I wouldn't call it "Sore-losers" I made it clear in my first post itself that I don't want to cry sour grapes over a lost match....winning and losing is a part of the game and to be very honest, most Indians who know cricket, honestly expected the result to be 2-1 or 3-1 for Australia this series, so it's not as if we expected India to win the series in the first place! We didn't cry when we got beat in the first Test! Play fair and beat us fair and square, we will take it

All that I am trying to say here is that the result could well have been different if the decisions had been made correctly. Symonds out on 30 at 190/7 would probably not have seen Australia score 460 in the first innings and it may well have been a different ball game altogether from then on and I bet even the Australian team knows that.

"Exercise in power games by the ICB" (is BCCI)....if I know our "honorable" board right, they would WANT the tour to go on at any cost, because they are more concerned about revenues than anything else. It's the pressure from the players that is making the BCCI take a tough stand.

Copago, I agree its more of a cultural thing and one must be aware of cultures and differences. What's right in one culture may not be so in another. I am NOT supporting Kumble here or defending the Indians' decision to lodge a "racial" complaint against Hogg, but just as an FYI....the word used by Hogg agsinst Kumble is considered the most horrible word you can use to insult or humiliate a person in India. People use all kinds of insults in a fight but never use *that* word. I remember getting into a HUUUGEEE fight when I was 14 or 15 because somebody had called my best friend that word ....

Oh really? I didn't know that. I apologise, Srini, for using it so freely then It's one of those acceptable swearwords here and is said quite openly ... even on the news when they were talking about this story.

That's all right, Copago...that's what I meant when I said we should be aware of cultural differences....apparently Allan Border also said something to this effect about the usage of the word in some article today and he said Indians and West Indians take it seriously even though the Aussies mean it in a good-humour when they say "lucky ....."

Am surprised a lot of the Australian media is supporting the Indians and are after Ricky Ponting....the TV today is full of that! And here's a report by Peter English, the Aussie editor for Cricinfo today: http://content-www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/329708.html

Back to cricket and apparently the tour will go on....what odds on India getting beaten 4-0 now? Very, very likely!

From Ricky Ponting

Quote:

---

When I heard what had taken place with Andrew, I immediately informed the umpires and then left the field at the end of the over to inform our team manager, which is what we are instructed to do.

"Making this report is not something I wanted to do but something I had to do. I had nothing to gain personally from taking this action. I was doing the right thing by the game

---

Except for not having to face him for the next three tests ...

Well its great that the tour will continue. Because bad umpiring aside its been pretty darn good so far. Tendulkar's great but you gotta love Laxman bat, well not as an Aussie but as a cricket fan. And my man Hussey just keeps strolling along. Symonds seems to have come of age as a test player, lucky edges aside. Brett Lee has just grown into a new man since he became number one. You gotta respect that.
Wouldn't it be great if the teams just realised things were getting messed up and said right lets just go out there and play.
I'd read somewhere how Ponting has turned a team of cricketers into a pack of attack dogs, or words to that affect. Not sure he would take that as an insult, but if you look at the individual players I dont think to many, if any, seem to be anything like that on an individual basis. Hussey, Clark (or Clarke for that matter) or Gilchrist attack dogs? Hayden and Symonds have the presence but Hayden's a loving family man who knocks up cookbooks in his spare time and Symonds well ok he likes to go pig hunting with a knife..Anyway it's funny how when you get individuals together things can change. The term attack dogs might seem over the top but I can see the point.
And isn't it surprising that the Australian press dragged out Neil Harvey to launch an attack on Australian cricketers, I think its his full time profession now.
I hear Hayden and Hogg both in doubt for Perth. Come on Taity!

Firstly, just want to say that I LOVE CRICKET. But I'm a girl... so I blame that on my inability to recall statistic etc:-)...though I was there when Richard Hadlee got his 300th wicket:-) Nowdays when our boys/NZ do well we{as a nation} look away in case watching jinx's them LOL.
I've been to Sri Lanka and worked in the Middle East and I must say that once people heard my accent the talk was all about cricket! It's so cool to be far away from home and meet people who know about The Black Caps:-)
Sadly the goings on across the Tasman are "just not cricket". For the Auzzie boys to claim racial abuse....Hummmm....a wee case of the pot calling the kettle black me thinks. Ricky Ponting's leadership has let the game of cricket down with his behaviour...An English captain long ago said "only 1 team played in the spirit of the game" and sadly I think that can be applied now. Australian cricketing achievements have set an excellent benchmark/standard in recent years;but their recent behaviour is NOT what I would want any team to emulate.Nip it in the bud,australia...You're just to good to be poor winners!

