Cricket: Angry Indians Suspend Tour

It seems that every controversial situation that can be thrown on the table always finds it’s way to the cricket pitch. Cricket has become a circus and I am sad to say I don’t feel the same about the great game. Luckily we have the southern hemisphere super rugby season to look forward to. Go Lions!!!

Australian captain Ricky Ponting said to a journalist in the press conference, “There’s no way I grounded that ball. If you’re actually questioning my integrity in the game, then you shouldn’t be standing there.”

Now here’s the picture:

Yeah, the Aussies expect the umpires and Indians to take their word on catches, but they refuse to walk when they blatantly nick the ball. Hypocrites.

Though I will say that Harbajhan crossed the line when he used a racist taunt. He could have called Symonds a cheating c*nt instead.

Because of wrong umpiring, more people will stop walking. In my knowledge, Gilchrist is the only person who walks even when not given out. Other batsmen have defended their not walking by saying that they are wrongly given out sometimes!

Well, India too have had advantages from wrong umpiring decisions. Harbhajan’s hat trick against Australia comes to my mind first. They’re suspending this tour just because they can; BCCI has shitloads of money.

[quote]vishnun wrote:
Australian captain Ricky Ponting said to a journalist in the press conference, “There’s no way I grounded that ball. If you’re actually questioning my integrity in the game, then you shouldn’t be standing there.”

Now here’s the picture:[/quote]

I barely know the rules of cricket but I LOL’ed after seeing the picture above. Everybody hates the Aussies. I have a friend from Trinidad and she told me at the Cricket World Cup finals, which Australia won, the ENTIRE stadium was booing them. Ahh, like Mavric said, Super 14’s coming back soon…

Yeah, the Aussies have been behaving poorly as of late in the cricket.

If you know you’re out - you walk.

You also don’t whinge over a lame sledge (espicially when you give as good as you get) - grow some balls.

I will not be surprised if we have 3rd umpires for every difficult decision in cricket one of these days. It is expected that every player should act with honesty and integrity. This was one of our topics two weeks ago at a boys night get-together, at first I thought the idea of having umpiring rules like this was taking things to far.

Come to think of it, it’s probably the only way forward to ensure cricket maintains any credibility I suppose. Unfortunately cricket isn’t just a sport you participate in for fun anymore, more money = more stress and accountability.

For those who have followed the dramas during the match and the after-match press conferences, this should prove pretty funny:

Following rules need to be incorporated by ICC WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT to give the other teams a perfect clarification

(1) Ricky Ponting - (THE TRULY GENUINE CRICKETER OF THE CRICKET ERA AND WHOSE INTEGRITY SHOULD NOT BE DOUBTED ) should be considered as the FOURTH UMPIRE. As per the new rules, FOURTH UMPIRE decision is final and will over ride any decisions taken by any other umpires. ON-FIELD umpires can seek the assistance of RICKY PONTING even if he is not on the field. This rule is to be made, so that every team should understand the importance of the FOURTH UMPIRE .

(2) While AUSTRALIAN TEAM is bowling, If the ball flies anywhere close to the AUSTRALIAN FIELDER(WITHIN 5 metre distance), the batsman is to be considered OUT irrelevant of whether the catch was taken cleanly or grassed. Any decision for further clarification should be seeked from the FOURTH UMPIRE. This is made to ensure that the cricket is played with SPORTIVE SPIRIT by all the teams.

(3) While BATTING, AUSTRALIAN (except Adam Gilchrist) players will wait for the ON-FIELD UMPIRE decisions only (even if the catch goes to the FIFTH SLIP as the ball might not have touched the bat). Each AUSTRALIAN batsman has to be out FOUR TIMES (minimum) before he can return to the pavilion. In case of THE CRICKETER WITH INTEGRITY, this can be higher

(4) UMPIRES should consider a huge bonus if an AUSTRALIAN player scores a century. Any wrong decisions can be ignored as they will be paid huge bonus and will receive the backing of the AUSTRALIAN team and board.

