Pie Chucker

Indian Cricket Board disappears up it’s own backside.

Australia and India were in the throes of a brilliant, if antagonistic, Test Series.  At some point during the hard fought 2nd Test at the SCG gamesmanship took over, fuelled by some erratic umpiring and - with both captains having agreed to take the fielder’s word on debatable ‘catches’ - Ricky Ponting claiming a very suspicious take.  Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds exchanged words including a racially offensive one (Singh called Symonds a monkey according to the match referee; Singh protests his innocence) resulting in a 3 match ban for Harbhajan.  India responded furiously and are refusing to complete the tour on the advice of the BCCI (Indian Cricket Board.)

There are numerous other related issues involved, but no metter how hard done by the Indians feel, there can be no excuse for refusing to play.  There are procedures for appealing decisions and raising grievances and refusing to play is not one of them.  Frankly it’s pathetic & the BCCI should be punished.  No matter how genuine the Indians’ fury at the match referee’s decision, the spirit in which the Aussies have played, the appalling umpiring and overpirced Opera House souvenirs, if teams start thinking they are more important than the integrity of the game then Cricket will not be worth watching. 

There are some similarities between this incident and Pakistan’s refusal to play at the Oval during their last tour of England. The ICC must make it clear that the spirit of ‘the Umpires decision is final’ or we might as well start playing without them.