It was a dark and stormy night. That’s a lie. It was a mild and unseasonably warm night and I was almost asleep, lulled away by Heidi Klum’s and Niki Taylor’s voiceovers on Bravo.
Then, something insane happened; I received a reality-bending email. But first, some unnecessary prattle back story.
From age 0-3.5, I had a much-adored stuffed bear, like most children my age. Unlike most children, my bear was named Babu, which totally proves that kids born here in the early to mid seventies might as well have been popped out “back home”. Anyway, Babu was wonderful as a confidante, hugging partner and drool-catcher…until we moved to San Francisco. Somewhere between Southern California and Northern, Babu disappeared, never to be seen again.
Last night, dazed and confused by exhaustion, I checked my email one final time…and did a sleepy double-take. There, in my inbox…Babu. The only justification I can offer for thinking what comes next is, um, Benadryl. “My Babu reached out to me from beyond!”, I gasped, and he did so via GMail no less:
Hi Anna,
It’s the biggest story happening in Indian Cricket and you are not covering it….that’s not right 🙂
Feed your cricket hunger with the story. I’m not sure if you are aware of the suspension of an Indian cricket player over racial abuse. This has created a cricket war between India and Australia. and YOU should write about it.
It has high drama, fight for honor, millions of dollars at stake and the big Indian ego Vs Australian. Australian media is supporting India as well 🙂
Link, link, link and link.
Well, I didn’t wanna vote in News tab and wait….hehe.. 😀
~Babu
Babu, after absorbing tears, snot and Lord knows what else, this is the least I can do.
All right people.
The cricket post I have received eleven requests for (not counting the above-pasted, impassioned plea from my bear) is up next.
India’s cricket team stayed in its hotel in protest Monday after one of its players was penalized for allegedly using a racial slur during a match against Australia.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India plans to challenge the “the unfair decision” by the International Cricket Council to suspend Harbhajan Singh for three matches because it said he made racist remarks to Australia’s only black player. The Indian board said it will “suspend its operation until the appeal is disposed of.” [IHT]
What the hell is going on, you might be asking. No? Well, I was asking…this is a lot of story for a blogger of little cricket brain. Apparently Indian cricket player Harbhajan Singh called Australian player Andrew Symonds a monkey. Symonds is black.
Admittedly, “monkey” would not qualify in the top hundred racist insults. Ian Botham used to revel in the nickname “Guy The Gorilla”. When all is said and done, we are all simian primates. But the word “monkey” had form, as everybody knew that Symonds had supposedly suffered such insults last year from Indian crowds. So case proven, the Indian spinner was guilty as charged. The Indian board should stop its posturing, accept what must be a galling reminder that it is the International Cricket Council that still runs the game, and get on with the tour.
Do not delude yourself, though, that in punishing Harbhajan cricket is punishing a sinner. It is punishing a victim. It is punishing a player who, it might be concluded, mentally disintegrated. Remember mental disintegration? It is Australia’s nauseatingly self-congratulatory phrase for sledging. And it worked. It worked so well that Harbhajan cracked and Australia have not stopped bleating about their shoddy little victory ever since. [Guardian]
Sledging is a cricket term for undermining players by talking a lot o’ tatti. Insult someone enough and they crack, not that I would know a damned thing about that.
Match referee Mike Proctor held a four-hour hearing at the Sydney Cricket Ground after Australia’s 122-run victory and ruled that the case against the India spinner was proved.
“I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Harbhajan Singh directed that word at Andrew Symonds and also that he meant it to offend on the basis of Symonds’ race or ethnic origin,” Proctor said. [IHT]
Beyond a reasonable doubt, eh?
“Unfair allegation of racism against our Indian player is wholly unacceptable,” said board president Sharad Pawar, who is also a senior government minister, in a statement. “The game of cricket is paramount but so too is the honor of India’s cricket team and every Indian.” [IHT]
Warning: cricket neophyte about to type.
