[Sawyer]

It will never end as long we have a chip on our shoulder about being treated as inferior. And it will never end as long as we practice the same with those we consider as inferior - for example how Africans are treated by us in India. We can be as racist as any white country. Why African, see how we treat dark skinned Indian girls too, to see our obsession with white skin.

You also haven't mentioned about Lee realising it was a waste of time and energy for him to sledge Tendulkar. There is a saying - never get into a fight with a pig; both of you will get dirty, but the pig likes it.

Coming back to the Rajkot test, all I could dredge up was this commentary from cricinfo on the Pujara DRS:
"Rashid to Pujara, OUT, given! Did that pitch in line? Pujara is walking off. Flat delivery on leg or just outside leg. Pujara goes deep in his crease and misses his push. It's pitched waaay outside leg. Pujara had the chance to review, but doesn't take it. Missed the legspinner and was struck right in front. Umpire Dharmasena raises the finger."
Does anyone recall more to confirm or reject the dressing room intervention I mentioned?

[carwatcher]

This says that BCCI is correct in saying that its Dressing room Review System.

I would be happy to answer all your biased queries against team India.

I also read the article written by Kesavan and the words used for Kohli are equally harsh.

Even is Aussies are saying its a mistake, why are we hell-bent in looking it the other way.

Originally Posted by Sawyer

Something that I picked up today, that I have NOT verified:
"When Pujara was given lbw which he declined to review in the 2nd innings of 1st test in Rajkot against England he got a clear signal from the dressing room to go back and review the decision."
If this is true - and I repeat the "if" because I don't know if this is true - what does this say?

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

Does anyone remember Tendulkar ever being sledged?

Offcourse, he's been sledged quite a few times. Infact if i remember correctly, Tendulkar even sledged McGrath in Nairobi. One of those very rare instances!

[carwatcher]

Tendulkar sledged McGrath which was part of a strategy he mentioned in an interview.

If you mean Tendulkar himself was sledged upon then I remember very well that WC 1999 match at Centurion against Pak. In that match Shahid Afridi abused Tendulkar with no holds barred including abuses to the family members. One can even hear them clearly on the microphone. There is no justification and we all know that Afridi respects Indian players too much but still was doing it as it was a do or die match for Pak and he was severely criticised and publicly reprimanded by no less than PCB himself after the match.

I remember Gavaskar mentioning once during commentary long back when Andre Nel fm SA used to be always in sledging mode that he would like to see him sledge against Aussies and he was right as Nel almost never did that Aussies as SA was beaten badly by Aussies during that period.

[vinit.merchant]

Sledging in AUS has become a culture, lets say second nature. Like the traffic sense in India.
They all know its wrong, but they will do it and it is quite acceptable there.

It will be safe to assume that most of those who reach the international AUS side will sledge for a living.

[Sawyer]

I am sure that back chat on the pitch happens everywhere; even in the Indian domestic matches. How else to stay engaged for 6 hours in a game?!

But there is that, and then there is the Australia style sledging that is a different beast that can be defeated without being adopted.

If I have any bias, it is for Team India, having followed its fortunes from the days of MAK Pataudi. I also agree that I am just used to the high standard set by every Indian captain from then; all of them led India with dignity and grace, even the ones that preceded Kohli in this century. Yes, Azhar had a match fixing stain attached to him, but he was always dignified on the field of play. The only people that lost it on rare occasions were, ironically, today's chief cricket consciences, Mr Gavaskar and Mr Bedi. And Ganguly's bare chested exploits to say how he can also do at Lords what Flintoff - if I remember right - did once in India. He looked a little silly, but that was about it. And he had a very clever way of getting under the Australian skin that left only one side looking very foolish.

The recent captains also have an excellent track record of success, so it isn't that they were all just/only good losers. From 1996 till now, our test record against Australia is 16-16, so I read recently, so that proves they can be handled via bat and ball alone. I doubt that any country other than SA has that kind of a record against Australia. The missing piece is a series win in Australia - India has never achieved that.

It will be interesting to see if this new version of India does better than its predecessors, especially outside India.

[Oxy]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

Does anyone remember Tendulkar ever being sledged? Even when he wasn't in the best of form? Dravid? Laxman?

Dravid yes.

Do you remember that ugly Michael Slater incident?

[Sawyer]

Yes, but that was over a specific incident. I realise I haven't made my point well, which was not that the quoted Indian greats never ever got sledged, but that they preferred to answer with their game, the sledging did not go anywhere and was not very successful where they were concerned. Once the other side refuses to be baited, the baiter gives up. It takes energy to keep baiting, and it feeds on the victim getting baited. And once someone earns a reputation for this, sledging goes away; the right to not be sledged has been earned by showing it does not work.

