Sanjay Manjrekar on the fiasco down under

Hurt Australia on the field, not off it - Sanjay Manjrekar

January 8, 2008

India's anger and frustration is understandable and Anil Kumble has held himself with a lot of dignity in the wake of all the controversy. Umpiring was below par at Sydney, but it cannot be the same all the time. Also, Harbhajan Singh's ban has come at a wrong time and has surely hurt India. But, India should positively use the emotions they have at the moment to produce better cricket in the remainder of the series

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Comments have now been closed for this article In the name of Jesus & Lord Krishna!!! I think , ICC should pardon both players wih a warning and counselling , learning from the previous backlash, they should not fuel further racism and hate in both countries. It is prudent to let go in this present storm. And the judges and refrees should ask the question "did they ever snap, become abusive?'--They have no right to impose punishments when they themselves can't control this natural urge to become abusive under pressure. I do , you do, then why should we expect the players not to do? The lack of foresight so far has caused international disaster. To remove the demon of racism , enforcement by law cannot work. It can only be gradually overcome by education and promoting goodwill....peace peace peace to all the cricketing world!!! Posted by Ihatecricketnow on January 11 2008, 08:12 AM GMT It is surprising to hear Sanjay Manjrekar say that India should hurt the Aussies on the field and not off it. I want to ask Sanjay, weren't the Indian's hurting the Aussies on the field in Sydney? They had them on the mat at 134 for 6. If not for wrong umpiring decisions, Australia would have made less than 200-250. And then India batted magnificently to reach 532. Look at the lead they would have got instead of the skimpy 69!! And that is what rattled the Aussies, which resulted in that boorish behaviour in India's 2nd innings. Thank God India didn't get bad decisions during their 1st innings. It's all very well to say that we cannot predict that India would have won or drawn the match if the umpires had got their decisions right. But one thing is certain - the result would have been totally different if the umpiring was spot on. That is one thing that Sanjay cannot prevent Indian fans from feeling and thinking. Posted by CRICKETTHINKER on January 11 2008, 02:29 AM GMT Cricket fraternity would recall- it was the Indian skipper Gundappa Vishwanath - who very sportively recalled England's Bob Taylor after being given out in the Golden Jubilee test at Calcutta - and as a result of which India lost!!! India has always produced sportspersons like Vijay Amritraj, Vishy, Chandra, Prakash Padukone, Kumble, Dravid, Sachin etc who have displayed great maturity and sportsmanship - and have possibly been victims of many a poor decison! Chandra was once so fed up with umpiring in a country that he had to appeal even for a clean bowled!! It is high time Indian sports and cricket in particular stood up against gamesmanship and protest against very poor umpiring. The decision of Andrew Symonds being ruled not out at 30 certainly was a distinct turning point of the game and the nail was driven into the coffin by half a dozen other decisions against India. It is shocking to read an unfair and unjust analysis of the Indian team's performance by Sanjay Manjrekar!!! Posted by Kiwi100 on January 10 2008, 12:46 PM GMT Hello Sanjay.A good article but such were the umpiring standards in Sydney that,justificably,it is impossible for Indian team to focus only on cricket when you have every right to feel you have been robbed off a test match...in AUSTRALIA !!! The 1 image which stands out is Benson asking Ponting whether Sourav was out or not instead of the other umpire or the 3rd umpire...This image says everything of the umpiring standards in Sydney.In fact,I'm a little surprised that India did not appeal against Benson,just because of the incident mentioned above... About Harbhajan,if there is sufficient evidence that he used racist remarks,he should be banned for 5-8 test matches-no 2 ways about it..... Posted by Nipun on January 10 2008, 09:39 AM GMT i find it pretty amusing that the decisions were 6-3.and tendulkar was out lbw,etc. surely lbw decisions can swing either way depending upon the mood of the umpire. but refusing to hear the clear edge of the bat and not referring to the third umpire of stumping are clearly atrocious. one more thing rp singhs wicket,the first ball of phil jacques second innings,etc are also dubious decisions.but they r not included in the 6 as they are lbw. what indians are enraged at is the glaring decisions and the infuriating reply of punter and clarke when they had clearly grassed.in the heat of the game they may claim whatever but when things settle down they need to accept like symonds.and procters decisions based on these two persons words against tendulkar(i do not say that tendulkar is 100% honest but he can be relied more than these two) is not a clear minded logical one. Posted by jsridhar86 on January 10 2008, 08:14 AM GMT As an ardent fan of cricket, i am sorry to see that cricket has degraded to what it had in the Sydney test. As Kumble put it with dignity, only one team played cricket with the spirit of the game and that was India. Ponting and his men have disgraced the game, and thier country. A victory at the cost of morale. There was no sportsmanship in thier game. Symmonds remarking at the end of the game that he was aware that he had nicked but did not walf off because the umpire had ruled him not out clearly was the most unsportsmanship behaviour and that alone would justify sacking him from cricket. I am surprised that no action has been taken against this so far. I presume because the laws are flawed. This test also raises the question whether Australia have been playing thier cricket this way silently for the last few years and perhaps that is why they are winning. Maybe only now it has been brought to limelight because of this match Posted by RajeshRajendran on January 10 2008, 07:59 AM GMT Dear Sanjay, Why don't you admit that though the Aussies are the World Champion but they have fulfilled their desire to break the record of 16 consecutive win by hook or crook (obviously having both the umpires in their favour). One has already proved to be anti-Indian if we track down the umpiring decision in the recent past while the other one is a white guy who cannot be expected to be fair when India is playing a team other than from Asian sub-continent. There is no doubt that the Aussies would win the series but they should have done it in flying colour without any bad patch. It was obvious that the umpires played their biased role in that game. Yuvraj did not even bother to wait for umpire's decision in his second innings though in both the innings he has clearly demonstrated his reluctance to play for the team which is a shame to his potential. It is absolutely clear that a few players in the Indian team don't care about the feelings of the NRI who adores the Indian players Posted by subir on January 10 2008, 07:59 AM GMT Hi Sanjay,I agree with a part of your comment. The removal of Bucknor has set a dangerous precedent with the BCCI flexing the muscles. However, India has every reason to be upset with the umpiring. I think there should be laws in ICC to allow them to interfere if they think umpiring is substandard, before the respective teams could complain to avoid this situation in future. Also there should be more laws to allow greater freedom for the television umpire to interfere if a wrong decision is taken on the field. The controversy this match has generated is going to escalate if laws are not amended. Posted by RajeshRajendran on January 10 2008, 07:43 AM GMT I think Manjrekar you have just taken one view. It is very hard to beat Australia and you donot get many such chances. I was very sad to tell you that Australia came so close to loosing test matches but in both time they were victorious, one last sydney test and the other second test versus srilanka. How did Australia came out from these situations -- Bad Umpiring. In the case of India you know what happened and wrt to Srilanka the decision against Sangakara. In short, these errors count and that add value. I donot know why these kind of coincidences happen far too often and the only team which gets benifit of doubt is Australia. I am just AMAZED. Posted by Saket23 on January 10 2008, 07:20 AM GMT Hi Sanjay,nice article. But one thing as an Indian I feel that for an Indian being banned may not be a critical issue but being labeled as a racist is an issue of utter concern and shame. I hope that Harbhajan comes out of this issue with a clean chit. It is also not easy for me to understand that why do BCCI and ICC always take reactive measures rather than being proactive.Any cricket fan can easily tell u how much "Respected Bucknor Sir" loves the team INDIA. So hope that next time both BCCI and ICC sets the appropriate examples to avoid such incidents. Posted by bhagathere on January 10 2008, 07:04 AM GMT Read all 114 Comments  Top ^