Lets just talk about sportsmanship in cricket for a bit. The idea that it was once a gentleman's game isn't really true. Any number of examples abound but one look no further than W.G Grace declining to walk way back when, claiming the crowd had come to see him bat not watch the other fellow bowl. Bodyline anybody remember what that was all about, winning at all costs. Gavaskar not agreeing with being given out and taking his team off the field. Riots in the West Indies and crowd behaviour in India losing games for their own side. And of course the infamous underarm delivery. The Mankad anyone?
I'm still unsure as to what the Australian's are being condemned for- winning? Sledging? And why now, they been doing both for years. Perhaps oppostion players should take a leaf out of the book of Tendulkar. Steve Waugh said he was happy to sledge any of the Indian batsman but never Tendulkar, it only spurred him on.
I understand people are questioning Ponting claiming the Clarke catch was out, apparently the captains had agreed before the series to accept the fielders decisions on disputed catches, apparently this applies only when games aren't in the balance.
I here Ponting is a aggresive arrogant captain, where as former Indian captain Ganguly was of course merely misunderstood, his habit of turning up late for coin tosses and them claiming the win regardless was completly in the spirit of the game.
Bottom line is the Sydney test was India's big hope in Australia and they blew it, granted with the assistance of an umpire. They have now attempted to switch the blame and attention to anything else but themselves, no doubt to keep the enthusiastic Indian home fans from burning effigies of them.
Australia's boarish behaviour pales into insignificance beside the sulky finger pointing of a beaten side.
Australia's poor behaviour in winning does not do justice to the quality of the the players. India's poor behaviour in losing does not do justice to the quality of its players, but in the end
winners are grinners losers can please themselves.

Ok, from an umpiring point of view, I'll say a few things here that might get me into a little hot water with Cricket Australia, but here goes -
Steve Bucknor was one of the world's best umpires. Unfortunately, he's about 3 years past his 'use-by' date. The cracks have been showing for a while now, and I personally feel sorry for him, but he needs to realise that it's time to become a mentor for the younger guys.
Mark Benson is, simply, not a technically good umpire. One of the basics of umpiring is that you take your time, replay the incident in your mind, if you will, and he simply doesn't do that. He 'guns' batsmen quicker than Jesse James used to, and it really is a shame to see how the standard of the typical English umpire has slipped so badly. When he gave Ganguly out in the second innings (to the low 'catch' by Clarke), the first thing he should have done, according to basic umpire training, was to consult Bucknor, who was closer, and had a better view. Instead, he took the word of that 'modicum of honesty', Ponting. Now, I'm no fan of Ganguly, but in that case, he had a definite point about decisions against India. They simply were not employing the basics of umpiring training.
Having said all that, it was a shame to see what turned into a very good game of cricket, become more known for controversy, innuendo and downright incompetence.

The Australian cricket team are being sledged for being poor sportsman.That I thought was obvious, from reading Australian newspapers online.I don't recall Sir Edmund Hillary gathering his mates around for a "group hug" when they knocked off Everest
Just because you are able to list many past examples of bad-sportsmanship,it doesn't justify current events.But thanks for giving scant reference to the "underarm incident"
And as for burning effigies...so what!Displays of emotion are cultural... what works for some might not work for others. I don't know how you felt being knocked out of the Rugby World Cup last year, but I went out into the garden and jumped on every blimmin snail I could find
My point was and is...Auzzie are a great cricket team to watch;but just not in the last week

Oh look i'm not defending the over the top attitude of the Australian side. What is with that jumping up and down thing that's creeping into sport by the way, bad enough when soccer players do it. I'm just pointing out (and i'll refrain from writing ponting out) that the suggestion that the current Australian cricket side is harming cricket with its attitude is a joke. They make themselves look like petulant schoolkids, nobody else need take notice at all.
India are looking just as bad, no, worse for the attitude they currently entertain. Both sides get on with the game.
And as for the world cup, meh.

Incidently as a individual I often think that the New Zealand cricket team of recent years, no many New Zealand sporting teams in general. Exibit the attitude and behaviour that Australian teams used to before the game(s) got to big over here. Thats from the outside looking in but I hope its true and I hope it stays that way.
As an Aussie we love beating Kiwis but I'm quite happy for them to beat everyone else.

Touche Quo
I too like to watch the Auzzies beat anyone,anywhere at any time(but us Kiwis)
Recently I worked in the middle-east for a couple of years and had to laugh out loud when I read a local paper quote from a kiwi cricketer. Can't remember who he was but he said something along the lines of "when we (NZ)play OZ in anything,both countries raise their bar. We could play them in a game of kick-the-can-against-the-wall and we'd be spilling each others blood before giving in!" It helped me to illustrate to the other international teachers I worked with just how bloody wonderful our trans-tasman rivalry can be
Cricket in general has been dumbed down to cater for the short attention span of todays followers.I love a good 5-day test myself
Oh and as for football players(my Dad's here now watching Central Coast Mariners vs Newcastle on Sky)....well....all I can say to that is ...Bring on the REAL men come rugby season!

