie pace bowler started a verbal volley but could not digest it when it ended with a reply that was directed towards his wife.
When Steve Waugh was battling to save the match and series at Sydney in his last Test, Indian wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel asked for "one last slog-sweep" that the batsman was famous for. Waugh was quick to remind Patel of his seniority, saying that the glove-man was in diapers when Waugh had started playing international cricket.
During this tour, Adam Gilchrist has gone on record to say that India brings out the best in them. It is no doubt a compliment but one that comes with the promise of a torrid time the next time they cross swords.
Sreesanth went overboard
Indian pace bowler S Sreesanth has been giving match referees a tough time without actually getting a ban. He did go too far on a couple of occasions and his run out appeal of Symonds when the ball was well and truly dead, was uncalled for. It was an unsporting appeal rightly swept aside by captain Mahendra Dhoni.
The Kerala bowler has been trying to play hard just as the Aussies, but needs to understand that it is the bowling that needs to be aggressive more than the bowler. One needs to focus on bowling and then probably also sledge, rather than the other way round. But Sreesanth got things awry because of his clouded thinking.
Monkey taunts not necessarily a racial slur
There is never any justification in making fun of a player’s appearance, but the ‘monkey taunt’ being a racial slur is a matter of interpretation. Were the spectators meaning to demean Symonds because of his ethnicity or just teasing him without thinking about the repercussions?
India may have had a society in which caste was, and probably still is, a consideration, but racism has not been heard of. A nation subjugated for two centuries by a country whose people are 'fair-skinned', are not likely to be racist, are they?
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Total Comments: 11
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Posted By Steve+
I think Cricket has changed a lot...it is no more an Englishmans game, It is now in the hands of
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Posted By Alex
Truth to be told. India is most racist society in the world.500 million people live in poverty because caste politics.
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Posted By krishna
hay hay hay ask your self srk, ab,small b,ajy devgan, rani,kajol,ect are all colored do not discriminate yourself
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Posted By Jjaspal Patel
India may have had a society in which caste was, and probably still is, a consideration, but racism has not
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Posted By Amar
There is no point in playing like a good guy especially against Aussies. Just accept that you have to be
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