The second test match of the tour = drama. Captain Kumble (that’s fun to say!) called the Aussies out on being dirty bastards while his team rolled their eyes the fifth time the umpires made a stupid and unfair decision.
The most blatant was an appeal that would have put Symonds out after just 30 runs in the first innings.
Symonds has freely admitted he should have been out. He went on to score 162 runs not out and was later named man of the match. [IHT]
We’re not alone in our hot tub of displeasure:
Several Australian newspapers agreed Monday that India should have won the second test, and criticized the behavior of Australian players during the test. [IHT]
I think what is pissing so many people off is the double-standard which is so evident in this unfortunate situation, the hypocrisy.
The problem is that Australia’s dividing line is not a reliable division between the morally upstanding and the indefensible. Australia’s dividing line is repugnant, enabling the condemnation of the likes of Harbhajan whilst legitimising obnoxious behaviour that cricket should have had the bravery to root out a generation ago.
Racism cannot be countenanced. But it is a rum old world that bans a man for three Tests for calling someone a monkey, yet allows the sort of boorish behaviour that allows first slip to drone to a batsman that he is shagging his wife, or that convinces any fast bowler with half a brain that personal insults every time a batsman plays and misses are essential for any cricketer of spirit. As long as you are careful not to refer to the colour of his skin.
It needs to be remembered that Harbhajan’s assault did not come without provocation. Before he was abused as a monkey, Symonds had been indulging in a phrase or two out of the corner of his mouth. Australia and Harbhajan have been at each other for years. But Australia have been obsessed with “reverse racism” ever since Darren Lehmann, their batsman, became the first international player to be banned for the racial abuse of Sri Lankan players five years ago. They have been intent upon revenge and now they have gained it. [Guardian]
What I found interesting is how Harbhajan Singh’s outburst might have been overlooked (vs. becoming the subject of 5,000 blog posts and news articles) had Aussie captain Ponting not whined about it to the umpires, thus drawing attention to it. That’s classy.
Well, Ponting may have won this pathetic, wee, jeer-worthy (no! sledging-worthy) battle but after everything I’ve read online, he has lost far more, most notably respect and credibility because of it. Well-played. Idiot (note: must be pronounced the way Naseeruddin Shah did in Monsoon Wedding, kthx bai).
Whose God is it anyways?
You have some Australians, emphasis on SOME. I mean everyone that I know in India, relatives, friends, neighbors argue that
1) He didn’t call him monkey, he’s only lying. They know this. How? 2) Calling someone monkey isn’t racism. One nutcase in OZ argues that since we have gods that are monkeys it couldn’t be racist to call Symond monkey. Yeah sure, he meant that Symond is a God!?
Even the Aussies take our side in all this, wouldn’t be refreshing if there was just one Indian voice admitting that it is racist to call Symond a monkey? Just one! I know it’s my country, but it’s not my country right or wrong.
“Dogs will bark”. “You racist”!
but dogs do bark 🙂
And monkeys hurl feces 🙂
Kram, I am inclined to believe that Bhajji was being racist (given what Bhajji and Sreesanth did in India too), but belief, suspicion, and hearsay are not evidence and not grounds for punishment.
Just in case people failed to notice WGIIA’s comment (#35), the whole thing started with Harbhajan giving a friendly tap to bowler Brett Lee’s kundi as he was walking past. Both bowler and batsman did exchange a friendly smile (I saw the whole thing unfold on TV). And then Symonds waded in to the scene.
Incidentally, Symonds is not known to be the sharpest mind in the Australian team, as Will Luke says here
Salam Nastes respones at #45 is the typical lame ass response that Indians have to this. This is the kind of bullshit that David Duke would excuse racist slurs with.
In the areas of India where hindi is spoken, goras are often referred to as “lal bandars”, pink monkeys, because their fair skin resembles the same skin tone as the monkeys that populate that belt, the rheusus monkeys.
Unless Harbhajan lives in an area populated by black skinned monkeys, and hence black people are frequently referred to as such, this is not neccessarily a racial slur.
jeeeeez
If I was Olbermann I would vote you the worst person in the woooooorld.
