PostsHarbhajan-Singh
Handbags at dawn
By Will 3 months ago, 126 Comments »
Children, children. Is anyone else finding the constant spat between Australia and India nothing short of pathetic? I read that India have complained for Matthew Hayden calling Harbhajan Singh “mad boy”, and Hayden’s followed it up with the less than timely statement that the same bloke is an “obnoxious weed“. Isn’t Hayden meant to be one of Australia’s church-going, cross-bearing, holier than thou ministers? And who gives a flying toss if Singh was called a “mad boy”? It isn’t racist, other than to the mentally fragile, and in no way could be considered offensive. At most, it is merely dismissive. Perhaps that’s why it upset them so much: they want a real fight.
When Australia tour England next year, they will share and enjoy every vulgar insult under the sun. Captains’ virility will be called into question by a short-leg (apologies for the pun there). The opening batsmen’s mothers might be mentioned, and you can bet that every Englishmen will, in the eyes of the Australians, not deserve to be out there. Everyone will laugh about it and we’ll all go home chuckling.
Why, then, do these two countries have such a problem with eachother?
Pathetic. The sooner this tour’s over, the better.
126 Comments »Natural born prejudices?
By Will 3 months ago, 9 Comments »
A thought-provoking piece from Soumya Bhattacharya who tells India to grow up:
I thought of it because in that swirl of emotions, we Indians have tended to lose sight of a problem we need to tackle: we are still in denial that we are a deeply racist country. Often, we are racist although we are not conscious of being so. (It’s time we were.) We, with our fondness for light skin tones, tend to be prejudiced against those with darker ones. We don’t think of it as racism. But the world does. And it is. It can’t go on. We need to grow up.
A few examples. In the aftermath of the overturning of the ban, a board administrator was quoted as having said something like: “We shall not stand for our boys being called racists.” Our boys? Racists? Gosh. Cue incredulity, shock, horror. (Denial.)
Don’t shoot the messenger, etc
9 Comments »Harbhajan gets the monkey off his back
By Will 4 months ago, 7 Comments »
Here’s Harbhajan Singh signing a fan’s t-shirt, and enjoying a rare lull from the media melee during India’s tour match against an Invitational XI in Canberra. But what’s that word on the front of the t-shirt?
It begins with an M and ends in a Y!
7 Comments »Does India run the game?
By Will 4 months ago, 108 Comments »
I find the sacking of Steve Bucknor a real worry. He was at fault numerous times in the Sydney Test, and from this bystander’s perspective didn’t appear to handle the pressure at all competantly. But what right do India have to threaten the abandonment of a tour unless an official is replaced?
Where does this end? What if his replacement in the next Test - Billy Bowden - has a similar shocker, and makes six or seven errors which, India feel, cost them the next Test? Will he too be stood down at the bequest of an agitated India?
India alone contribute 70% of the game’s finances, and in that respect they do run the game. Heck - three New Zealanders have been banned from appearing in a film by their employers, the BCCI, because of their involvement in the Indian Cricket League!
This sets a horrible precedent. Will umpires who are sent to officiate in India Tests now decline or go on strike? Why would they want to work on a Test in which they don’t have the full backing of their employer?
So, does India run cricket now or not? Oh, and incidentally - India say the tour will go ahead, but only if the ICC overturn the banning of Harbhajan Singh. This is an utter outrage. How can they be allowed to behave in this way?
Does India run the game?
- Yes (63%, 233 Votes)
- No (37%, 135 Votes)
Total Voters: 368
Loading …On effigies, cheating and monkeys
By Jonathan Liew 4 months ago, 56 Comments »
This has all the makings of an Asia-Rest of the World showdown that has been threatening a denouement for several years now. I really hope not.
But first things first: fire and the burning of effigies don’t exactly have the same significance they might have in Britain or Australia. Fire is an intrinsic part of Indian culture - at a Hindu wedding, for example, a fire sacrifice is made, and the bride and groom have to walk around it seven times. And nobody really takes the death threats seriously. And the donkey thing - well, that was just funny. Some of Benson’s Kent team mates will have had a good chuckle at that.
