Blogs Dear Indian Cricket Fans - Please read this
February 29th, 2008 by KrisApparently, Indian cricket fans are seething with rage over the comments made by Matt Hayden on Harbhajan Singh. But the problem, as it’s always been with Indian media, is biased, sensationalized reporting to make sure fans don’t see the other side of the coin. I actually sat down to write an article on this issue, but then came across this one by Mr. Jha. I don’t think I could have put it more succinctly than he did. So, dear Indian cricket fans, I urge all of you to take a look at this.
http://www.cricketnext.com/blogs/sanjayjha/652/50378/the-shilpa-shetty-effect.html
February 29th, 2008 at 10:07 am
An interesting article!
As a ‘biased’ Indian fan, I wish to put in a layman’s perspective (not a scholarly
research) on the whole scenario -
1. What Mr. Jha fails to notice here is that Hayden used those words against Harbhajan in a public forum, on a radio show, whereas if Harbhajan did say what he did, he said it on the field, where sledging has become a ‘norm’ nowadays. Also, this is the best example of the
Newton’s third law - ‘every action has equal and opposite reaction’. Harbhajan did not go and abuse Symonds first, it was in reaction to what Symonds said to him. So, how is it that an action is glossed over but only the reaction has to be taken into account? Also, how would Mr. Jha know that Harbhajan was not reprimanded by the BCCI? BCCI has very strict rules about speaking to the media and everything. Many of the proceedings happen behind closed doors. I think we are going overboard when we call Harbhajan a national hero. I agree with Mr. Jha there, but I haven’t come across anyone yet who felt that way either.
2. What back-room maneuvering did BCCI do? They just appealed against the punishment meted out to Bhajji, and they did so because they believed that Harbhajan didn’t say anything racist. Well, if Mr. Jha contends that Bhajji did say ‘Teri Maa Ki’, that remark is in no way racist, just like these other cricketers use the f-word. Bhajji was implicated on the grounds that he made a racist remark and BCCI was just appealing against that. Also, we withdrew the complaint against Brad Hogg on moral grounds in order to pacify the tension between the two sides. Did Cricket Australia do the same? No, they took shelter behind the ‘rules’ saying that they couldn’t do anything because the match referee had already given his verdict. So, how does taking the moral high ground amount to back room maneuvering? The reason the Aussie cricketers are seething is because they have been in the habit of getting their own way until now. The moment that didn’t happen, of course they were bound to get angry - like how spoilt children behave when they don’t get their own way. I would like to
add jatanr’s phrase for them - cry babies!
3. Mr. Jha, are you sure you are Indian? If so, you will very well know the Indian saying ‘ghar ki murgi daal barabar’. Indians are passionate about cricket and this is the way they express their frustration. It happens only in India, not outside. I haven’t come across Indians booing and abusing the cricketers outside India. Have you? This situation is exactly similar to an Indian family. They might be bickering among themselves, but to the outside world, they are one. They will not tolerate anything said against their family. I agree that booing Tendulkar was a bit over the top, but the same fans sing heaps of praise when he does well. If you look at Latin American countries, the football players there have to fear for their lives, as if they lose in the World Cup, they might be shot after returning home. That is certainly not the case here.
4. The situation between Mike Proctor and Jeff Crowe is different. Proctor chose to believe the Aussies and not the Indians even when it was their word against the Indians. There was no concrete evidence as to what exactly was said. In Crowe’s case, the video evidence was
crystal clear. Also, Crowe admitted that Symonds may have provoked Sharma, but in the end, it was Sharma who pointed to the pavilion, and that led to a breach of the code of conduct. So, Crowe was just acting within the laws of cricket, not forming an opinion based on hearsay. So, if you see, the Crowe incident is in no way comparable to the Proctor incident. As you can see, the outcry is very less compared to the former incident. Mr. Jha is just over-exaggerating.