1) He didn’t call him monkey, he’s only lying. They know this. How?
— I guess the same way Procter knows that the Aussies are telling the truth and the Indians are lying. This is why you have to have more proof for these convictions. I’m not saying he didn’t say it. But it’s a serious charge and a conviction should rest on more than the say-so of the Aussies. Do you think they would tolerate the conviction of Ponting on the mere say-so of Harbhajan?
2) Calling someone monkey isn’t racism. One nutcase in OZ argues that since we have gods that are monkeys it couldn’t be racist to call Symond monkey. Yeah sure, he meant that Symond is a God!?
— I read that, and I don’t buy into that silly argument. I am not saying calling Symonds a monkey is not racist. I am Indian, so yes there is at least one Indian who admits that it is racist to call Symonds a monkey. There are many Indians who think it is intended as derogatory in the context in which it occurred in Mumbai, including in my own circle of family and friends. Just as it was racist when people in the West Indies called me a coolie. I had a family friend who was called “that stinking Indian” during a trial in the West Indies. So I can’t accept that only Indians are hypocritical about race, sorry.
To cool down frayed tempers, here is something fun, Sreesanth at his best.
Kram, it is a slur for sure, but whether or not it’s a racial slur, I don’t know, because I’ve heard “bandar” bantered around so much in India, in reference to all kinds of people.
There seems to be some confusion/consternation about how I characterized what Anil Kumble “said”.
That’s what the IHT said. This is how I paraphrased that, in the post:
Calling someone out on being dirty = saying they aren’t very sportsman-like.
Hope that clarifies things. Now if you were ungrateful and unsportsmanlike enough to type this:
There IS no one else who either knows about or follows cricket at SM. It was this post or nothing. I blew my lunch hour trying my best to write this out of respect for our DBD mutineers, despite it not really fitting in with this blog’s mission or outlook AND knowing that if I wrote this, I would double my moderating work on my busiest day of the week.
Your comment was mean. It’s unreasonable to demand a professional, expert essay from me, someone who repeatedly admitted IN THE POST that they were new to a sport which most Americans ignore. SM isn’t obligated to write about anything, least of all something we aren’t familiar with, which isn’t American or second-gen-related; if we try to go beyond those borders, try being gracious instead of being a jerk.
A sizable portion of the Aussie population (SMH) believes that the Aussie team has not acted ‘in the spirit of the game’. The Aussie public conciousness is sick and twisted. They want to win, but they detest not winning the right way.
This is a scene from the Cronulla Riots in Sydney:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL98uMxGqqM
It’s hilarious for me to think about a world where Aussie’s can accuse anyone else of racism. Notice the title of the clip is in Japanese.
When I was in Oz, a concern of govt. officials was why Japanese tourists did not make return-trips (like Hawaii, where visitors return NUMBEROUS times). While I was in Brisbane, there were at least a couple of rapes perpetrated against Japanese female tourists.
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!!!
Whose God is it anyways?
Obviously. But no one knows. They can’t say that they KNOW that he is lying.
Do you think they would tolerate the conviction of Ponting on the mere say-so of Harbhajan?
I know that the general public in OZ wouldn’t make excuses for the slur, most of them might say they can’t prove. But that they KNOW? Thats an Indian trait.
I had a family friend who was called “that stinking Indian” during a trial in the West Indies. So I can’t accept that only Indians are hypocritical about race, sorry.
Just curious, but how did West Indies come in to the equation. Thats says they are racists, not hypocritical about it and I didn’t say we are the only ones hypocritical about. Just one of the worst. I stand by that. Anna her self usually writes using her own words a whiney bohooo hooo they are racist article every now and then, now she calls the whiney.
