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).
Melbourne Desi I do recall Rahul Dravid being pulled up for ball tampering…..
better than an ‘Ugly Indian’ than ‘Desi nobody’
yes and he was fined was it not. what is your point?
My point is there no use getting all jingoistic and pretending that one’s own team does no wrong and the opposing team is satan. In this case the Australians were ungracious winners and the Indians were sore losers. BOTH teams have their flaws.
Hey MD, maybe you should just take up body building.
Baazigar is right. Some of the jingoistic Indian rhetoric is nauseating.
melbourne desi, umm….look, I think with my limited knowledge, I an say it’s a split between the two. Or rather, that people treat various issues as having different levels of moral importance. Cf. Arakun ruling and response vs Underarm.
I disagree with your statement at #302. As an outsider, I cringe to see one jerk replaed with another! And who says it has to be one of two polar opposites anyway …
I prefer pretty Indians myself.
Rahul, I believe the time is nigh for me to declare my undying passion…
Empowerment is a heady feeling. I was not saying that india is right – am saying that the BCCI has the financial power to hurt Cricket australia and to use it when it gets the chance. The Ugly Indian at work 😉
To reinforce our prejudices – er, logical conclusions:
Whence does such dickheadery grow?
You seem like pretty vindictive and petty persone melbourne desi. Why live in Australia? What happened to the Swabhimaan
But that’s just pathetic and stupid.
So that’s the future then? India will bully and smash and burn whenever she doesn’t get her way in the world of cricket? That’s bleak.
The trouble is the self-righteousness on both sides. It’s quite incredible. It’s just getting boring and pathetic now.
what to do saar – I am an ‘ugly indian’. For the same reasons that tons of desis who slag off USA live in the USA.
No bleaker than when England / Australia ran the ICC with a veto power till the mid 90’s.
My last comment on this issue.
Anna,
Why does everyone here seem to miss a point so clear to those in India. It is not about India as a whole being racist, but about why Bhajji was proven to be racist and Ganguly given out, on the word of a few white men against that of brown men. Desis similarly fall into the trap of assuming that white men dont lie and are apt to be honourable, which explains your blind spot towards that aspect of the controversy.
Unsubstantiated allegation: LaughingMyAssOff is a right wing Aussie
Certifiable fact: Australia – cheating = Zimbabwe
flygirl, that’s mighty kind of you to say. If ever I am in your neck of the woods again, maybe we can fail the Tebbit test together at the MCG?
Because we’re not in India.
That’s one of the reasons I am afraid to write these posts, because I know that I’m completely ignorant of the sorts of nuances and dynamics which I feed off of when it comes to other, more familiar topics; without such awareness, it’s difficult to construct something compelling. I can’t stick random song references in, I can’t use cricket terms properly and I can’t pretend to understand what you and so many others know and feel, about this game you are all so passionate about.
I understand that desis have a lot of interracial issues to work through. We are often unforgivably racist and mean to those unlike us. There’s some unbelievable irony here when one ponders “macaca-gate” and what Harbhajan is accused of, but I couldn’t even contemplate those valid points of this story; I was too bothered by why people were even sure about what the man said. From what I read, it didn’t seem obvious or easy to determine. So, like you, I was struck by the double-standard and the bullshit notion that it’s okay for a white player to get away with provoking someone, but the moment their target fights back, suddenly the jerk who started the whole thing gets to throw their hands in the air, point at the person who’s rightly had it with his abuse and shout, “see? SEE? he attacked me. he’s savage!” If you want to be the biggest dicks ever, then own it. It’s beyond lame to turn around and whine about someone else giving you a stainless steel tumbler of your own medicine.
First of all Anna thanks for the post….
I will only limit myself to two observations,
1.Indian public and Indian media’s chest beating jingoism is more nauseating to me than the Aussie’s boorishness.Perspective people, me wanna shout.
2.Many Indians are just not PC enough by western standards. Yes they refer to people as kallu,chink,motu lamboo etc but then they don’t have a history of having enslaved and oppressed people for centuries so do not carry the guilt that maybe white people do.
3.I am sure no one likes being called motherf***** or likes on the cricketing field as much as Symonds doesn’t like being called monkey. Who draws the line where?Very very grey
4.I find it laughable that the Ricky Ponting has all of a sudden discovered a passion for rooting out racism from the playing field. The more I think about it, the more it seems like a cheap trick to needle Harbhajan to say something.Interrstingly, the footage seems to suggest Sympnds asking Bhajji’So I am big monkey now am I ?’ and the idiot having said ‘yes you are’. As Peter Roebuck said”barrack room lawyers will be pleased”
Blame the caffeine for 4 observations when I promised to limit myself to 2.
