You guys are remnants of Howard’s Australia, trying to clutch onto the chippy, deluded, head in sand we’re-the-best-in-the-world-mate-and-can-do-no-wrong schtik he stood for.

Your man has gone, the landscape is vastly improved without him. Let go of the past.

When we do something good, we should celebrate. When we f*ck up, we should admit to that too. It’s not healthy to deny these things.

And who is that idiot jumping up and down here? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjSJ3qoLJ8k

The fact is that the anti-Australian hysteria is generally coming from middle-class Australians who don’t watch cricket that doesn’t involve the Australia side, or journalists who write stories for such people.

Moreover he doesn’t strike me nor has history shown he is stupid.

He was warned by Tendulkar he was being provoked. and then he goes and says monkey.

Sorry, it is a fairy story.

Gilchrist is as bad as the rest. He clearly goes up in appeals when he knows better than anybody that the ball hasn’t hit the bat. Now think why the wicketkeeper would do that.

Chris, why do you think Aussies are very keen on anything said on the field stays on the field. Do you remember the comments directed at Graeme Smith when he ventured to say some of the comments directed at him. Of course they were never meant and just in the keeping of the game.

The very first time this came up was after direct provocation by Australian players towards the Harbanator who ironically simply adopted the ‘Aussie’ way and retaliated with words of his own.
How he was to know at the time monkey could not be said but fu… c. could is beyond me.

It yet again shows up double standards. No abuse at all should be allowed. I have no sympathy whatssoever to people who dish it out and then somehow find only some words objectionable.

Btw, Sutherland turned out to be a craven, in denial jingoist too.

Again, who is “pretending” that “there’s nothing wrong” with the Australian team?

Why do the Aussies jump up and down like that? What sort of person does that when they’re excited? Maybe they are monkeys after all.

It’s only middle class Aussies in denial who pretend there’s nothing wrong with the Australian team.

Both sides are at fault, with Australian Cricket authorities tacitly condoning the ‘kill-or-be-killed’ attitude that came into play with Alan Border’s captaincy, and Indian Cricket authorities, or indeed any other cricketing nation, have had to adopt similar tactics to compete at anywhere the same level. This has led to name-calling and insult championships, rather than sporting challenges. Cricket has become much more of a psychological contest than a sporting challenge, with the standards of conduct and game rules very much a secondary concern. The sport’s administrators need to make the rules and codes much higher issues of import, enforce them rigidly and cease playing patty-cake with money-inspired fits of pique. From what I’ve read, the rules of the game were initially brought into play, but then money reared it’s head. If India wanted to take their bat & ball and piss off, I’d suggest Cricket Oz and the ICC should have said, ‘Go for it!’

If you want a system where members of the offending team need to support the charge then you will have to live with the consequences. And the consequences would be that racial abuse will increase greatly. I can promise you that very few Australian team members – perhaps Gilchrist excepted – would testify against a team member.

BTW BBCLB: I agree that Dravid’s reaction was better than Pontings. In fact, I think Dravid is a better sport generally than Ponting. But Gilchrist is probably a better sport that either of them. There is still no evidence that the Australians are particularly badly behaved. It is all Eastern urban myth, supported by self loathing middle class Aussies.

Again, the accusation is that Mike Proctor is a racist who believes whites ahead of blacks. If I were Mike Proctor, or Damien Martyn or Steve Bucknor, I would sue for defamation – including some of the commenters on this blog. This is a public forum. You might get off with a fair public comment defense. But I reckon that the Indian newspaper who likened Bucknor to Saddam would have to pay major damages under Australian law. Perhaps Ken or others can speak with more authority. Wouldn’t you think the BCCI would come out and at least support Bucknor’s integrity, while not endorsing his performance? But these guys are too busy mis-managing the game and flexing their muscles to do the right thing.