Kram:
Anyone who is exposed to a multicultural society outside desh will admit that it COULD BE perceived as racist. Even lot of people in India agree. Everyone who I have spoken to, starts with a “if Bhajji said that, he should be punished”. The whole “monkey is not racial term in India” argument started with a talking head on TV or in a press conference. I think it was a team official who said that, which is why I said that the Indian team sorely lacks a media manager.
Rahul: I am not sure I agree with the whole “Sreesanth and Harbhajan have done it before, so Bhajji must be guilty now” argument either. Some journalists have said that Bhajji did call Symonds a monkey a few months ago, but was taken aside off the field by Symonds. Symonds explained to Bhajji why it was not acceptable for someone like him to be called a monkey. Bhajji promised not to use the word again. Whether he did or not this time is still under question. So it’s inappropriate for anybody to judge him right now.
And the reason why I won’t trust Ponting and Co. is because for all their talk about fairness and integrity on the field, they claimed at least few catches that they had not taken cleanly. And while they claim that their word should be trusted while they field, when they bat, they don’t walk even when they have straightforward dismissals (like Clark’s).
way to go anna!
60 Krish***
ha ha ha. Are you for real? You dig up a white poer YouTube Video and call the Aussies racist. Maybe if they had the same popular support as RSS in India.
Fair enough. I am going by his general behavior overall. But my overall point in my comment was that whether he was capable of doing it is completely irrelevant to whether he should be convicted of it.
Ponting and co. are a bunch of whiny babies. Including that “honest walker” Gilchrist who appealed and accepted the catch of Dravid. Why is that within the spirit of the game, but standing rooted to your crease when you know you’re out not?
Reminds me of street cricket among 10 year-olds where the guy who owned the bat got to play as long as he wanted for fear of angering him.
Sorry for my outburst. I just returned from India and exatcly this issue is what irritates me most about the mind set of middle class Indians. I mean every time you go back, you first have to hear lenghty preaching about HOW RACIST they are against Indians in other countries, this from uncles who never been abroad, and next you will hear them saying something about moslems and the traditional banter about the intellectually inferior black ppl of America. The very fact that Obama could be the next US president made some of my relatives giggle.
Kram, I did state earlier that I didn’t fully accept the accusation of racism, which I subsequently modified. Here are my reasons:
There is only one reported data point (Symonds,monkey), and I’m not fully comfortable drawing any straight lines when I have only one data point. I accept that this is the only reported event, and as Shodan pointed out, there could be others that are not publicized. If there were more reports of (other black player, other epithet), I’d be a whole lot more satisfied that it is indeed racism. Not all of them need to get abused, but certainly not just one. Especially uncomfortable for me are too many confounding factors – was it because Symonds was Australian? Was it because he was black? Was it because he claims to like Guns N Roses but secretly likes Vengaboys? Basically I’m slightly reluctant to generalize something as serious as racism from only Symonds, because it makes it tough to unequivocally decide whether he was targeted for being black or whether he was targeted for being Australian while just incidentally happening to be black. There are objections both ways: why was Ponting not targeted in spite of being Australian? Why was Olonga not targeted in spite of being black? To use an analogy, if it were an India-Pakistan match and a Pakistani crowd were to make rude gestures at Harbhajan, I’d be equally reluctant to conclude using that sole incident that “Pakistanis hate Sikhs” – it could be just that they dislike Harbhajan. But if they did the same thing to Monty Panesar, or if they’d done the same to Bishen Singh Bedi in his day, I’d be more inclined to believe the generalization.
On the question of Harbhajan, right now it only seems to be one man’s word for another. I’d again be satisfied if it were caught on tape. The George Allen macaca business was so powerful because it was caught on videotape by the very person being name-called. It would have been a whole lot weaker if SR Sidharth had been armed with a clipboard instead of a recording device, or if the incident had happened out of earshot of anyone else.
Kram,
“Obviously. But no one knows. They can’t say that they KNOW that he is lying.”
Yes, and Procter can’t say he KNOWS that only one side is telling the truthl when all he has is two different sides of the story and no other evidence. What do you expect emotional fans to do? But surely we expect better from rational match referees, certainly more than “I felt (how can you feel) only one side was telling the truth.