Let the bat do the talking. Or a ball that knocks off the helmet or cleans up the middle stump. Nothing wrong with that philosophy. One reason other than his bowling these days that I like about Umesh Yadav. Or even Shami. On the batting side, Rahane. Most of the team to be honest, and I for one hope they stay that way.

[NPV]

While the win at Bangalore was good in the end, I think our batsmen need to be able to put on at least 250-300 runs in an inning if they have to challenge the Aussies who play their cricket hard and are capable of springing surprises.

I may be hated for saying this but...I think someone like Rohit Sharma will be good to have for test matches in India and especially against teams like Australia.
He may not be consistent, but he can really play with disdain and can unsettle and rattle bowlers when he gets going (almost like Sehwag) and that kind of character is a boon against the Aussies.

[naveenvenkatesh]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

I realise I haven't made my point well, which was not that the quoted Indian greats never ever got sledged, but that they preferred to answer with their game, the sledging did not go anywhere and was not very successful where they were concerned. Once the other side refuses to be baited, the baiter gives up. It takes energy to keep baiting, and it feeds on the victim getting baited. And once someone earns a reputation for this, sledging goes away; the right to not be sledged has been earned by showing it does not work.

I beg to disagree with you here. No matter how much the trio of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman answered with their bat, the sledging didn't go away.

Aussies seem to thrive on it even to this day. The current band of indian boys "prefer to answer with their game, and sledge back" when provoked.

We can debate till the cows come home regarding which tactic works best but the truth of the matter is, this is new age of India cricket, with feisty young players who don't take misguided barbs sitting down. With so much of IPL cricket and the cross-polination, learning and exposure is very quick even for domestic players.

It would be interesting to watch them in ENG and AUS

[Sawyer]

Yes, I have noticed the change. Unfortunately these approaches rapidly become a race to the bottom, and I will disagree by saying that there are better ways of dealing with these situations on the field and in life.

[sukhoi30]

Originally Posted by vinit.merchant

Sledging in AUS has become a culture, lets say second nature. Like the traffic sense in India.

I absolutely agree with this. Aussies are brought up in cricket using sledging as part of the game. I used to work in Japan a few years back and we used to have a cricket league there. So our team used to be a mix of Australians, English, Indians, Pakistanis etc. Mostly expats obviously and the matches were also between expat teams. My experience in those matches was that Aussies sledge a lot. Funny thing is that they sledge even when not necessary. It did unnerve few batsmen initially but later on they get used to it.
It is not that they will curse you or use expletives but just blurt out things that will settle in a player's mind for a while and that would divert his focus.

My opinion is that we should not ape that culture. Instead we should learn to deal with it in a different way. Nothing annoys them more than knowing that their sledging is not affecting the opponent player.

[PPS]

Originally Posted by NPV

I think someone like Rohit Sharma will be good to have for test matches in India and especially against teams like Australia.

He's just recovered from an injury & i would be very surprised if he makes a comeback in the remaining tests but there are rumours of him making a comeback since Murali Vijay is not fully fit!

He may not be consistent, but he can really play with disdain and can unsettle and rattle bowlers when he gets going (almost like Sehwag) and that kind of character is a boon against the Aussies.

Yet to see that in tests. He's been a total failure in the test format so far. Team should persist with Karun Nair for now.

[Sawyer]

As the controversy rages on, there are very few good and balanced reports on it in the media but here is one, oddly enough, on Fox Sports Australia:
http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/...78e5afa3f22dcc
On the rivalry referred in the article, I am old fashioned enough to think that no matter who wins at the end, the game and the next generation learning from what they see, will be the losers. And it will be a sorry state of affairs if the only way found to defeat an admittedly ugly Australia is to become an ugly India.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by NPV

I may be hated for saying this but...I think someone like Rohit Sharma will be good....

He may not be consistent, but he can really play with disdain and can unsettle and rattle bowlers when he gets going....

Rohit has never shown the temperament to play test cricket. Yes, he has shown willingness to open, but I think Mukund is the best replacement. Rohit needs to settle before attacking, he can't simply attack from ball 1.

Rohit only knows to play ODIs well. He plays slowly till the 30th over and then accelerates from the 40th over. He has a 1D game.

Moreover, with the policy to prove fitness before being selected, I think Rohit is not going to get back this series.