As for cheating - well, there’s no evidence anybody deliberately cheated. Walking is nice, but not compulsory, and while some of the appealing and catch-claiming was pure, cynical gamesmanship, it wasn’t illegal. It’s therefore a disciplinary issue alone, to be discussed at length in an air-conditioned room with plenty of cold drinks available.
And the ‘racist slur’ - it doesn’t really matter if the word ‘monkey’ is racist or not. We can’t be sure it was said. There was certainly enough evidence to charge Harbhajan (and possibly Symonds too) with verbal abuse, but Mike Proctor and the ICC are really going to wish they hadn’t opened up the whole ‘racist’ can of worms. How - I mean, honestly, how - did they think this was going to end?
But however wronged India may feel, they’re forgetting rule number one of cricket - get on the field and play. You can get angry afterwards. Let’s hope that the TV companies have a quiet word with the BCCI. Perhaps money can achieve what diplomacy clearly can’t.
56 Comments »Video of Harbhajan and Symonds sledging
By Will 4 months ago, 41 Comments »
Well why not? Here are the winning pair in their now infamous day three tussle. The best line is from Ian Chappell right at the end, when he says “I’m not sure Matthew Hayden would be my choice as UN peace-keeper”. Hayden was an intermediary, stepping in to break things up.
Click here if you can’t see the video above.
41 Comments »Harbhajan banned; India apoplectic
By Will 4 months ago, 57 Comments »
So Harbhajan Singh has been banned for three Tests after calling Andrew Symonds a monkey. This is the correct decision, but the fallout could be quite monstrously messy.
There are already reports (from the never-really-to-be-trusted Press Trust of India) that India are considering abandoning their tour of Australia. Judging by the splenetic feedback we received today at Cricinfo (much of it was unprintable and vile), the issue many people have isn’t with Harbhajan but the umpires. I watched a TV news channel in India hold an impromptu discussion surrounding it. “Umpired out in Sydney” screamed the headline. “India fall victim of umpires” read another. One member of the audience said that if Bucknor were to visit India, he wouldn’t return alive. It was greeted with warm applause.
Yes, India, I’m afraid you were victim of some absolutely horrific umpiring decisions and I’m sure Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor will be penalised accordingly. But do not expect players to walk: this is not part of cricketers’ clauses in their contract. It is up to the umpires to adjudge whether a player is out or not and, if they say it’s not out - then live with it. There is a vast amount of luck involved in sport; what comes around goes around.
Frankly, I find the BCCI’s decision to demand an investigation into the umpiring pathetic. Every other country has series like these, where decisions go against them, but everything related to Indian cricket seems to be magnified to an extraordinary level; that they are victimised and the whole cricket world is against them, when it is not. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Indian government get involved in the next few days.
Equally, the attitude of Ricky Ponting and some of the Australians was extraordinary in the extreme. Appealing to Benson for Dravid’s wicket, which was turned down, Ponting sunk to his knees and was muttering away as though nothing had gone Australia’s way in the entire Test. Come off it, Ricky. In situations like these, when you’ve clearly had the immense rub of the green, some diplomacy and dignity would count for rather a lot.
What a shambles. Happy new year everyone.
57 Comments »Symonds was called a ‘monkey’ by Harbhajan
By Will 4 months ago, 98 Comments »
This is very messy indeed. Apparently - and this is to be taken with a bucketful of salt - Harbhajan Singh called Andrew Symonds a monkey during their altercation yesterday. This is according to Chetan Chauhan, the India team manager, who also says the term “monkey” isn’t derogatory in India. That may be the case, but neither is it a glowing term of endearment; given the history between the pair, this excuse is pretty pathetic and smacks of a management desperately bailing themselves out. The whole affair needs nipping in the bud immediately, beginning with banning Harbhajan for the default period of such an offence (I think it’s either two Tests or four ODIs).
The problem some people will have, I imagine, is one of double standards; that Australia are allowed to sledge and no one else is. Sledging isn’t (or shouldn’t be) racist. Harbhajan’s alleged term isn’t a sledge, it’s a racist slur.