“That’s an Indian trait.”
Well I assume you’ve travelled the world then. I’ll leave you to make such sweeping generalizations. I can assure you that trait of making excuses for one’s compatriot is not exclusive to India. I’m Indian (from India) and so is my family. We KNOW that calling someone a monkey in that context is meant to be derogatory. Maybe we’re not as Indian as we think we are.
“Just curious, but how did West Indies come in to the equation. Thats says they are racists, not hypocritical about it and I didn’t say we are the only ones hypocritical about. Just one of the worst.”
The WI came into it because the target of this racism is allegedly Symonds, and above someone said desis are racist towards black people. Having lived in predominantly black countries at times, they can be just as racist to Indians, whites, Chinese, and other blacks in the Caribbean. They also cry about racism towards them. It’s human nature. And I love the West Indies/Caribbean, so no axe to grind here. Hence, by the definition of some here, they are hypocritical. But I apologize, anantha was the one who said Indians are the biggest hypocrites when it comes to racism. I think I was responding to that, but mixed it up in responding to you. I didn’t say Indians are hypocrites, but that Indians aren’t the biggest hypocrites. Each to his own.
67 pingpong
1) You’ve been in a school yard, som get attacked some not. Of course if was a personal attack on Symond, using his race as the slur. We generally do think that is worse for good reason. If you get in to an angry fight with some one and they call you monkey or fat bastard you would have reacted differently.
2) I’m not really interested in if he really said it. It’s the “he didn’t saay it and even if he did calling a black man monkey isn’t racist” routine that is grotesque.
“It’s the “he didn’t saay it and even if he did calling a black man monkey isn’t racist” routine that is grotesque.”
As bad as Australians saying Darren Lehmann really isn’t a racist for his outburst against the Sri Lankans, but just a good bloke crumbling under pressure.
Whose God is it anyways?
No I haven’t traveled all around the world, and to be fair you correct. Most countries/cultures see racism as something directed towards the. Islamic countries are very racist, far more racist than India, Arabs get worked about racism against them while freely treating South Asians as dirt. It’s actually only the western countries that are to some extent (not everyone) critical towards them selves about racism.
I am guessing that this criticism of Harbhajan is by ABD’s. An aussie player called Indian players ‘Bastard’. For most Indians this is a far worse insult than ‘Monkey’ – lets see if Hogg is banned for three tests too.
Double standards were at the forefront of this game The — for the ‘South Asians’ here, the match referee Mike Procter had previously banned the Pakistani Captain for falsely claiming a catch for 5 games. Ponting was caught on camera doing the same – not even a rap on the knuckles or even a harsh word. The allegations were basically Harbhajan’s word against Symonds – no other evidence. Proctor decided that Bhajji’s word did not count.
When it came to India, the umpires broke basic norms – such as referring close decisions to the Third umpire (who has access to TV replays). One of the umpires had a history of making bad decisions that just happen to go against India. He was still allowed to umpire in this test.
The British (one of the umpires was British) and many parts of the Aussie press have been backing the umpires and called the Indians churlish however, when bad umpiring occurred in past tours of Australians and the English team to Pakistan, the same newspapers screamed bloody murder.
India directly or indirectly contributes to 70 % of cricket’s finances. It has the power to ensure such double standards do not occur. It should exercise this power.
It looks like the safest thing for a sledged batsman to do would be to start beating the sledger with his bat while studiously keeping his mouth shut all the time. That way he can always make a “I’m only human and I’ve got emotions too” defense without coming across as being racist.
DizzyDesi
Bastard as far as I know is a universal slur that can be used against anybody. When some one who isn’t black calls a black man monkey, you know perfectly well what it means. And no, I’m not ABD.
I agree Pingpong, or take a leaf from Zidane’s book
“It’s actually only the western countries that are to some extent (not everyone) critical towards them selves about racism.”