5. Mr. Jha fails to see the manner in which they won the test series 2-1. If the umpiring decisions that went against India didn’t happen, who knows what the result might have been. Agreed that Australia still remain the team to beat, but they have not looked nearly as invincible as they did, say 2-3 years ago. Bhajji may be gettting ahead of himself when he says that we are overtaking them, but there is a grain of truth in what he said. The fact that the Aussies are creating such a hue and cry is because they themselves have realized that they are not as strong as they used to be. Truth hurts. Also, look at the manner in which they lost to SL today. 107 for no loss and all out for 200 odd. Only India held the distinction of capitulating so meekly until now. As far as Bhajji’s performance goes, every player goes through a bad patch. Even though he has taken only 5 wickets, he has taken them at an economy rate of 4.31. Not bad. Plus, Bhajji played a major role in the T20 WC. He was a consistent performer there. So, player performance has nothing to do with making a statement.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:47 am
6. Also, it is a mere coincidence that Symonds and Harbhajan got good deals for IPL. Not because of their controversy, but because of their stellar performance in the T20 WC. Bhajji bowled beautifully and Symonds is a big hitter, a handy bowler and a brilliant fielder. Why did Dhoni get top billing then? He wasn’t involved in any controversy. Also, why did Ricky Ponting go for so less? He certainly was in the center of controversy too, when he questioned the integrity of Indian journalists in the press conference after the Sydney test. He himself admitted that him not being in form lately may have amounted to him
being auctioned for less. So, player performance, and not controversy played a major role in the auctions.
7. This is the one point where I actually agree with Mr. Jha. Bhajji, Sreesanth etc. have to learn to be more poised on the field, learn a thing or two from Sachin or Kumble. But again, this is a thin line. A counter argument could be that one’s silence should not come across as one’s weakness. All the incidents that we have seen so far have been in reaction to instigation. Be the jelly bean incident in England or the six that Sreesanth hit to Nel in SA, all have been a result of provocation or instigation. If it looks over the top then like Dhoni said, we need to learn the art of sledging.
8. Mr. Jha again fails to see the talent and the ability of the players mentioned. Every player will have his own yardstick because ever player has his own talent. The better you are, the more chances you will get because it is more important that the better players come to form because then the team does better. Again, Tendulkar was the highest run getter in this test series with 493 runs. Not Dravid, not Ganguly, not Laxman, not Yuvraj and certainly not Kaif. Mr. Jha also fails to mention Sehwag, who got innumerable chances before he was dropped. But he scored a sublime 150 odd in the final test and helped India make sure they didn’t lose the match. So, the number of chances a player gets is directly proportional to his ability to be a match winner.
9. Like I said in point #7, Dhoni is justified in saying that. In Marathi, there is a saying ‘katyane kaata kadhava’ (use a thorn to get a thorn out). Indians have so far remained silent and taken all the abuse and humiliation. But the time has come for them to give the Aussies a taste of their own medicine, and make them realize how bitter it is. Why
should BCCI have to say something about it? Does Cricket Australia say something about the Aussies sledging? Dhoni was very practical in his comments. Sledging is already an integral part of the game. The people in the ‘idiot box’ have raised issues against it and Sunil Gavaskar has gone to the extent of saying that it should be banned, let alone allow ‘minimum sledging’. If cricket is a gentleman’s game, then Aussies have not business playing it. Even Aussie spectators sledge. They called Panesar ’stupid Indian’ when England toured Australia last year. Dean Jones, a commentator called Hashim Amla a ‘terrorist’. Aren’t these remarks racist? Sledging and name calling is in the Australian blood. I think ICC SHOULD have a law against sledging. ‘Naa rahega baans, naa bajegi bansuri’. As far as TRPs go, there is nothing that can be done to stop it. Sensationalization is the name of
the game and it sells. Look at the recent Prince Harry news. He was fighting in Afghanistan and the British media was sworn to secrecy, but the foreign media leaked the news. Why? To get better TRPs. So, if controversy is generating more TRPs it is not the controversy’s fault. It is the media’s fault that feeds of the controversy.