The entire cricketing world’s discomfort at BCCI’s clout is interesting. I think its upto its officials( who BTW should be ashamed of the standard of Indian cricket given the passion and the money) to use it responsibly So far they have failed. Case in example being Steve Fucknors sacking
ICC should have removed him on grounds of incompetence by itself but what BCCI should have done is back room negotiating if they really wanted his removal so bad. Having openly publically demanding his removal was bad PR and would set a dangerous precedent and lots of understandable resentment. Finesse is a word the BCCI is yet to learn.
For good or for bad, the BCCI position as crickets most powerful board is here to stay.its for the Aussies and the Poms and the Pakistanis and the Windies to accept it gracefuly( not going to happen) and the BCCI to use its position more maturely and responsibly(absolutely not going to happen).
ANNA
“Macaca-gate”: George Allen had a history of rascism. George Allen used a term no one had heard of before and knew what to make of. A bit of digging about showed that it was in use by Allen’s Mom’s people, specifically as a rascist term. The rest of Allen’s speech is insulting (saying “Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia” to a person who grew up there). Allen’s defenders lied about what he said and there was a tape to prove that it was was BSing
Harbhajan: Had no history of rascism. Used a term most people here have heard of and have probably been called by. The term unless prefixed “safed/kala” has no rascist meaning in India. No one knows or cares about the rest of what was said. Harbhajan denies using this term here and there is no evidence to prove he’s lying.
I fail to see the irony.
The only thing I have learnt from the Harbhajan bashers here is that my favorite 80’s walt disney movie was rascist
For what it is worth, I don’t think you should be afraid. To be frank, and I am sure many others born in India will agree, you have an authentic voice—you don’t sound like someone based/born/largely-brought-up half way across the world when you write about India-centric topics. It is up to you how you see this, but I mean it as a compliment.
I can’t pretend to understand what you and so many others know and feel, about this game you are all so passionate about.
no matter, I love you regardless
well i am of the opinion that austrailia is jus like a brash kid who has got success to his head and is not playing in the spirit of game . this is not the first time india had complains against aurstralia. i mean i know they are world champions. but they are not behaving like one. where is the modesty guys???
Anna:
No, that’s perfectly OK – as long as there’s a discussion, we’re better off than when we don’t have one.
I wish personally that I could have the conviction of some comments I see above. I could be a lot more certain in my mind if the slur had been more specific (like “kalu” if his race/complexion had been the target or “pilferer” if it was his nationality under attack), or if at least one other person had been called the same thing so that I could draw a pattern. While I certainly accept that there is certainly widespread racism (and other forms of discrimination) in India, and I’m not trying to deny that part of the story in any way, I am still uncomfortable with the Symonds case for the first reason I listed in my comment #67 – there were players who must have been equally juicy targets, in eras with much less information exchange than now, so I still do wonder why something like this happens in 2007 when it didn’t happen in 1997-1999. I do not have a satisfactory answer except accepting that the Symonds case might be the first that has been noticed and reported while other previous incidents have not. But I can’t accept rationalizing it away with “some get picked on and some don’t” – that could be used to make many conclusions not all of which are valid.
By the way, this is not a one-way process: I do the same thing if it were a desi being called something as well. It took me nearly three weeks to come to the conclusion that George Allen might indeed have displayed racist tendencies, and that was only after the news about his history of past racism came to light (like displaying the noose in his law office and so on). Even for the crack about “the real America” I was initially giving him the benefit of the doubt, just in case he was targeting Democrats (and not browns) rhetorically as not being real Americans.
That said, given the seriousness of the topic, this has been a discussion free of acrimony, for which I thank the commenters I’ve interacted with.
Ponting was overheard saying to ‘Harbajjan’ that this is the second time you have crossed the line. What line did Harbajjan cross? Apparently Harbajjan had also called Symond a monkey when he was in India. Symond had decided to not go forward on that slur but apparently had enough when Harbajjan did it again.
I am actually rooting for Australia to decimate the men in blue at Perth which my sources tell me is a very lively wicket. I am salivating at the prospects of seeing the men in blue curl into a fetal position because of some express short pitch bowling.
Pagal,
Do you have a link to your Ponting story? From everything that has been quoted on this thread it looks like no one can say for sure what transpired between Symonds and Harbhajan, it will be great if you can link the story.
