Cricket: Ponting tells on Singh, is now that annoying kid we all hate for being lame.

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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).

556 thoughts on “Cricket: Ponting tells on Singh, is now that annoying kid we all hate for being lame.”

  1. redr,

    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.

    Because there is no greater tale [in sport!] of the oppressed and colonised rising up and thrashing the oppressors in spectacular fashion! 😉 But it”s so easy to kick English a$$ these days it probably doesn’t even count any more…

  3. redr at 338 opined..

    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).

    May I point you to exhibit A: http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/ausvind/content/current/story/329488.html where Symonds admits that he started the confrontation – “I was standing nearby and when I saw what happened, I thought, ‘Hold on, that’s not on’. I’m a firm believer in sticking up for your team-mate so I stepped in and had a bit of a crack at Harbhajan, telling him exactly what I thought of his antics. He then had a shot back, which brings us to the situation we’re facing.”

    Don’t let that stop your rant though.

    Cheers

  4. 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

    That is part of the story here. Ponting and Kumble made a gentleman’s agreement not to falsely claim that a batsman was out. Ponting broke the agreement, which was one of the reasons India lost. To compound this Ponting berated an Indian journalist who pointed out that pointing had faslely claimed catches (there is ample photograhpic/ video evidence to show that ponting lied).

    Symonds had also made an agreement with Harbhajan not to trade insults (following an ugly Austrailian tour of India). At a time Harbhajan was batting well, Symonds broke the agreement and insulted Harbhajjan. Harbhajan retaliated by saying something that no one else heard, which is basically how we got here.

    As an aside ultimately Symonds tactic of insulting Bhajji was brilliant as harbhajan had lost his composure and got out soon afterwards.

  5. The colonial angle

    Cricket is run by a London based group called the ICC. The majority of the revenue for the ICC comes from India and most of this is spent outside India. Today England and Austrailia, in effect control the ICC. The ICC — There are dispropotionaltly few officials from the d a large number from eng, Aus, South Africa, WestIndies, etc. Many of the officials appointed have had strong bias against the subcontinent teams. It was hoped that baised or ont this situation was preferable as Eng/ Aus power wielders would be more professional than Indians. This turned out to not true. The ICC ultimaely serves as an old boy’s club and this has led to a high degree of incompetence. The badly managed cricket world cup highlighted this. Given backing that the has given an continues to give to people who have exhibited clearly documented double standards in the past or have made rascist comments when it comes to sub-continental teams, there probably is a legal case for institutional rascism. At the very least there is a strong case to get rid of the ICC and create a parallel body. Unfortunately though, the BCCI ultimately serves the ICC’s interests rather than the Indian Crickets Indian players. This is because ICC affliation allows it to have a monopoly over cricket in India and any change in the status quo allows for the possibility of real competition.

  8. 154 · Vic said

    He could have just been calling him ‘tere maa ki…something or the other in Punjabi.
    The tourists are now expected to argue at Harbhajan’s appeal hearing that he called Symonds a “Maa Ki…” in his native tongue, which translates into “motherf…..” (The Daily Telegraph).

    Yes yes! Our boy did not call that guy a monkey, just talked about his mother! The honor of the Indian nation has been re-established!

  10. So, team predictions? I guess we should expect Sehwag and Karthik in, Jaffer and Yuvi out? (And I’d love to see Harbhajan get Ponting out cheaply again!)

  18. Dhoni and Singh strike again! Clark quacks back!

    May I just say that I heart R P Singh? Woo Hoo!

  19. [running around office cheering silently] [thankful for partition]

    C’moooonnnn…get him before they hit 200…

  23. Damn. Dare not leave computer in case last wicket falls while running to pub. Seriously if they let them get to 215…

  27. I am sure that nothing gets on a tailender’s nerves more than Dhoni’s agonized Oye in response to a perfectly solid backfoot defensive stroke to a Kumble leg break.

    And, come on! Tait and Johnson are farming the strike, with Tait against the spinners and Johnson to the pacers. Ha! Kumble nails Tait even as I type that sentence. Take that, overconfident tailenders! 118 in the red, and 55 minutes for Sehwag and Jaffer.

  30. Damn, Cricket Australia is expert at peddling stuff putting a “memorabilia” and “limited edition” tag on it, and Benaud and co. are absolutely shameless in talking up the virtues of every worthless piece of crap that is thrown their way. What next? Collectors’ editions of all the gum chewed by Ponting, Symmo, and Gilchrist (with wrappers of course!) during the India Australia series?

  31. Hey hey hey, 29 on the board…

    Rahul, it’s almost unbearable to watch the One Dayers, the advertising is incessant. Every piece of crap is right How on earth are these things going to accrue value if you make numberless permutations of Australian Cricket Team Signed [insert item of choice]. Do do you get the TV program spruiking as well? If you think the advertising is bad, there is nothing worse than Benaud trying to review a new-fangled TV drama he’s never seen.

  33. No, I haven’t seen them shilling TV programs yet, but that might be a welcome relief during stultifying one-day cricket. Wow, they just took a cheeky single. That’s one thing you’ve got to give Sehwag, he’s an ace at irritating the other team as long as he lasts at the crease.

  36. Awesome. Ponting puts a third man-ish position in, Tait bowls it wide of off to induce Sehwag’s slash, Sehwag duly obliges, and it runs too fine. Now here’s hoping Sehwag can pull a Symonds and continue this aggravation.

    [is doomed to never see Sehwag hit it or Tendulkar score a century live]

    At least, you’re in a country where cricket is played.

  37. Sounds like Clarke is getting impatient and irritated what with the number of no-balls..

  38. And Jaffer continues the fine tradition of Indian opening batsmen from the 80s and early 90s…

  39. Wouldn’t want to break with tradition now, would we….let’s see, India in a strong position, three days to go. Let me guess..

  40. they are doing nightwatchmen?

    i like having sehwag open. he may not last significantly longer than other openers, but the damage he does by then is quite a bit :).

  43. whats up with the number of extras? finally someone is trying to hard. what do you know, it isn’t australia for once! :))))))

  45. whats up with the number of extras? finally someone is trying to hard. what do you know, it isn’t australia for once! :))))))

    Yes, so far, as an Indian fan, I’m loving Tait.

  46. Yes, so far, as an Indian fan, I’m loving Tait.

    he is getting macaca-ed as well :). one of us now :).

  49. Yeah, hope they have a 300+ day tomorrow. That would really put Australia on the mat. They might even have to sub Bucknor in to save the match.