[Nitin]

Things have gotten so ugly.The whole charm of the game is lost,thanks to such useless characters who've spoilt every bit of respect the game has achieved in all these decades.

[prince_pervez]

Aaaa....mmmm.....Actually almost all the new channels had the news of Indo-Aussie series crisis as their breaking news or headlines.

I sincerely hope India gets the better part of all decisions and Aussies learn a lesson on not claiming dropped catches and stop abusive sledging.

But...but..but..all this if Bhajji has not called Symonds 'that'!
To be more specific, all the news channels were airing a video where Symonds and Bhajji are having a conversation. All of a sudden there is a pause and Symonds says "Whom are you calling a mo..ey"? Again one more time "Whom are you calling a mo..ey"?
Well, one doesn't have to be a professional lip reader to figure out what Symonds was saying.
I could not make out the part after that and before this. This certainly does not prove that Bhajji called him that.
Who knows, Symonds might have purposefully accused Bhajji of using the word, as the India incident must be still fresh on him.

Indians players are upset that the Indian testimony did not have impact on the final verdict.

Tendulkar is in it as his testimony was not paid heed.

Kumble is in it as he was abused.

Dravid is in it coz he was given out.

Dhoni is in it coz his catch was not cleanly taken.

Yuvi is not in it as he has other priorities like dining with bollywood stars.

We all are in it (including myself) coz we Love our country and want our team to do well or give back well where ever they go.

All in all I feel the mo..ey thing has worked for Aussies and made them 16 straight test winners by crook or crook. Without winning hearts. The umpires were with them.

We have been mistreated and we should pull out of the contest and not pay a dime. I hope this pinches the players pocket directly and they learn.

Pointing's child: "Why can't we afford a mars bar bas****?? err...pop"
Pointing: Bas****, err son, that because I claimed a dropped catch and stood by my definition of Integrity. "

My My that man sure has guts. Hats off to the Indian Media person who dared to ask Pointing about the catch. I still wonder, when the whole world has seen the dropped catch, how can his man be bold enough to argue that he had taken it cleanly. He should have admitted that after seeing the replay i'm darn convinced that i have messed it up and sorry.

[arunkumar_rec]

India should have walked out from this series. Australians are a pack of wild dogs as mentioned by Peter Roebuck in his column. They dont play the game in the right spirit. Australians should be banned from international cricket. Heard that one Austrailian newspaper digged at Harbhajan's poor upbringing. As a matter of fact, the honest Mr.Ponting is from a slum. Too much of racism is prevalent in Australia. To people who dont know a fact about Australia. It was like Andhaman/Nicobar islands where the Indian prisoners were sent. Australia was like that. Prisoners were sent in exile to Australia from other white countries. And these people have no real values and ethics. How can we expect them to behave in a decent way?
I feel it is high time, ICC should start using the technology at every OUT decisions handed out by the umpires. Batsman also should be given a chance to appeal against the decision. Now that technology is far advanced, we should utilise it to the fullest. And stop any kind of sledging or provacation.
Every player should be fitted with a microphone and what he talks should be continuosly monitored by a team to see what is happening on the field.

[prince_pervez]

Latest news : Bucknor removed from Perth test

[F50]

Kapil Dev says "Play hard cricket"

I feel it is a very sensible thing to do. Cancelling the tour makes no sense. So many things are at stake (read money) Its better to play hard and beat them fair and square and come back with heads held high. Coming back is more kinda out of josh decision and this will only spoil India's name, as it will hurt the game's spirit, rather than complementing that BCCI has done a wonderful thing by calling the tour off.
Im on for India staying there and playing the game.

P.S - In the video shown on TV, was Bhajji calling Symmo or calling someone from dressing room?

[suman]

Bucknor is a pain in the whatever so its good that he's been removed but what about that sod Mark Benson? Methinks he should also be grounded for the rest of the year because his share of howlers was really not too far behind Bucknor!

[CaAT]

Originally Posted by Eddy

Thats abuse which is the Aussie's second language. It is not racism so will not be punished.

Rightly said, Eddy.

(This is a seriously funny (now that's an oxymoron) and one of the best post I read on the racial abuse controversy).

If most sledging is OK but some terms are deemed racist therefore some forms of sledging are not acceptable while others are - then let the ICC publish the rule book of sledging - what sledging is OK and what is not, with illustrated examples, a dictionary etc. "Sledging for Dummies" or "Sledging - a Users Manual" are two possible titles for the tome.

For instance - it is apparently OK for Glenn McGrath to ask a West Indies batsman what a certain part of Brian Lara's anatomy feels like because it is a non racial macho Aussie thing to say – basically gutter level personal abuse is OK in the gentleman's game but not anything to do with race. We in India need to be educated in the tradecraft - we are but beginners in the subject.

The joke doing the rounds in India is that when an Australian child learns to say the word "Mother" for the first time the parents say "Two cheers. Junior has learnt half a word". For the Australian team to complain about sledging and occupy the moral high ground on this issue is a bit thick.

Harbhajan made a mistake if (and only if) he referred to Andrew Symonds as a monkey. Wrong choice of animal mate - you should have used a reference to some other noteworthy mammal to respond to Symonds' abuse - swine or dog come to mind as possible candidates - they are pure insults and carry with them no racist overhead. For good measure add on "non-monkey". After all you cannot possibly be called racist if you say someone is not a monkey. "You mother*%$#ing, snivelling, lilly-livered, non-monkey, son of a swine" logically ought be acceptable sledging in the ICC and Australian lexicon.

[arunkumar_rec]

ICC should not stop from just removing Bucknor.
It should set up a commision to enquire about the foolish umpiring decisions he made over the past. Indians were mostly at the receiving end. I bet he will never ever come to India. If he does, then only his coffin may go back to his hometown.

