India to continue tour despite Bhajji ban
Posted on Jan 06, 2008 at 22:09 | Updated Jan 07, 2008 at 07:39
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Sydney: The Indian cricket Board announced their decision of not calling off the tour to Australia because of poor umpiring and a three-Test ban on off-spinner Harbhajan Singh following an alleged racial slur against Andrew Symonds.
The BCCI's Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Ratnakar Shetty, said that the tour would go ahead as planned, though they would be appealing against the ban on Harbhajan as the team management felt that their was no conclusive evidence against the off-spinner.
Earlier, after more than seven hours of long hearing on the alleged charges of racism against Harbhajan, the Indian team’s media manager Dr MV Sridhar indicated that India might pull out of the Australia tour.
“The players are not in any frame of mind to play given the conditions that exist,” he told the waiting media outside the member’s stand. The meeting went on till 2.20 in the morning.
Dr Sridhar, however, maintained that the tour would go on and the Indian team would arrive at a decision after due consultations with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials.
Poor umpiring along with dishonest conduct of Australian players on the field during India’s second innings response on the final day of the second Test match in Sydney resulted in India losing a dramatic match by 122 runs in the last few minutes of the day’s play.
The Indian team is scheduled to leave on Monday, January 7, for Canberra to play a first class game against the Prime Minister's X1.
This is not the first time India has threatened to pull out of Test series away from home.
In 2001, World Cricket plunged into a crisis when the Jagmohan Dalmiya-led BCCI threatened to pull out of the tour to South Africa after match referee Mike Dennis slapped a ban on six Indian players for excessive appealing, and charged Sachin Tendulkar with ball tampering.
India refused to play another Test in the series if Dennis officiated as match referee.
Finally the third Test was played as an unofficial match.
It remains to be seen whether Sharad Pawar is able to take such a strong stance. The two teams are becoming increasingly volatile with each game.
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Total Comments: 44
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Posted By SG
I guess Australians are finding Indian side intimidating enough in their backyards, that they consider Border/Gavaskar trophy similar to Ashes.
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Posted By Tim Alderson
I donât have an issue that dishonest guys like M. Clarke or Ponting or Mr. Symonds will stand their ground
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Posted By Tim Alderson
I have not mentioned Clarkeâs name here as it is waste of words and I switched channel when he was
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Posted By vishak
Mansoor, you must realise one fact that the Australians got almost 7 chances in the 1st innings and 3 chances
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Posted By Neal
Those umpiring decisions were pathetic ! I always was of the opinion that Ricky Ponting was a scrapper and would
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