Sports After Dark

Claim, counter-claim, accusation, counter-accusation, arrogance and threatening to take your ball home. Sounds like a school-yard squabble, but this is two of the biggest nations in world cricket.

Australia have been accused of poor sportsmanship and disrespecting the traditions of the game, while India have been accused of racism and have threatened to cancel the rest of their tour. If this were not a scrap between two cricketing powers, it would almost be funny.

Australia’s players and officials have stood behind their tactics and on-field behaviour, but others have said that it just wasn’t cricket. Former England captain Tony Greig has gone on record pointing out Ricky Ponting’s double standards, both in his attitude to incorrect decisions in the first innings, and insisting “what happens on the field, stays on the field” but then running to the umpire after the Andrew Symonds-Harbhajan Singh incident.

Sydney Morning Herald writer Peter Roebuck went even further, calling for Ponting to be sacked as captain, as he and the players around him seem to be the only ones who do not realize their behaviour is damaging to cricket’s image. “It was a match that will have been relished only by rabid nationalists and others for whom victory and vengeance are the sole reasons for playing sport,” Roebuck wrote.

India’s post match behaviour was not much better, while most fans can understand their demand for umpire Steve Bucknor’s removal from the third test, their threat to boycott the rest of the tour over Harbhajan’s suspension seems quite childish. Quite what happened and what was said on the field is still up for speculation, but their claim that several Australian players are making up allegations is quite unbelievable.

Greig has also asked what exactly Symonds said to Harbhajan before the alleged slur took place, Symonds admits to “having a crack” at Harbhajan but “having a crack” could mean a great deal of things. Regardless of provocation, racism has no place in sports and should be dealt with severely.

The most controversial incident in sports of 2006 was the Zidane headbutt during the Fifa World Cup final, for which Zidane received a three match ban, but the man who provoked his violent outburst, Italian defender Marco Materazzi, got a two match ban. Maybe Symonds should be asked to account for his role in the incident.

Lost in the storm of controversy that had been whipped up in the aftermath of this game is the fact that Australian spinner Brad Hogg has been charged with using offensive language and will have a hearing with match referee Mike Procter before the third test in Perth. Perhaps the behaviour of the Australian players is not as angelic as they would have us believe.

Bucknor has since been removed from the Perth test, replaced by New Zealander Billy Bowden, and Harbhajan has appealed his ban, likely averting a boycott by India. But the aftermath of this match will have long lasting effects on both the teams involved, and the game in general.

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The Schoolyard scrap breaks out in fall out from Sydney test by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.