320 · DizzyDesi said
If you’ll be kind enough to note the time stamp [2:46 am] on my comment, you will perhaps realize that I wasn’t at my most articulate and you’ll excuse me for that. I wanted to say that if Bhajji really did call Symonds a macaca, it would be a circle of stupidity and hate, since that’s what Allen called someone desi. IF. IF Singh did it. I didn’t dwell on the “irony” because as I tried to state in my comment, I’m not sure that the man really said “monkey”. Before I ponder hypocrisy, I’d love confirmation/facts/other inconvenient things.
Pingpong, Bunty, Bytewords- thank you.
Some fans were also tossed out in that same Mumbai ODI for making monkey gestures at Symonds following his dismissal. That match was the 7th in the series. A similar incident had apparently occurred in the 5th match in Vadodara.
Never, ever trust whitey!
Some take-home lessons from this incident for future generations of boorish cricketers and spectators:
When using slurs, make sure you explicitly mention what aspect of the target you’re attacking: religion, race, nationality, profession or something else. Otherwise people will think you’re an inconsiderate troublemaker who wastes the time of people who are now compelled to second-guess your message when they would much rather be reading about food in Antarctica. Don’t just say “Monkey! Monkey!”. Say instead, “You, sir, have all the facial trappings of a monkey, and offend the sensibilities of my race so much that I would challenge you to a duel, but my sense of dignity prevents me from dueling with subhumans. Also, you might fling feces on me, and strange foreign monkey feces at that, not even decent, hard-working human feces”. See the difference – nobody can be in doubt about what you meant if you just take a little trouble to be specific.
You need to show your experience in making correct judgments. It’s no good if you say “Andrew Symonds is a monkey”, because people will not take your statement at face value. They’ll just ask “How do you know?”, and revert the Wikipedia article that you vandalized. Say instead, “100% of macacas agree that Andrew Symonds is a monkey. Takes one to know one and we know one when we see one”. See how you can leverage your experience to convince people? Nobody can be in any doubt when you prove your point convincingly instead of making blanket assertions.
Take a lesson in proper cricket etiquette from the crowd in Eden Gardens, Kolkata. They don’t go around making wimpy monkey gestures at players. They don’t just hurl water bottles on the field, which by the way is passé and slightly gauche – people will tell you that 1996 wants its bottles back. No, Eden Gardens spectators let their hair down, push the boat out and set it on fire. Really. They once set the stands on fire when India was losing, and made some easily-startled journalists use words like “hooliganism”. Hooliganism? What are they, journalists or old ladies? But the Eden Gardens crowd was never accused of racism. See how it’s done?
But you will lose all your streetcred if you behave like the wimps at the MAC Stadium, Chennai, who in 1999 gave a standing ovation to Pakistan after a hard-fought Test match, in a shameless display of what they called “sporting instinct”. Thankfully they got some real sporting instinct in 2002 when they hurled bottles on the field when Ganguly was given out LBW playing against the West Indies.
I don’t know what to think– Vivek, is everyone in denial then? I ask sincerely, because I don’t know. The first time someone suggested that Bhajji might have said something in Punjabi and had it misinterpreted, I thought that was reasonable b/c I’ve seen that happen before IRL. If there’s precedent for the slur and he really was speaking Punjabi, that’s an unfortunate misunderstanding which Bhajji’s just going to have to deal with, b/c of his earlier slur, which I had never read about until you helpfully posted your comment (thank you, btw).
It’s very confusing…it seems like this “sledging” is considered part of the game; if it happened in other instances like you cited, what is different about it now? Is this a turning point for the sport? Everything I read painted Ponting in a less than favorable light, so I didn’t start out seeing him as some agent for change. Are people wrong for suggesting that it wasn’t altruism at work here?
I don’t know, Anna – I’m with you in the “if he did…” camp, but given the history, I’m more inclined to believe he did.
The sad part for me is that earlier in this thread when everyone was calling for a return to cricket, it struck me that this sort of vitriol is increasingly defining cricket – so what does a return to cricket really mean anyway?
I think the best thing the Indians (and other teams) can do is suck this one up and file complaints against Australia every time they make an off-color remark during a match.
