Champions turned Louts

For almost a decade, the Australians have stayed smug in a nebula of arrogance. Duly so. Despite valiant attempts and close scares given by many a team, they managed to retain their throne for pretty long, and their glory remained unscathed. And just when one might have begun to wonder how to show these vain dandies their place, someone just made our job easy. Guess who? They, themselves, of course.
With the sheer impudence displayed by the Australians in the Sydney test, they have, probably permanently, scarred their image in the cricketing world, and have deprived them of a lot of respect they could have otherwise earned for being arguably the best side in international cricket. And it is such a crying shame that the man bearing proudly this flag of ignominy is their own leader, Ricky Ponting. His brazen appeal, after he clearly floored a catch that deflected off Dhoni’s pad, shouts out loud the mentality of his team – that the spirit of a sportsman means nothing to victory addicts. Clarke’s adamancy at the crease after offering a sitter to the slips, Symond’s cheeky smile after getting a lifer from his umpire-turned-benefactor, and Ponting’s gesture after Ganguly’s dismissal – all bear testimony to the same truth. Little wonder, then, that Peter Roebuck called the team a pack of wild dogs yesterday who have brought “shame to their nation”.
But after all that has transpired, the only thing that really hurts is that it is being suggested that the tour now be called off. Should the agenda now not be to give a fitting reply to the cheats, and teach them a lesson in sportsmanship? It hardly matters now whether India wins or loses the series. What matters is putting up a fight that tells the Aussies what the spirit of Team India really is. With stalwarts like Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid on the team, who knows – India might just serve the Aussies their comeuppance.
I was in Melbourne during the India-Australia tour in India last October. It pinched to see the way the Australian media had ridiculed our players, naming individual players like Sreesanth and commenting that they were resorting to plain “monkey antics” on the field. Was that not racism? We should be asking Symonds how was that comment different from what he says Harbhajan called him. For their sake, the Aussies should stop behaving like cry-babies; they’d rather bask in the glory of their championship while it lasts.