I think India had the better of day one in Perth, im sure Australia would have liked to see them in worse condition. Bad luck for Dravid. How was that shot from Tendulkar to Lee's short ball, just lean back oh and while i'm at it I might just flick it over the keeper for four. Awesome.
Tait was a little diappointing too, his first ball of the day was a lazy 150kms though, pretty quick first up.
I'm quite keen on the Indian pace bowlers so be interesting to see how they play on the bouncy wicket. I like the inclusion of Pathan too I reackons he's pretty handy. And how good is test cricket in Perth nice late start so I can sleep in.. sweet.

Aussies got work ahead of them now. Have been outplayed this test match and the Indian's have been able to exploit the weakness in Australian cricket, the ability to play swing bowling, good swing bowling that is. Still lots of time up there sleeve a pretty handy batting line up so who knows.

Well we were baten there and no mistake. Nice rearguard action by Johnson and Clarke but we went down fair and square to a better side.
Pontings captaincy wasnt great either I'd like to add, but probably wouldnt have made any difference. A churlish person may have questioned the Indian victory celebrations but fortunatly i'm not.
A guy in the bar laughingly said Australia copped a couple of bad decisions so they gonna boycott the rest of their tour. Haha. Personally I'm looking for an effigy to burn, sure I had one here somewhere.
Amazingly some people I've talked to thing that was a rigged result, granted barflys most of them but still.
Congrats to India, Adelaide should be a ripper.

LOL Copago
I'm partial to both league and union! Thank God for modern technology and the slow motion replay

Well I hate say the words boring draw, cos we know what happened last year but I cant see a result from here. The pitch is playing too well. And really it hasn't been boring anyway has it? A Tendulkar hundred, a Ponting hundred, Clarke and Hayden. Good bowling from Lee and Sharma (isnt he going to be something). I've enjoyed this game regardless of what happens tomorrow.
Gilchrist retiring, thats terrible news, that'sone player I think all cricketing nations will miss, he really was a star. I remember back in 1996, actually cant remember the year, anyway South Australia won the Sheffield Shield but Gilchrist totally smashed us all over the place. There'll be good keepers in the wings but I think Australia wont know what its had until he's gone.

I'm more and more convinced that the awarders of the 'Man of the Match' award are on some illegal substances.
Tendulkar gets MOTM for 153, 13 and 0-6. Sehwag gets nothing for 63, 151 (to save the match for India) and 2-51?

Yeah that's a fair point. Wondering which Indian selector is getting yelled at for not having him in the side from the first test, could have made some difference.

God I hate Twenty/20! It really can't be that good for a player's skill can it? Hit the ball at all costs kind of thing - I want strke play! I don't like talking tothe players through the match either and the Aust. uniforms??? Ugh!

(why yes, I am a bit negative! )

Great run out though.

We've all been quiet on the cricket front here!

Into the finals of the one day series with India winning the first game yesterday quite convincingly .. hopfully Australia will win the next game and it can go down to the final gameon Friday night. (Bye Gilly!)

Did Harbajhan really do the monkey gesture to the crowd or are the media trying to find something to have a go about? I'm all for a good, entertaining drama in cricket but really, we shouldn't ahve to make moutains out of molehills. Allan Border said in the SMH that Harbajhan was copping a fair bit of flack as it was surely he can give it back a little.

Graeme Smith and Neil Mckenzie broke the record for the highest opening partnership - was surprised to see how far down that was in the overall partnerships though. There must have been some partnerships over the time!

Well they showed us. Well done to the Indian side they really are a side on the way up. And are Australia on the way down, well the side is certainly coming back to pack. That's fair enough given the players that has retired of late. Pontings form has been terrible, but that happens he'll come good. Unfortunalty where as Tubby Taylor was able to cover his form slump with a great cricketing brain Pontings captaincy isn't good enough to make up to it. Luckily he's too good a batsman to make this a fatal issue.
Nice shirtfront by Symonds hehe, somr talk he'll get sued for that. I wouldn't think so, that guy will be dining out on the "the day symonds flattened me" story for the rest of his life. Isn't it amazing that he stripped down to nothing except of course his stubby cooler wrapped firmly over his ummm arm.

Any thoughts on the upcoming Indian Premier League? Will it be good for the game? for the players? for other countries?