Anna,
Sledging started becoming an issue only after Indian/Pakistanis/Sri Lankans started giving it back. I would credit Sri Lankans who (as far as I know) blazed the trail and Pakistanis took it a little further with a lively mix of English and Punjabi curse words. Indians started playing this game when ‘Saurav Ganguly’ figured out how easy it is to tick Aussie hot heads, one remarkable incident was when he made a revered Aussie Captain wait in the middle of the ground for the toss (coin toss to decide who gets to choose between batting or fielding).
The cricketing body ICC was known as Imperial Cricket Conference till 1965, England, Australia and South Africa have enjoyed veto power on ICC resolutions. Sri Lanka became a member of ICC only in 1981 and most recent addition is Bangladesh (in 2000). BCCI (Board of cricket Control of India) was transformed when a hard nosed businessman “Jagmohan Dalmiya†became president – he was able to realize the potential of Indian cricket viewership in terms of $$. All this business about money-power of BCCI is a brand new phenomenon and some people are having a difficult time digesting it.
Last but not the least; Indian spectators love good cricket. Quite a few Aussies and many other non-Indian cricketers enjoy HUGE fan following in India; my point is – Indians know and appreciate when they see good cricket. They also know that Indian team is not the best in the world (at least in 5 day and 1 day form of the game) but that does not mean that they should not ferverently support their team. I am surprised at all this talk of “jingoism†and “rabid nationalism†– it seems to me that some of the commentators have a totally different fish to fry in this heat.
C’mon Sulabh,
Burning effigies and parading donkeys is how a ‘non-jingoistic’ society should raect….??
And the fact that Indians appreciate/love good cricket is questionable to say the least.I mean we are talking about a billion people here right….even if 5 % of them do appreciate good cricket,its double Australian population.That would still leave an overwhelming majority who follow cricket because everytime(sorry,make it anytime) India wins,it gives them a chance to thump their chest and feel that ‘we are something in the world’.
I have been to a few international cricket matches in India and the crowd behaviour is sickeining.Forget insults and cusswords and overt and covert racism,spectacles of bottles flying and hitting children/others is embarassingly commonplace.
Ponting and his boys did goof-up and need to be taken to task but sadly and predictibly,so does the Indian media and the Indian public.Rohit Brijnath was painfuly spot-on when he said that to link the incident to national honor when there are farmers driven to suicide by poverty is pathetic.
To twist the quote from a recently famous sports writer….’its possible to love and support a country’s cricket team but not its public’.
334 · nfa said
Amen.
Maybe they’re taking the theoretician’s approach? If you cannot solve a problem, redefine the problem to one you have a hope of solving so you can declare success.
Why is burning effigies and parading donkeys such a horrible thing? Should they riot like soccer English hooligans OR is burning up the campus property like some American college kids is more acceptable?
Are you suggesting that all American sportsfans have encyclopidic knowledge of the games that they follow? And yeah, wins for India are few and far between; when they win it gives them a chance to thump their chests, so what? Why is that jingoistic, are they bombing some one? Are you suggesting that westerners have a copyright on chest thumping?
.
I have been to club/major league matches in USA, heard the same seen the same by overgrown drunk men. I have attended a pee-wee football game where parents almost came to blows. Don’t even start on that.
This is pathetic, bringing up the good old “take care of your crap first†argument. I see grotesque celebrations after touch downs (assuming that you watch NFL), that must rile up as there are so many Americans without health care.
Indians know that India is an overpupulated third world country MOST of the Indians live this reality EVERY DAY. This does not mean that they have to take abuse OR not celebrate a win with gusto. The issue in this case was a matter of honor to many Indians, rich or poor, people were shocked at the way the whole thing was handled by ICC appointed refree.
Anyway – I am not here to convince you but I hope you are able to understand why it was such a big deal to a LOT of Indians. I am done.
Also striking is the double standard and bullshit notion that the incident must have been provoked by white players. Everyone is rushing to give Harbhajan the benefit of the doubt because there’s no ironclad proof that he called Symonds a monkey, and then turning around to assert, without any evidence, that anything he did say isn’t his fault, because the Australians surely started it. Ignoring for a moment that arguing over who started it is incredibly childish and unsportsmanlike, there’s no lack of hard evidence showing Indian players and fans, and Harbhajan in particular, insulting and taunting competitors over the years. Every player on every team does it, and just because the Australians happen to be particularly effective at it doesn’t mean that the entire phenomenon can be blamed on them. As far as “owning it” goes, the Australian fans generally seem to think it was a weak tactic and aren’t proud of it. It’s the Indians who are rushing to beat their chests with pride for giving the Evil White Man a black eye (never mind the glaring inconsistency of showing up the white man by calling a black man a monkey).
nfa
Good post mate.