(5) All AUSTRALIAN players are eligible to keep commenting about all players on the field and the OPPONENT TEAM should never comment as they will be spoiling the spirit of the AUSTRALIAN team. Any comments made in any other language are to be considered as RACISM only.

(6) MATCH REFREE decisions will be taken purely on the AUSTRALIAN TEAM advice only. Player views from the other teams decisions will not be considered for hearing. MATCH REFREES are to be given huge bonus if this rule is implemented.

(7) NO VISITING TEAM should plan to win in AUSTRALIA . This is to ensure that the sportive spirit of CRICKET is maintained.

(8) THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE : If any bowler gets RICKY PONTING - “THE UNDISPUTED CRICKETER WITH INTEGTIRY IN THE GAME OF CRICKET” more than twice in a series, he will be banned for the REST OF THE SERIES. This is to ensure that the best batsman/Captain will be played to break records and create history in the game of CRICKET.

These rules will clarify better to the all the teams VISITING AUSTRALIA

Haha, Im pleasantly surprised to see this topic come up on this forum.
To echo the general sentiment here, Ponting and Symonds are cheating c*nts.
however, the thing that baffles me the most though is that despite the lack of any genuine evidence apart from the testimony of Ponting and Symonds - and we all know where their respective credibilities lie at the moment - Harbhajan got fingered for racism. I’d have thought that Tendulkar’s testimony would have at least offset that of the Australians’ to some extent.

The other thing is that Harbhajan evidently called Symonds a ‘monkey’ which is what he took offense to. I really don’t get the racist connotation there at all, although that may be a sore spot after Symonds was taunted in India.

I read that Harbhajan did say something in Hindi that could definitely have been misheard because it sounds somewhat like monkey, and if that’s the case then it just makes the situation even more bizarre.
Either way, I hope they don’t call the series off, it’d be a shame. It’s safe to say though, that were Symonds, Ponting or even Bucknor in India at the moment, given how much they’re hated here right now, they wouldn’t make it out.

[quote]deanosumo wrote:
For those who have followed the dramas during the match and the after-match press conferences, this should prove pretty funny:
[/quote]

LOL! Classic post!!

Well it looks like they backed down. Seems that the Indians bring in 70% of cricket revenues these days. Guess that kinda says it all.

[quote]BF Bullpup wrote:
vishnun wrote:
Australian captain Ricky Ponting said to a journalist in the press conference, “There’s no way I grounded that ball. If you’re actually questioning my integrity in the game, then you shouldn’t be standing there.”

Now here’s the picture:

I barely know the rules of cricket but I LOL’ed after seeing the picture above. Everybody hates the Aussies. I have a friend from Trinidad and she told me at the Cricket World Cup finals, which Australia won, the ENTIRE stadium was booing them. Ahh, like Mavric said, Super 14’s coming back soon…[/quote]

Yeah its called "tall poppy syndrome " over here.Just meaning that people hate a winner and people that succeed.Happens to a lot of celebs over here.
Since most of our sporting teams win all the time(well not as much anymore) people try to bring them down.

Sure this whole thing with the cricket has been blown out of proportion(very quiet sport wise this time of year) so the newspapers eat it up.

Both teams should just get over it and continue on with the cricket.in a year or so this will be forgotten.But the bottom line is we won and they lost so nothing can change that now.

Its out of control.i seen footage this morning of a bunch of indians burning pictures of Ricky ponting and Andrew symonds,cmon its a game of fuckin CRICKET! i could only imagine what would happen if we started burning pictures of anil kumble and his team.All hell would break loose.

[quote] Joe wrote:
Well it looks like they backed down. Seems that the Indians bring in 70% of cricket revenues these days. Guess that kinda says it all.[/quote]

Money talks, and in this day and age, only an idiot walks.

[quote]King of Kings wrote:

Its out of control.i seen footage this morning of a bunch of indians burning pictures of Ricky ponting and Andrew symonds,cmon its a game of fuckin CRICKET! i could only imagine what would happen if we started burning pictures of anil kumble and his team.All hell would break loose.
[/quote]

That’s nothing. Effigy burning is big business in India. People make lots of money by making these effigies meant to be burned. I was thinking of starting an effigy company, but alas, there were many before me.

