JE NE FORGETTE RIEN

Presented without comment:

Why summer of Bollyline still burns

PR: We can't avoid the next tour of Australia, and especially the Sydney Test. Looking back now, what are your reflections?

AK: It was tough. On that third day, I was sitting with Ricky [Ponting's] agent, and I asked him to call him. I spoke to Ricky, and I requested him to pull out [his complaint that Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh had racially abused Andrew Symonds] saying I'd apologise and let's put this incident behind us. But he had already made his complaint, and could not do anything about it. After the match, the mood in the team was not great. Harbhajan had been blacklisted. We felt - I don't want to use the word - ''cheated''.

PR: You felt you'd had a raw deal?

AK: We all believed we had a great chance to win the series. In Sydney, we should have won the Test, and then at least we should have drawn. The umpires made a lot of mistakes. Then one of our players was called for racist remarks. There was a lot of anger amongst the players, myself as well. As captain, I had to make the right call. There was talk about going home but I took the decision that cricket was bigger than any person or team. Looking back, I'm glad we decided to stay.

PR: At the press conference afterwards, you said that Australia had not played ''sporting cricket''. It was only the second time any international captain had used those words. Was that planned?

AK: It just jumped out. The question was pre-empting. Ricky had said in his press conference that both teams played in the right spirit, and one of the Indian journalists asked about that. But I was upset. Before the series, Ricky and I had agreed to accept the fieldsmen's word about low catches. I felt it was really sad when Michael Clarke gloved one to first slip and stood there. Then he picked up a catch that looked very dubious on television - it was a bump ball. How do you believe him, was my question? When someone nicks it to slip and stands there looking stunned when he is given out and then picks up a catch and says it is clean - how do you believe him? I felt they were willing to go any lengths to win the Test match.

PR: No regrets?

AK: None.

Comments

[W. Dog]

Woof!

[Nick]

So....did Rollerboy or did he not? That should have been the question.

[Tony]

Nick, would have been nice to read that. If Rollerboy had owned his mistake instead of skulking behind a lie, we would all have been saved a shed load of rumpus.

[Carrot]

I'd like to know what "Harbhajan had been blacklisted" meant, too. By whom? You'd have to assume the Australians, but were ALL the Indians behind him? Particularly when he talked about the mood in the team being not great.

The thing that annoys me about the whole story, and particularly the fall-out over the Australian "behaviour", this article, and Roebuck's stance over the whole thing, was that there seemed to be no sympathy for a team that believed that one of their own had been racially abused. Even if he wasn't and he really was called a "maaki" or whatever, the fact remains that the Australians clearly believed that he was. I've been in a club side under those circumstances - it was actually one of the oppo who accused one of our guys who completely and utterly protested his innocence - but the gloves came off, and who could blame them. Extrapolate that into a series-defining Test match, you're a side not backward in coming forward anyway, and OF COURSE you are going to back your guy and pull out the nastiest, most aggressive, take-no-prisoners spell of Test match cricket you can muster. The fact was that regardless of the umpiring, the Australians actually managed to channel their anger into some very good cricket on the last day, and the Indians dropped their bundle. I can't remember how many dud decisions they got on Day 5, but it can't have been more than two or three, and what about the rest of them? That should be just as much of a source of angst as anything else.

[Tony]

Roebuck was leading Kumble: "Here's another half volley for you to slap Australia, exonerate yourself and bolster my own POV."

[SaggyGreen]

An Australian cricket team running to the referee when somebody calls them a nasty name. Please.

Pot, kettle, monkey.

[The Don has Risen]

Carrot,

A reading of the NZ judge would help.
Clearly most of the 'offended' Aussies did not hear the alleged 'remarks' yet were on the 'attack on Singh'. I have no sympathy for Singh yet I doubt even he would do such a thing when he had been advised by Tendulkar what the fieldsman were up to and not to respond.

I believe the Umpires were neglient in the non-actions.

[Big Ramifications]

An Australian cricket team running to the referee when somebody calls them a nasty name. Please.

Pot, kettle, monkey.

It's on again.
http://sport360.com/component/content/article/102-breaking-news/100451-video-busquets-taunts-marcelo-with-alleged-racist-remark

I hope you're sitting down for this – the governing body did nothing.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1382823/Barcelona-v-Real-Madrid-Pep-Guardiola-sick-playing-Real-Madrid-No-2-makes-fresh-racism-accusations.html