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racist slur
Andrew Symonds on monkey-gate
By Will 2 years ago, mid-November, 3 Comments »
Hello. Sorry for lack of posts. More important things called.
Compared to their last series, India and Australia’s current tussle has been seriously dull. I suppose I should publicly welcome that fact, but the cynic in me loves nothing more than a furore. Happily, or something, Andrew Symonds has retraced the steps which led Harbhajan Singh to call him a monkey. Here it is from Cricinfo:
“One of our off-field team couldn’t hide his disbelief at this…The frustration levels in the camp were rising and I was conscious of contributing to the pressure on the team. It was another turbulent match. I was out for a first-ball duck. I trudged off, getting darker at the world by the second as monkey chants boomed out around Wankhede Stadium. Finally in the rooms, I said to myself: ‘Well, what the f— happened there?’ I wasn’t referring to the dismissal, more to the events that had led up to the game. It had become impossible to escape and I only hoped things might start to improve.”
Symonds said things just got worse in the Indian innings. “Harbhajan and I locked horns briefly in the 35th over and that’s when he chucked the ‘monkey’ word at me. I didn’t have to be Einstein to work out what he was referring to. The word got around the team, but I had decided I really didn’t want to go any further with it. Frankly, I was sick of it and just wanted it all to go away.
“India won the game, and afterwards the team had a brief discussion about whether a formal charge should be laid against Harbhajan. But I was keen to try to deal with it there and then and went along to their dressing-room and asked to speak with Harbhajan. I basically told him: ‘Look, the name-calling is fine with me, it doesn’t particularly worry me what you call me, but you know what is going to happen. One thing will lead to another and you blokes will end up going to an umpire and it will get out of hand’. I said that the word he used was offensive and hurtful and he apologised and said it wouldn’t happen again.
“We shook hands and I said: ‘That’s the end of it’. As it turned out, Harbhajan would later deny this conversation took place, but my recollection is about as clear as I can be on the event.”
The quotations come from Symonds’ latest autobiography, Roy on the Rise, which is seemingly available from no good newsagents or booksellers. Or Amazon.
3 Comments »On effigies, cheating and monkeys
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, at the start of January, 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 2 years ago, at the start of January, 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 2 years ago, at the start of January, 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 2 years ago, at the start of January, 100 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.
100 Comments »