After a hard days's work, I reached home late last night and started surfing through the channels on TV. What surprised me most was only one thing in all the news channels. Harbhajan Singh being summoned by the match refree. Nothing else was clear at that point of time, but then I slowly began to think over it. This is not the first time, Indian cricketers are being made the scapegoats. We can show lots of instances where only Indians or to be more precise, cricketers from the sub continent have been made easy targets!! Not even great cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly or Rahul Dravid have been spared. How often do we see the same thing happening to players from other teams?? I dont remember any instance in the recent past.
What exactly happened yesterday, I do not know!! But then, anyone using common sense can think, Harbhajan , who was batting at that time, will not go and start any unwanted dispute. Hardly has that happened in the history of cricket. Perhaps Javed Miandad in 1992 was an exception!! But then, upsetting the opposition my indulging in mind games and all is wrong. Where have all the ethics of the Australians gone?? Why did not Andrew Symonds "walk" when he was caught behind?? Why hasn't Adam Gilchrist, the great proponent of "walking" commented anything on it?? But coming to the point, summoning only Harbhajan for a hearing doesnt make any sense to me. Taali ek haath se nahi bajti. And Australians have always been famous for provoking people. Agreed some people cant control their temper, but then where is the spirit of the game headed?? If you are real world champions, show it on the field in the right ways. Just by unsettling the opponents mentally, you are not gonna be considered world champions. That way, Steve Waugh was a gentleman. Gem of a person. Never did he involve in anything like this. Frankly speaking, I feel the Aussies simply want to deviate from the issue of poor umpiring and create a new mess out of this. I still today can't believe the third umpire committing a blunder like what we all saw!! Whats the whole point of a third umpire then??
And coming to the point of racism, well, all said and done, I dont have any hesitation to write that Andrew Symonds is simply making bad use of it. When he was abused in India, we have taken necessary action against it. When he was abused somewhere else, he was supported. But using the same racism card everyday, is not going to help him in the long run. Tomorrow, even saying hello to him, he may charge it as racism. Where has all the ethics of the game gone?? Where are all the spirits of the yester years gone?? Where are we all headed?? Whats wrong in playing a gentleman's game in a gentlemanly way?? And why only subcontinent's cricketers are the usual targets?? Who is the real target of rasicm???
3 comments:
yep!!! Its always bin the subcontinental players who get targetted...even if they hvnt done anything wrong!!! Aussies and other player have gotten away loads of times even though they frequently indulge in racial abuse...yet how many times have these players been fined??? And its not only in cricket that we see such substandards...its in all other games too...and the only way to curb this would be to have a very impartial committee ..but then that would again be a very difficult thing..wouldnt it?
@ all readers
A small mistake in the post. Error regretted
well after the fiasco today where everyones questioning the integrity of the umpiring, its high time we also look at the effects of technology. with technology like hot spot, hawk eye, snicko etc etc....the game is losing its human side, the side of cricket we all love and respect......what wouldve been our reaction if the same game was played say 15 years ago.........would symonds have stood his ground........???? 15 20 years ago erroneous decisions were almost unheard of.....why??? technology hadnt penetrated much and the umpires were confidents as the decisions were at their discretion.....now with so much access to technology....every frame can be viewed.....so what are the effects........???? the human side of cricket is long gone.....its better to allow those hitachi robots to play cricket......so i would strongly recommend limited use of technology and let umpires be......if we would revert to the classic style of playing cricket, the game would be much more enjoyable. its because of all the protection the modern day batsman has that they play such bold shots..... coming to the australian team, they may be the best but todays shoddy display would definitely undermine their invincibility. their unsprtsmanly attitude leaves a lot to be desired and have certainly lost quite a few fans today........in conclusion i d say that modern cricketers are mere shadows of their predecessors....the cricketers of the 80 s who used to play 5 tests a year, a handful of one days, spend hours oiling and seasoning their bats, staying in dormitories and played the game with utmost pride are giants compared to the minnows of the modern games with 30+ centuries, playing 364 days a year, doing lingerie ads and despiriting the game day in day out...
Post a Comment