It’s pretty depressing that it should overshadow what has been a fascinating Test by all accounts. Worse still, what impact will this case have on the future of international cricket? Last year, I went to a number of Associate matches in Kenya and Ireland. And before each game, a variant of the following rule (clause 3.3 of the ICC Code of Conduct) was read out (at most of Kenya’s venues, but only some in Ireland because the PA often forgot):
…language or gestures that offends, insults, humiliates, intimidates, threatens, disparages or vilifies another person on the basis of that person’s race, religion, colour, descent or national or ethic origin…
How crap and depressing it would be if this became standard practice at all international games. But, in the world we live in these days, this could easily become the norm.
Your thoughts on the issue are welcome.
98 Comments »Harbhajan and Symonds find resolution
By Will last year, at the end of October, 1 Comment »
I don’t know why but Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds appear to have settled their differences. They’ve hooked up with a couple of lady friends and decided that the best way to resolve their spat is with a damn good dance. Click here if you can’t see it below (takes a while to load).
1 Comment »Alastair Cook’s maiden Test century
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of March, 2 Comments »
If he showed a glimpse of his class in the first innings, Alastair Cook proved it today with an innings of remarkable composure, restraint and maturity to give England a genuine chance of forcing the most unlikely of victories on the final day. First came Marcus Trescothick as England’s fresh-faced left-handed opener. Then Andrew Strauss, albeit in fortuitous selectorial circumstances. England have unearthed a third who, on the basis of one innings at Nagpur, could be better than both.
The prophets of doom, myself included, predicted nothing less than a 3-0 drubbing by India before the Test started; Michael Vaughan’s wonky knee, Trescothick’s undisclosed problems and a swathe of injuries afflicted England. Not even the most optimistic observer could have forseen the situation England find themselves in after four days.
He joins Andrew Strauss, with whom he opened in this Test, to make a fifty and a hundred on debut. Michael Clarke was the last to do it for Australia; Virender Sehwag for India; Scott Styris for New Zealand and Dwayne Smith for the West Indies. In fact, Smith’s highest score since that hundred against South Africa is 42. Against the might of Bangladesh. So it’s not a certainty that debutant centurions should forge a successful Test career but - and I’m willing to eat my hat, if I have one left, should this not be true - Cook showed he has more than enough ability and determination to succeed at Test level.
Against a true master of legspin, Anil Kumble, he was calm and in control, deftly back-cutting and waiting for a bad ball. Against Kumble’s partner in crime, Harbhajan Singh, he was flustered but was patient enough, and disconcertingly mature, to realise that eventually a bad ball would come. Singh, like his team-mates, didn’t have a day to remember - nor was lady luck smiling on them, or even grimacing. However this was Cook’s first outing at this level, and he coped with absolutely everything. Strauss’s debut against the West Indies in 2004 was one to remember, undoubtedly, but Cook’s magical knock today was technically superior and all the more astonishing given his late arrival; it was made in the second innings, too.
If England win this Test - and there’s an awful lot more work to do - it must surely be regarded as one of the best in recent times, given their pre-series disasters. If anything, it proves one thing: never write a team off, and left-handers have a bloody easy time of it 
C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre
By Scott 2 years ago, mid-January, 11 Comments »
That was a French General reacting to the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854. It is also my reaction to the First Test, where India, as I write, are 0 for 403, and they’ve just gone off for bad light. Sehwag is 247, and Dravid is 128. This is in response to Pakistan’s 679 for 7 declared, a total that could have been far larger had Pakistan put their minds to it.
So by my creaky mathematics, we’ve had 1,083 runs and 7 wickets.
Great. But to me, this is almost as much nonsense as that Twenty-20 rubbish. Sorry to be an incurable snob, but to me, cricket is a contest between bat and ball, not a batathon. If there is any justice in this world the curator should be impaled with a pristine cricket stump, and I am sure Shoaib, Danish Kaneria, and indeed Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan would endorse my sentiments.
11 Comments »Harbhajan Singh joins Surrey
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of June, 2 Comments »
Harbhajan Singh is in the country, and playing for Surrey. His Indian team-mate, Irfan Pathan, is playing a few miles north for Middlesex - be interesting to see how they both go. Singh spends a lot of time in Southall where his family live, which I mentioned back in March. Q&A with him at the Beeb
2 Comments »