Presumably because theirs was the more credible case. It’s a matter of record that the BCCI refused to admit that Symonds was being abused in this way by Indian crowds – let alone do anything about it – during Australia’s recent tour until the Mumbai crowd was filmed doing it. The Australian team claim that Harbhajan abused Symonds with the same epithet in Mumbai. If so, the Sydney incident was the second time. Since then we’ve had extraordinary subcontinental blather about how calling people of African descent “monkeys” has no racist intent etc, etc and for the reasons I’ve already outlined in my previous comment, it would be incredibly difficult for Indian players to breach perceived team solidarity in this context.

Firstly the umpiring cost India a win not a draw. Australia would have been lucky to get 200.

Secondly merely compare the reaction of Ponting getting out, after first been given not out wheen he was out, to Dravid when he was given out whe he patently wasn’t.
I might add that both the close in fieldsman and the wicketkeeper would have known it did not hit the bat.

However that is not the point. The point which was never said is why was the word taken of the Ausssie cricketers against that of the Indian cricketers?

I think you have Troppo confused with the “Your Say” section of the Times of India website, Pedro. FWIW, I think the Second Test would have been concluded more equitably as a draw given the cringe-worthy umpiring – which certainly cost India more dearly. Should Harbhajan have received a 3 match ban? It looked excessive to me. But that’s Cricket. I also think that both teams engaged in behaviour that wouldn’t have been acceptable at the Regimental tournament in the Civil Lines at Pankot in the 1890′s but we’ve moved on – not always for the better. I dont believe that there is anything uniquely corrosive or destructive about the way Australia plays the game; I do think that there is room for improvement and I think the discussion about this has canvassed a full range of quite nuanced views. On the other hand, there has been no objective analysis or nuanced discussion about any of this in India.

Cricket is a national obsession in India intimately identified with national honour and a defining feature of national identity, particular in respect of relationships with the Old Commonwealth.

The centre of power and influence in Cricket has shifted to India over the last decade and theyre exercising it not unexpectedly – in their national interest . Thus, Indian crowds cant be guilty of racist behaviour, monkey isnt a racist term of abuse, Indian players cant be accused of bad behaviour because it would offend national self-perceptions to concede that it was so.
Things will move on but the saga has been instructive.

The rest of the cricketing world (plus a few former Aust cricketers) thinks the Aussies’ on-field behaviour is crook. That doesn’t make it true, but there is something going on – apart from the obvious sour grapes.

When the Windies were undisputed champions a couple of decades ago there weren’t the same complaints. In fact they were popular everywhere.

Ponting and crew are a bunch of dickheads, I’m afraid. And as I said earlier, it’s institutional, someone’s fault further up.

We should at the least be given reasons why Mr Proctor believed the Australians and disbelieved the Indians, Tendukar in particular.

Tendulkar was so enraged by the decision he essentially egged the BBCI on in this matter

That may have had something to with his belated realisation that yesterday’s effort was hysterical nonsense. The “balance” had a whiff of evening after, panicked contrivance about it……Still, he’s the toast of the sub-continent and will probably be able to name his price for partnering Asha Bhosle in a Bollywood music video hit.

I think it was Ranatunga who years ago, when they turned the mikes down in test cricket, suggested that they should turn all the mikes up. Ian Chapell says that any chat directed towards the batsman should be entirely banned.

The CEO of Cricket Australia is James Sutherland, Pedro. Based on current form, if an Indian player did that to him, Sutherland would:

Apologise to the player, team and BCCI for thoughtlessly getting in his way;
stand himself down and fine himself severely whilst waiving all rights of appeal;
set his pants on fire while riding backwards on a donkey and then thrash the entire Australian Cricket Team to Peter Roebuck’s satisfaction – which could take quite a while.

It was more a general comment that it’s amazing how often people who jump in to criticise something haven’t seen that something.

Pushing the BCCI guy around the stage a couple of years ago betrayed what can only be described as racism. They wouldnt have done it to a white person – simple as that.

Not as simple as that at all. It is an unsubstantiated assertion and very unfair.