Aussies V Indians - Reaction On Indian Streets

vireya

Just for the record, Symonds is not Aboriginal. He has African ancestors - his parents were from the West Indies.

The_Londoner

I think culture misunderstanding is not an excuse.. I do not follow cricket, but from what I understand, Symond had already suffered similar abuse from Indian cricket fans when touring India and from little I know, some fans were spoken with by Indian police. From this indent in past, Harbhajan already knew that calling Symond monkey may cause an offense and he should have behaved better as a sportsman.

shashank.aggarwal

Please do not pass the judgment, refer to the other thread in which I have given other factors as well !!

Just for an update ICC has revoked the ban on bhajji for the time being, and a decision on the same would be taken later..

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capt_mahajan

Except that the Indian team denied that statement was made, but the Aussie teams word got taken for it (by the ICC, who banned HS)

costaguana

It's not right, but reputation did seem to play a large role in the whole debaucle concerning HS. Why else would the umpire rely so readily on the words of a few equally foul mouthed members of the Aussie squad while ignoring Tendulkar? A good part of HS being found guilty probably rested on the fact that a lot of us can see him saying something like that. If the charge had been laid against one of the more respected senior members of the Indian squad, the accusation would seem more far fetched.

moksha

just got a forward massage on this issue .. wht really happened was..

Symonds comes towards bhajji when he was batting.
Symonds: "Hey bhajji, u know how to play cricket?"
Bhajji : "just shut-up"
Symonds "anybody from panjab knows how to play this game"
Bhajji : "hey u just shut-up, teri maan(mon) kii(key)...
Symonds : "wot u say, monkey, u racially abusing me, will make a complaint"
Bhajji : "dont make false allegations, even if i really have to say anyone a monkey, i would have said it to bucknor.


-moksha

Ruttts

It's about time that the Indians started disliking the Aussie cricket team - everyone else does!

Qosmos

Precisely. The umpires didnt hear a thing, Harbhajan denied it, and Tendulkar, one of the nice guys in cricket didnt hear it from couple of feet away. hmm...i wonder..

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brownboy66

Well as said in the aussie newspapers - this game will be remembered but for all the wrong reasons. A pity really as in between the controversy and bad officiating there was some great play.

One of the interesting things I read this morning are some of the quick fire newspaper poll results in Aussie newspapers where Aussie fans agree the Indian team got a raw deal and Harbhajan's 3 month ban was too long (and by an overwhelming factor). I think this episode provides a couple of clear requirements:

a) The ICC needs to clean up its act quickly. As players get better and the game gets faster - the very top games are going to be close, and for the sake of the game the result needs to be decided by the players, not the officials. Use the technology and get it in quickly. Look at how tennis has been cleaned up with the use of technology to verify line calls (although it was very entertaining in the past to watch John McEnroe loose his rag),

b) The judiciary process needs an overhaul, for everyone's sake and not just India. If people can be banned from matches on the basis of testimony alone, despite counter testimony or the complete absence of actual evidence then all the players are at risk.

c) The reaction of fans, both Indian and Australians, would seem to indicate that maybe we've reached the limit when it comes to mind games, sledging, etc (for all teams I think). I know some would say this is just part of sport - I would beg to differ. You don't bowl, catch, or bat with you mouth so just park it! Seems to be that the whole mind game thing has gone just a bit too far at the expense of civility.

finally - IMO, Harbhajan is adamant he didn't insult Simons, which is just as well because while I accept that in India, calling someone a monkey is not an insult that's not really the point - this is all taking place in Australia - where it might not be perceived the same if it where to happen. In this travel forum there are questions daily about what are the right things to do and say so as not to offend - which is all part of a normal process of travelling and trying to respect your host and their customs. The same applies to all countries really I think.

nomad

that explains some of Buckner's decisions.

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nomad

yeah. what if 11 players of a team claim that Mr X said something bad. are you going to ban X.

true. i prefer games without these mind games. aussies are good enough to win without it. do they really need to do all this? its ok to have one bad game once in a while than winning everything at all cost.