As an Englishman, I was amazed when people were posting on here about how much they hated the Aussies. Why the hell would you hate them? I always took it as banter; even with the Rugby and whatnot, everyone builds it up, but hate seems a bit over the top to me.

I was more pissed off when I found out that Flintoff and co. were getting drunk every night during the last ashes. I always enjoyed the antics of Shane Warne, never hated the guy for being good.

[quote] Joe wrote:
As an Englishman, I was amazed when people were posting on here about how much they hated the Aussies. Why the hell would you hate them? I always took it as banter; even with the Rugby and whatnot, everyone builds it up, but hate seems a bit over the top to me.

I was more pissed off when I found out that Flintoff and co. were getting drunk every night during the last ashes. I always enjoyed the antics of Shane Warne, never hated the guy for being good.[/quote]

Joe,

This is one of the most sensible posts I’ve seen relating to this debacle. You should see all the Indians flooding the blogs on the Aussie newspaper sites over the last few days, the reaction is absolutely over the top. I think a few home truths need to be realised by them:

  1. If you can’t sledge the opposition without using racial comments then you shouldn’t be sledging at all. (And if the Aussies are using racist comments in their sledging then the Indians should raise it as an issue)

  2. Despite the fact that India has control of the game financially I believe they can’t claim to be the leaders of the game until they actually become best in the world at REAL cricket (i.e. Test matches), and that means consistently beating the Aussies.

There has been too much emphasis on 1 day and 20-20 cricket in recent years. With the exception of the World Cup (and even that is becoming a farce) these games really mean nothing except a grab for cash. Learn how to appreciate the tactics of a 5 day Test match.

  1. There can hardly be any accusations of racial bias by the umpires as Steve Bucknor (the main offender in the Sydney test) is West Indian.

  2. The Aussie team has earnt the right to be somewhat “arrogant”. They train and play harder and smarter than any other nation playing the game. In the space of 12 months they have lost a quarter of their most experienced players (Warne, McGrath, Langer and Martyn) and they are still destroying other teams. This is out of a population of 21 million compared to the billion or so more in India!Worldwide they are one of the most (if not THE most) dominant sporting teams around.

Their attitude is no more different to the great West Indian teams of the 70s and 80s who were also arrogant, and had a perfect right to be because they were GOOD!! If you want to stop the arrogance then you have to beat them.

  1. We won, you lost. Get over it!

Also, I don’t think it was a very smart idea to get the Aussies fired up before the Perth Test next week. With Brett Lee and most likely Shaun Tait (replacing Hogg) in the side it will be an absolute nightmare for the batsmen as the wicket is rock-hard at the moment. The bouncers are going to be brutal, it would have been better to run back home and do a bit of effigy-burning guys!!

Rant over,

Ben

[quote]vishnun wrote:

That’s nothing. Effigy burning is big business in India. People make lots of money by making these effigies meant to be burned. I was thinking of starting an effigy company, but alas, there were many before me.
[/quote]

Reading that made my head hurt.

As for the cricket, I’m stoked for the next test, I think with tempers flaring as high as they have, it’s going to make some exciting watching. I’m out, peace.

If anyone is still following this, this is the last update.

[quote]Mavric wrote:
If anyone is still following this, this is the last update.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article3273369.ece [/quote]

If the aussie players are so pissed off because of the “influence India has because of the wealth they generate”, why are they not withdrawing from the Indian leagues they’ve signed up for:

[quote]vishnun wrote:
Mavric wrote:
If anyone is still following this, this is the last update.

If the aussie players are so pissed off because of the “influence India has because of the wealth they generate”, why are they not withdrawing from the Indian leagues they’ve signed up for:

Ponting, Symonds, Hayden, Afridi sign up for IPL [/quote]

Because they are not a bunch of prima-donnas? They don’t want to act like spoiled children?
The amount of tantrum throwing and ranting by the Australian press and the Indian cricket team has been ridiculous. It rally marred some entertaining test cricket series.