A GAIN TO CRICKET

There are unconfirmed reports of Andrew Symonds calling it quits the international game. This news should please a lot of Indians since he was regarded as the villian of the Sydney test match involving Harbhajan Singh.

Symonds has always loved the Indian bowling attacks. He scored runs as an English county player when India was on tour. The last time the Aussies toured India, Symonds scored a lot of runs in the one dayers. Besides, he is an excellent fielder and also a useful bowler. With his absence, the Indians can feel relieved. However, it should also be remembered that Symonds was a total failure when he faced the likes of Muralitharan in Sri Lanka.

If anything, the absence of Symonds will give precedence to cricket over allegations and counter-allegations.  

PLAYING FIRE WITH FIRE?

During the series against Australia and also during the T20 World Cup, the Indian players displayed aggression in the form of shouting at the opponents and showing unnecessary emotions. For a long time, the average Indian fan felt unhappy because the Indian players were at the receiving end of verbal bashing from the opponents, especially the Aussies. Any gesture or a verbal was misconstrued as an insult to India and Indians. So the newfound aggression got a lot of support. The win in South Africa added to the tall tale. It is not for nothing that George Orwell called sport ‘war minus the shooting’.

The Australians are past masters in the game of verbal volleys. Ponting and his team have taken the art of ‘mental disintegration’ to a new level. The Aussies do not like to lose and the loss in South Africa only added to the decibels.

With cameras everywhere, players like Sreesanth and Harbhajan did their best to keep the spectators interested. Even Robin Uthappa talked about ‘playing fire with fire’. Sreesanth’s behaviour was boorish. The Aussies succeeded in their ploy and the Indians concentrated more on verbal aggression and lost the one-day series.

The media that projected the new found show of aggression with a lot of enthusiasm suddenly did a volte-face after the racist allegations leveled by Symonds. Suddenly, the Indian players were advised to show restraint.

A win in the T20 World Cup is not sufficient to give bragging rights forever. The Indian team surely deserves the adulation since it is in a long while that the Aussies have ended up on the losing side four times in a space of two months to India.

IS IT RACIAL ABUSE?

The racial allegations leveled by Andrew Symonds have opened the proverbial can of worms.

Initially, there was the disbelief that Indian spectators could subject white coloured foreigners to any kind of racial abuse. I use the word disbelief deliberately since even in the context of Indians, the colour of the skin has a very important bearing. There are ‘fairness creams’ which promise to make the dark coloured girl fair much to the relief of her father and family who find it difficult to find a groom. The creams also promise to make the wearer shine on the career path as well. It is no secret that most of the mothers want fair skinned daughters-in-law.

The Indians always hold white foreigners in awe and no wonder even the advertisements for underwears feature a white male or female. Indians attach great prestige to the recognition given by people of the Western world. An Indian novelist or a poet or for that matter anyone from any walk of life is not considered good enough unless there is an approval from a foreigner, especially one with a white skin. The Indian cricket fan is also not different. Giving something back to the Aussie players is not an option since the retribution is feared.

The win in the T20 World Cup where the Aussies were one of the victims of Dhoni and company, emboldened the Indian fans. Suddenly, the fans realized the prospect of the Aussies looking beatable. This added to the noise and Symonds might have misconstrued this as racial abuse.

The Aussies have the right to be aggrieved if the Indian spectators hurled racial abuse. But in the event of no such evidence, there is no way the Aussies should complain for their fans are notorious for their hostility towards players from other countries.

With the allegations, the media made Indians feel ashamed over the racial slurs. Some cricket writers also joined in castigating the behaviour of the Indian spectators.

The reaction of Sharad Pawar in the whole episode was typical of a politician. He argued that the whole issue was due to the inability of the Aussies to decipher the Indian languages. Pawar himself expressed his inability to understand many of the Indian languages. No wonder, the farmers are committing suicides since their pleas cannot be understood by Pawar who is also the Minister for Agriculture in India.


There is no place for racism but it cannot be removed.