Kram, I tend to agree with you there to a certain extent, and I think it applies more the Anglosphere Western countries. I think perhaps because they have not really been on the receiving end of racism/control for a sustained period of time by a foreign power it is easier for them to be less defensive about it.
Au contraire. He was actually expressing solidarity with Kumbles by calling him a bustard, seeing as they were both part of a dying species of fastish leg spin (sure, Hogg bowls chinamen – is that racist?, but it’s the right direction).
The sad part about the last couple of days is that the water is unneccasarily muddy because of all these issues rearing their heads coming up at the same time.
While most Indians think that their second test loss resulted solely because of no. 2 (I cannot agree 100%) and that no. 3 is completely true, the Australians have reveled in pointing out no. 1. In my eyes though, all of these are true.
I don’t see how being DBD/ABD has anything to do with this case, and let’s not start that fight here.
“It looks like the safest thing for a sledged batsman to do would be to start beating the sledger with his bat while studiously keeping his mouth shut all the time. That way he can always make a “I’m only human and I’ve got emotions too” defense without coming across as being racist.”
Good Lord, no~ 🙂 When Zaheer merely waved his bat in indignation at the English players, from at least 15 feet away, for putting jellybeans on the pitch, you’d think by some of the responses that he’d battered them all to death 🙂
76 Whose God is it anyways?
I think it applies more the Anglosphere Western countries. I think perhaps because they have not really been on the receiving end of racism/control for a sustained period of time by a foreign power it is easier for them to be less defensive about it.
It’s a good point, can’t disagree with that. One would however hope that those of us living abroad being more mature about it.
I can’t believe this hasn’t been brought up. (or has it?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqgU1EyFQsE
We are NOT poor losers. If anything, we are a bunch of very rich losers.
Double standards. If he were a Southerner, he could have battered the jellybeans all he wanted and nobody would have said anything.
People have tried explaining cricket to me a thousand times and I still dont get it and I am a sports nut. I have never understood anything less in my life.
Also I didnt really follow the post and only understood something about a Indian yelling something racist. If he did then what is the misunderstanding here?
Indians are really getting a bad name these days. Yelling racist comments at black people, 50 indian guys raping one 17 year old white woman, 50 Indians raping a young Indian woman, setting family on fire, Indian women so battered in England that over 80 of them kill themselves by throwing themselves in front of a train in a single year, big fat harry Indian guys are becoming gigolos and actually getting payed by women for sex. What the fuck is going on?
“People have tried explaining cricket to me a thousand times and I still dont get it and I am a sports nut. I have never understood anything less in my life.”
I’m a sports fan, but that sums up american football for me 🙂
“Also I didnt really follow the post and only understood something about a Indian yelling something racist. If he did then what is the misunderstanding here?”
Guess that’s why you think Harbhajan yelled something. If he yelled it, everyone would have heard it. He is accused, but only one person claims to have heard it, and one person claims to have not heard it. He didn’t yell anything.
The rest of your post is irrelevant to this topic.
w00t!!!! Anna, you did it!!!! Thank you..ahh Thank you!
I had no idea your teddy bear was named Babu. Thank you, Amma and Appa for my name, without whom this nostalgic post from Anna would have been impossible. This is sortof my 5 minutes of fame.
I’ll be happy to offer you my services 😀
Yapsee @ 34
Shut up!
Anyway, It seems the test series will continue. When the Bhajji case is heard and if the ban is thrown out, (it seems like it will, in the absence of any evidence and the great Tendulkar vouching for him) it will be interesting to watch when the Australians visit India later in 2008. I’m sure they will get a “nice” treatment 🙂
“Double standards. If he were a Southerner, he could have battered the jellybeans all he wanted and nobody would have said anything.”