10. If there is friction between two sides, then playing less matches is not the answer, but reducing the friction is. India has had problems only with Aussies. Even India and Pakistan, so called ’sworn enemies’ have displayed exemplary camaraderie on and off the field in recent years. Australia, on the other hand, has continued to have a problem with most other teams. So, why don’t we shun Australia from world cricket just like SA was in the 70s. If BCCI is so well capable of arm twisting and backroom maneuvering, they can certainly pull that off too! As far as IPL goes, you need to ask the Aussies that question that why don’t they drop out of IPL voluntarily. We can certainly make IPL rock without them, but then Aussies have to back off. Cricket Australia has to ban them from playing just like ECB has banned the English players from doing so. Why don’t they? Mr. Jha is right in that respect, money is the great equalizer.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
@Kris - nice article though I would have loved to read it in your words! The media will make a big deal of either situation both pro and anti. Indian media doesn’t exactly show mercy on Indian players or Indian fans for that matter. They just write what sells… The same can be said about this article. The article is just trying to make a point which is different for the sake of being different.
@shivraj - excellent comments and I like your point by point analysis of the article, I hope Mr. Jha gets a chance to read them
March 1st, 2008 at 12:09 am
Shivraj, nice rebuttal mate. But I forgot to mention one thing in my blog. I actually wanted to point out only to Mr. Jha’s take on Harbhajan-Hayden issue, not his takes on Sachin and BCCI, as I don’t agree with him either.
Now, coming to this issue. Hayden said those words in a public forum, that’s your problem, right? Did you see our TV channels after the Sydney fiasco? I’d like to just point out to one incident. In NDTV, Cricket Controversies, NS Sidhu went on record to say that “Bucknor’s chaddi will be removed if he lands up in Mumbai, fans will pelt stones at him, he has a sleeping disorder due to personal issues and that’s why he sleeps on field, and so on.”
Are these comments not indecent? Are these comments not provocative? Are these comments not indecent? This was just one incident from NDTV. I can point out to numerous shows from channels like Aaj Tak, Times Now, CNN IBN, and other channels where former cricketers from India and people from media abused Bucknor and the Australian team in the meanest possible way.
Did Australians or Steve Bucknor for that matter raise a hue and cry? Just because all this ‘name-calling’ happened in national television?
Also, in case you don’t know, Hayden was participating in a comedy show in Brisbane radio. The theme of the show is to push the guests to such an extent that they say something controversial, something weird, something provocative, or something plain stupid. In that context, one can always argue that Hayden got a little carried away and used those words. But what happened in Indian television was calculated abuse.
I’m not saying that Australians are saints. But the Indians are not saints either.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I am so glad that the Indians are not saints anymore. You gotta win… and win at any cost… oh the Indians learned this from their esteemed opponents themselves!
But Indians still have a LONG way to go in that department. Firstly, they have to start abusing to provoke.. and not just retaliate. Then… they have deliberately play slow to prevent a stronger team to meet them in the finals… then, they have to claim catches falling in front of them … and FINALLY… after mastering all of the above.. they have to bowl an underarm ball to win an ODI on the last ball…
Indians have a long way to go mate… long way…
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
@Kris… thanks for providing the article man! I could not stop laughing at his reasoning… i mean…. using those reasons, Mr. Jha could have as well tried to prove that the earth is flat or that we live in a matrix!!! “ICC will make minimum sledging a must since Dhoni has endorsed it” …. could have as well said … Dhoni said the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so it must be circling the earth!
Ridiculous!
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Jatan, I think you didn’t see my comment above. I wanted to point out to Mr. Jha’s take on Harbhajan-Hayden issue, nothing less, nothing more. I don’t agree with his reasoning on Sachin’s form, BCCI, and so on. So, I’m not endorsing his views on these issues by any stretch of imagination.