337 · Sulabh said
Yes, people are idiots everywhere. Including in Australia, where Indian fans were subjected to awful taunts from supporters of the Australian side (via the news tab).
Each is pretty stupid in its own right, and I hope you can see this.
You lost me here.
Bad analogy, since the NFL isn’t a single football team supposedly carrying the football dreams of millions of Americans. However: come this summer, you will most certainly find me effecting significant change in society by blogging somewhere poo-pooing the United States’ medal count and pointing instead to the yet unattended survivors of Hurricane Katrina. I hope this will satisfy you.
I don’t really understand why it’s so uncouth to call out as completely FUBAR the singling out one of the few (only?) non-white members of the Australian team and calling him a monkey.
Attaching India’s honor to THIS incident certainly doesn’t make me proud to be an Indian.
The jingoism and hysteria on some of the TV stations has been pathetic.
I swear, when I meet my “cricket tutors” next, I’m going to pour a beer on their heads; the more I read here, the more confused I feel.
I know about the shameful, inexcusable behavior of some of the Indian fans (who I thought were ejected accordingly) but I’ve always been told that the brown cricket teams have been cordial, and if anything, too polite (because it meant they were constantly getting pushed around). I interpreted it like their bristling and pushing back was nothing short of a colonial-reenactment/drama, wherein the brown man says “no more!” to his oppressor.
Socrates,
You have the choice of not watching the jingoistic/hysterical news channels. If some people thousands of miles away choose to thump their chests, let them do it, it is possibly an avenue for them to vent, I don’t think there is any reason to deny them.
anna – thank you for blogging about this matter. As for the trolls who complain about not understanding, they are monkeys 😉
anna, you are actually more right than you realize. before ganguly took over the india team was generally cordial to the opposition (in fact in the eyes of many people overly so). this actually goes back to the way cricket is played in the lower levels in india. yes there is swearing etc., over decisions, but very little taunting of the opposition and “sledging”. all this being said, jingoism is f..ing ugly no matter who indulges in it…and i am not prepared to give the indian media and officialdom a pass over this; they should have acted with more dignity.
That was between the Serbians and Croatian supporters last year. That is like the Yugoslav civil war in Balkans being carried out on Australia streets. You had 500 people bar brawl on the Serbian Orthodox Christmas.
339 · Socrates said
Thanks mate.This is the second time in a week that I almost did a Hillary(without the fakeness of course).The first being when Sachin raised his arms on reaching his century. There are multiple issues conflating here.Indian team ,Indian fans,Australian teams,Australian fans,Indian media,racism,reverse-racism.
Will try to objectify a little more in the next post.Neglecting my patientss for the sake of SM would be ‘just not cricket’.
Gee, thanks for the advice. And I have the choice to once again re-iterate the pathetic and moronic nature of the hyperventilating jingoism of certain Indian TV stations and other media on this issue. Hopefully they’ll have dissipated their dyspepsia a little, though.
“Sledging started becoming an issue only after Indian/Pakistanis/Sri Lankans started giving it back. I would credit Sri Lankans who (as far as I know) blazed the trail and Pakistanis took it a little further with a lively mix of English and Punjabi curse words.”
That happened after the then meek and mild Lankans toured Australia under Arjuna Ranatunga and were treated like absolute dirt not only by the Aussie team but by their management and media. The Australians were and are the kings of sledging. If you thought the decisions against India were appalling you had to see the one’s against SL, they actually had Aussie umpires sitting in back then. That too riled up the Sri Lankan population back home like this has done with the Indians [it is actually credited with getting Sri Lankan women to follow cricket, group who had never really took interest in the sport], except of course Sri Lanka neither had the economic clout nor media clout to counter the Australians like India as done recently. One can only imagine how good it felt for Sri Lankans to have won the 96 World Cup against Australia.
342 · A N N A said
Yeah, and (right or wrong) that’s clearly how a lot of people conceive of it. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing to have a nonviolent outlet for colonial hangover, but when it gets to the point where people are defending racism (against a black man, no less), maybe it’s ceased to be a healthy thing.
Anyway, when it comes to post-colonialism and Cricket, the big question in my mind is: why does India play Cricket in the first place? The sport is practically a badge of British Empire membership. The people suggesting India walk away from the ICC should be suggesting India walk away from Cricket itself. Likewise for the Commonwealth and English language, I suppose…