You should e-mail that link/recipe to the English cricket team 🙂
I’m not sure where I stand on this one. On one hand I do know that African origin students (often)and tourists (to a lesser degree) in India are met with overt racism. So the Indian fans or team exhibiting racism is not beyond my comprehension. But there is something to what pingpong brings up, why Symonds and not other African origin people ? Kram, I basically agree that we Indians are in denial about our racism. But I too have heard of Caucasians being called “white monkey” in Hindi. So it is fair to ask if this is a term reserved exclusively for Africans or something that Indians toss out liberally at anyone they find contemptible regardless of race/pigmentation ? I am an ABD so I am not sure of all its connotations in India
Nahh–I think it’s just more/different coverage given that India is now looming larger in economic terms on the global stage–it’s not as if there hasn’t always been crime in India. Similar is true about all the NYT coverage about, e.g., pollution in China.
In fact, Ponting is Bhajji’s bunny. This statement really got to Ponting and that is the only reason for this allegation. I live in Australia and my take is – Aussies can dish it out but cant take it. Australians are very sore losers. Team India should go home – Australia can stuff itself up. Time to call their bluff. Symonds is half – English and as most australians know, they are whinging POMS. What a crybaby. As I have posted before, it is the norm in Australia to throw insults at mates and no one takes offence at it. There is even a Facebook group on Aussie insults. Let us see how the Hogg incident plays out. Hogg has been charged with calling the indians ‘bastards’. If this does not result in a three match ban, game over.
The most racist aspect of this whole debate is Match Referee Mike Procter’s decision to ban Harbhajan Singh without having the slightest of evidence. He chose to side with the Australian version of the story and acted promptly. Bhajji has denied making any such remarks.
When asked about this, Procter’s defence was that he is a (white) South African and he knows what racism means. WTF.
louiecypher
We call our kids monkeys in India. It is a word liberally thrown around to someone who is a rascal, at least in Bengali. But unless Symonds was running around refusing to do his homework I fail to see in what context the word monkey was uttered, other than in the context of Symonds skin color.
It may be many reasons why Symonds is called a monkey, but no other black players. Maybe Symonds is a provoking figure, I really don’t know. It’s still a racial rant.
rahul,
I chuckled to myself when reading the charge leveled at Hogg, given the context of racism accusations, but using ‘Chinamen’ isn’t necessary, you can always go with ‘left-arm unorthodox’ to refer to a left-arm bowler who spins the ball from leg to off. I just like to call them all, “Monties.”
also, does Mike Procter being a south african have any bearing on his ability to correctly adjudge racism? I can’t find the article but i’m fairly sure he asserted the south-african experience as qualifying him for the task.
In any country, the media has a big hand in shaping public opinion. I have a tiny voice in my head that keeps saying that the Indian media seems to specialize more in rabble-rousing journalism rather than offering facts in an objective manner. Most expert interviews are guilty of stoking the fires even more rather than offering some sense of perspective. Fine – the decision is not one to be taken lightly and we deserve to know how he was sentenced as charged without any evidence. Fine – Bucknor (the umpire) made a lot of mistakes that stacked up against the Indian team. That there have been numerous issues cannot be denied, but couldn’t they make their points without having to resort to statements like “Bucknor wouldn’t be alive if he came to India”. Is there no sense of moderation? I mean, all they need to do is to look at their heroes – Anil Kumble, Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly have been very dignified through all this.
No they cant. Their winning is inextricably linked with the sledging or mental disintegration. If this goes then they will start losing. Btw out of the 16 wins that they claim to have won, 13 have been won in Australia – only 3 overseas. That is a skewed sample. It is a well known fact that the visitors to Australia get the short end of the stick on umpiring decisions.
Yes, he did claim that as a South African, he knew what racism was. Just like how Hindus in India know with certitude what it means to be part of a minority religion, I guess.
Yes, it is reassuring to know that whatever stage we are on, and whatever age we are at, playground techniques deployed at age 5 are the final resort.
It’s not racism if you’re on top. Or is that gay? I can never keep track.
Everyone’s a little bit racist, sometimes.
Though I suspect this video will open up a whole new can of worms since it’s performed in Argentina and the actor playing Gary Coleman is in black-face.
@muralimannered – Monty is left arm orthodox.