Secondly, I don’t think the article was written for us to take it seriously. The guy is just too good at sarcasm. That’s about it. Hope that clears the misconceptions.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:07 am
Yes, I saw your earlier message clarifying that. Even I am not commenting on anything that you have written. I was just thanking you for providing the article!
March 4th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
@Kris: Thank you for the information about the Indian media. This actually validates my point that sensationalizing sells. As far as Sidhu goes, he is the king of sensationalizing. What channel do you think Indians will watch, the one that plays down the controversy and say that Indians need to behave in a saintly manner, or the one that expresses anger and anguish at the chain of events? TRPs sell and that is the bottom line. The media only says things that people want to hear.
Again you are missing the point. I am talking about players speaking in the public forum, not people who are a part of it. There is an ICC code of conduct for players, not media people. We actually had this discussion before when someone said that commentators are biased. I had argued that commentators are just that ‘comment’ators. They are paid to express their opinion on TV. There is no ICC code of conduct against them. The same logic does not apply for players though. Hayden can very well call anyone names after he has retired, but not when he is still playing.
Also, no wonder Aussies are good at sledging. It seems to be very popular in that country, as the theme of the show clearly suggests. Aren’t the Aussies doing the same thing on the field - pushing the Indians to such an extent that they get a response that is controversial, stupid or provocative? One can also argue here that the Indians got carried away as well.
Aussies are well known for ‘mental disintegration’ - a ’strategy’ first employed by Steve Waugh and now also by Ricky Ponting and his team. Isn’t this an example of ‘calculated abuse’ as you pointed out earlier? A strategy has to be planned and calculated, it cannot be spontaneous, and the Aussies have been doing that for years. I agree completely with jatanr. I am glad Indians too are not saints.
Consider the streaker incident in today’s match. Symonds nudged the streaker and brought him down. While one can argue that the streaker was trying to harm Symonds or something like that, the end result is that Symonds hit a spectator - a level 4 offense according to ICC’s Code of Conduct - “Physical assault of another player, umpire, referee, official or spectator.” So, will ICC overlook the issue saying that Symonds was trying to defend himself from that spectator and that what he did was just ‘react’ to the situation, or will they just look at the end result (as they did for Ishant Sharma) and punish him? It will be interesting to see.
Well, the bottom-line is that by winning the second final today, India proved that them being world beaters is not a fluke. They won the first final chasing and the second one batting first. And what poetic justice - Bhajji was involved in Symonds’ and Hayden’s dismissals in both finals. I hope this victory will shut the mouths of all ’sledgers’ for good.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Nice to see that you’ve brought up the Symmo issue. He did shouldercharge the streaker. But I think he shouldn’t be punished. No, not because he’s Symonds. Had it been any other player in his position, he shouldn’t be punished either. Simply put, a streaker cannot be considered a spectator. He’s a troll who disrupts the game. It’s very, very hard for the batsmen and the bowlers to get back their concentration after such stupid acts. So, what Symonds did was okay. He practices with the local rugby team on his off-days. Guess that has worked in his favor big time.
As far as the issue of ‘calculated abuse’ and ’sledging’ goes, I have just one thing to say. Both Indians and Australians have had enough war of words both on and off the field. And it didn’t start in this series. In the ODI series in India, Sreesanth was quite a busy man despite his pathetic performances, thanks to his antics. We then had the issue of monkey chants and all that. Now in Australia people call each other bastards. People even gave the choicest of galli to fellow cricketers. (Teri maa ki) A lot of shit has been given and taken by both sides. At the end of the day, all that matters is the result. I’ve already brought up this point time and again in this blog. To me, the ends justify the means. If you win, that’s fine. And Indians have done just that. I couldn’t be more happier.
Because for once, they played tough cricket. They’ve shown the world that they have ‘it’ in them. Well done guys.