Enough of Bucknor, Ponting and Monkey-business. Come back Team India !
4 Comments Published by Apocalyptus on Tuesday, January 08, 2008 at 6:09 PM.
Well, Ricky Ponting thinks one can't question his integrity in the game of cricket. Okay Mr Ponting, let's not question your integrity and assume that you are the most honest person that ever lived on earth. Therefore, you should 'call a spade a spade'. Shouldn't you?
Then what's wrong if at all someone has called a monkey a monkey?
Like it or not, BCCI has more influence in world cricket than ICC or any other cricket board. At least once they should use their wealth and influence for a right and just cause.
Continuing with the series down under if the ban imposed on Bhajji is lifted would be like conditional surrender on India's part.
They should immediately call team India back and until Steve Bucknor is banned for life or at least penalized, Aussie players apologize in writing and the Sydney test is declared as an unofficial match with all records and stats discarded, BCCI should never send team India to any cricketing event in which Australia is involved.
Once India stops participating in major tournaments,there would be a huge downfall in the revenue generated by Indian supporters,Indian-owned broadcasters and sponsors.
And I'm sure Aussies will be forced to be back on track.
Meanwhile NCA and ex-cricketers can concentrate on improvinng team India by organizing high-profile domestic championships forming teams like India A,B,C,D,E etc - no state or zonal team but each team having players from different parts of the country. This will help Indian cricket in the long run.
Also, Indian companies who sponsor Aussie cricketers should stop doing so.
Then what's wrong if at all someone has called a monkey a monkey?
Like it or not, BCCI has more influence in world cricket than ICC or any other cricket board. At least once they should use their wealth and influence for a right and just cause.
Continuing with the series down under if the ban imposed on Bhajji is lifted would be like conditional surrender on India's part.
They should immediately call team India back and until Steve Bucknor is banned for life or at least penalized, Aussie players apologize in writing and the Sydney test is declared as an unofficial match with all records and stats discarded, BCCI should never send team India to any cricketing event in which Australia is involved.
Once India stops participating in major tournaments,there would be a huge downfall in the revenue generated by Indian supporters,Indian-owned broadcasters and sponsors.
And I'm sure Aussies will be forced to be back on track.
Meanwhile NCA and ex-cricketers can concentrate on improvinng team India by organizing high-profile domestic championships forming teams like India A,B,C,D,E etc - no state or zonal team but each team having players from different parts of the country. This will help Indian cricket in the long run.
Also, Indian companies who sponsor Aussie cricketers should stop doing so.
Well, now that we've won in Perth, maybe you ought to consider calming your frayed nerves down next time before coming out with a totally irrational and emotion based reaction.
@rohmen :
Everyone his entitled to his/her own opinion. Even though We have won at Perth and have a good chance of squaring the series 2-2 at Adelaide, I would still like to see the Sydney test stripped off its official status and Steve Bucknor severely punished. Had Bucknor got at least half of the wrong the decisions right, the series would have been 2-1 in our favour now and it would have been Aussies not us struggling to square the series.
The point is that bad decisions are a part and parcel of cricket. There's no way you can conclude that Bucknor was deliberately biased in favor of the Aussies. Also, at best, India could have achieved a draw in Syd neways. Aus got some horrendous decisions at Perth(symmo, huss), yet they got on with it.
@ rohmen,
I don't really know how closely you follow cricket but I certainly do follow the game from a close quarter.
I agree that bad decisions are part and parcel of cricket but if you have seen Bucknor officiating in matches involving India, especially in the last 5 years or so, you'll surely understand he is damn biased against us. He definitely has got something personal especially against Sachin. I believe it was the same with Asoka De Silva in the late 90's and early 2000's. He had targetted Gunguly in particular and India in general. And the worst part is, unlike other umpires, Bucknor doesn't even admit that he got the decisions wrong after the match is over. I'm not saying he was biased in favour of the Aussies, but he definitely was biased against Indians.
I agree that India could have at least achieved a draw at Sydney which they couldn't. But then, the damage was already done by the umpires in the first 2 days. The team that marginally dominated almost the whole evenly-fought match, had to lose the match after playing only one over of bad cricket. And with this went our chance of winning the first test series in Australia.
As far as the bad decisions in Perth are concerned, I would say they were quite evenly distributed as India too had bad decisions with Sachin, Dhoni and Ganguly. But what happened in Sydney was almost a one-way traffic.