The incidents that have dominated the media here in Australia have been, not surprisingly, to do with the Sydney Test match. Umpires copped some stick as you would expect. It's the other stuff that has dominated post-match news more. I just think because of the insane amount of coverage this issue has got, there are opinions flying around left, right and center. This has only made matters worse. It would be far to say the "media" went overboard.
What the Aussies just don't seem to understand:
1> This is not Bucknor at his worst for the first time against India. He has a history, clearly given here by the GreatBong in his post.
2> With the Harbhajan issue, the Indians feel their word was not taken into consideration, and what more, as Procter says, "one set of players was telling the truth". This has made it a question of honour. So the situation so far is this, 3 Australian players heard Harbhajan say it, umpires did not, stump mics did not, and well if I add,Sachin did not. So there is no evidence. How then did Procter ban Harbhajan? And if he has any other source of information, share it with the public. Can't help but think the ICC is gagging all the parties involved, and this in fact has escalated this issue.
The grouch with the Aussie team is that they seem boorish and arrogant in their behaviour. The naive "pact" was not followed by Ponting and the Indians feel aggreived. Rightly so.
In the interview with Channel 9 Current Affair the day before, Ponting says about the post-match conference fiasco, that he did not expect any question about the Dhoni dismissal and so was taken aback. He claims he did not see the replay till untill later. Well that to me is symbolic of what all that is wrong with their attitude. He hasn't seen the replay for that, so one would expect the captain of a nation to say he hasnt seen it so no comments, or something along those lines. But no Ponting is aggressive and rude towards the media guy.
Ponting is a fantastic batsman, and his team is the best as far as playing cricket goes. If they want to be liked they have to start and accept, they are not liked and respected like the previous great teams from the Carribean etc. As Geoff Lawson has said,"Whether the team themselves think that is another issue, but I can guarantee you the rest of the cricket world certainly feels that about this cricket team".
All this said and done, I definiely think that Ponting shouldn't be sacked for sure but needs to realize that something is amiss and rectify it for the future at least.
I think the Steve Waugh and Border theories of cultural differences seem even more relevant to me now. An excellent article here by Waugh. Read these "neutral" articles as well. 1. 2. 3.
A balanced view from the blogosphere.
In the Australian media, the reaction have been more or less balanced, compared to the Indian counterparts. The Channel Nine site, the Australian also has some pretty clearly pro-Aus biased articles. You have to go see them. The Nine one had this video on the site yesterday, saying WWS team has dug up a gem from the past. Also today they have these videos of Dhoni claiming Peiterson at Lords, and Harbhajan refusing to walk. What timing! Coincidence?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