[CaAT]

The above post was from Sanjiv Bhickchandani's blog! Sorry for not mentioning it earlier.

[diabloo]

Henceforth Andrew Symonds will be called 'Dawg'.

Whenever he comes to crease, everybody says: Here comes dawg
Whenever he takes a wicket: Dawg took my wicket
When somebody meets him: Hi Dawg.

[maddy42]

I really dont think bhajji called him a monkey. That sounds so schoolish. He would have used something more stronger. I remember Madhavan in Rehna hai tere dil main telling Agar gaali dena hai tho apni Mathrbhasha main de M@#$% SO this was confused by the ozzies who always think they are right and when they get it back in the same coin they start crying!!

[watfor]

Well from one rumor i heard, harbhajan did actually used a gaali in Hindi but Symonds interpreted it the wrong way.
Harbhajan actually said "Teri Maa ki...." and Symonds thought it was "Tery Monkey..."

[LLL]

Its good to see Bucknor removed. Its an admission that the match was riddled by umpring mistakes, which could be intentional. Now ICC must initiate a match fixing probe to investigate if the match was fixed by umpires and aussies. if found guilty, annul the test match. Lets teach ICC how we play - hard and fair. We always come hard at the opposition, and give our 100%.

In case of bhajji, irrespective of what happens in ICC hearing, Bhajji should return to india immediately, tell everyone he wont play with aussies again and file a defamation case against procter, symonds for leveling false allegations against him. He can file the case in india or australia, according to kapil sibal. Lets teach Aussies - how we play - hard and fair.

Next, openly call australian cricketers kids as lucky b***ards. Thats a common word in australia. ICC may have a code for players, but they cant enforce theor code of the field against players families. Lets do a "mental disintegration" of Aussies.

How nice it would be for ponting to hear this - Ponting's Son is a lucky b***ard when ponting comes out to bat or field.

[pmbabu]

Apparently, some jokers (or should I call them monkeys?) wrote in their newspaper columns, that India as the financial super power in Cricket is out to control the game.

Prem Panicker dismantles them at Rediff in great style.
It is about justice, not world domination

To quote a few paragraphs here,

First up, he starts of in their style:

It is not that the Indian board is 50 times richer than any rival, you silly little schoolgirl - the crux is that the Indian fans, and Indian corporates, bring in anywhere between 60-70 per cent of global cricket revenues. And without it, you don't have a game to dispute control of. Period.
That is the sort of contemptuous counter an argument like this deserves - but let's try if a little reason will work instead.

On the so called Australian witnesses:

Australia trotted out some witnesses. Symonds himself, but he is the injured party - while he deserves to be listened to, his word alone has no evidentiary value. And if a lot of us feel that Australian players and even its media are not above concocting a story to gain an unfair advantage, well, sorry, but the team and the way it plays its cricket are to blame - when you resort to sharp practice, prepare to have your credibility dented.

Another witness is Ricky Ponting - who had it from Symonds. Hearsay is not evidence; it is even less so coming from Ponting, who thanks to his own actions finds his credibility in the toilet.
The third was Adam Gilchrist, who was at the other end of the pitch, and could not have heard something the straight umpire did not. In passing, there is some doubt about Gilchrist's vision and hearing both - created when he vociferously claimed a catch against Dravid when he was perfectly placed to see that the bat was behind the pad, and to hear the sound it made coming off the top of the pad.

There was only one other person within earshot -- and his name is Sachin Tendulkar

About Sachin's batting:

I don't know about you guys out there, but here in India, we don't all of us agree on Tendulkar's continued claim to being the best contemporary batsman; some of us say vociferously that he doesn't weigh in when the chips are down; some of us crib constantly that he does not win games for us; even in Sydney some of us cribbed that he was trying to stay not out and hence exposed the tail to the opposition.

But on Sachin's credibility:

In other words, we in India are not unanimous about Tendulkar the batsman. But one thing we are unanimous about: we trust him as a human being, as a gentleman-player (another concept we could try, but will surely fail, to explain to you, Bob). We believe, and we will stake our lives on it, that he will not lie about something on the cricket field. We believe, we will swear to on a stack of Bibles topped off by a Gita, that if Bajji had in fact said what he is alleged to have said, Tendulkar would not have sent that SMS to the board.

On the so called dominance!

In passing, and if this is arrogant then so be it, arrogance is a game two can play at - we don't need to grandstand in order to gain control of the ICC; to buy it lock stock and barrel is, for the BCCI, merely a credit card swipe. Sheesh - don't you get it? India does not need to do battle to dominate the financial side of the cricket world -- it already owns that aspect, by default. So please could you stop dragging irrelevancies into this debate, and further muddying the waters?

[LLL]

Originally Posted by pmbabu

Apparently, some jokers (or should I call them monkeys?) wrote in their newspaper columns, that India as the financial super power in Cricket is out to control the game.

Actually, my response to these jokers is - YES, We are out to control the game. In fact, We want to control whatever we do - Global trade, sports, economy, IT, universe..you name it. Its in our blood. Its in our culture. Thats the way we like to play it - hard and fair.

Isnt this same as aussie way - hard and fair. What are you complaining now..sissies?

Malcom speed says -> It is important to stress that Steve has not been replaced due to any representations made by any team or individuals. The ICC remains the sole body responsible for the appointment of umpires and no team has the right to object to any appointment. The decision by the ICC to replace Steve for this match was made in the best interests of the game and the series," Speed said in a press release.

Not good enough, Mr. Speed. You have to clearly say that Bucknor was removed due to poor umpiring and under pressure from India. Unless, Speed says this, we should not play in Perth.