Cricket's day of shame

[El Diablo]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/cricket/...1201369135083.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Cricket's day of shame


Chloe Saltau and Alex Brown
January 30, 2008

WORLD cricket authorities have caved in to the game's financial superpower, India, and Cricket Australia has incurred the wrath of its own Test players by pressuring them to drop a racial slur charge against Harbhajan Singh.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India had even chartered a plane to take its players home tomorrow if the Indian player's three-Test suspension - for calling Australia's Andrew Symonds a monkey during the Sydney Test - had not been overturned at yesterday's appeal in the Federal Court in Adelaide.

Cricket Australia was anxious to have the charge dropped because it feared its board would be sued for a figure understood to be about $60 million if India quit the tour. India's broadcast partner, ESPN, owns the lucrative contract to beam cricket from Australia into the subcontinent. If it sued successfully, it could take 10 years to recoup the losses, Cricket Australia told the players.

But the Australian cricketers were understood to be furious last night after the International Cricket Council lifted the ban and instead fined the controversial spinner half his match fee.

It is understood the Australians had expected Harbhajan would be hit with a one-match ban and were last night dismayed to hear he had avoided any meaningful punishment.

One Australian player, who refused to be named, told the Herald last night: "The thing that pisses us off is that it shows how much power India has. The Aussie guys aren't going to make it up. The players are frustrated because this shows how much influence India has, because of the wealth they generate. Money talks."

The decision amounted to a straight-sets victory for India, which had the Jamaican umpire Steve Bucknor sacked and sent home after it complained about his incompetence during the acrimonious SCG Test. And after India threatened to go home, Harbhajan was freed to play in the rest of the series when his appeal was delayed - despite ICC stipulations that it should take place within seven days.

Now Harbhajan has effectively been slapped on the wrist despite three Australian players' insistence that they heard him utter the word monkey for the second time in the teams' recent history.

At Cricket Australia's urging, the charge was downgraded from the level-three offence covering racial abuse to a level-two offence covering obscene language. The move was initially met with fierce resistance by the five Australian players involved in the hearing, all of whom were intent on seeking the maximum punishment for Harbhajan. But all begrudgingly agreed to the downgrade after taking legal advice from Cricket Australia's lawyer Dean Kino.

The decision was made by mutual consent between Cricket Australia and the Indian board.

It appears to have saved the tour, scheduled to continue with the Twenty20 International at the MCG on Friday night, and the triangular one-day series involving Australia, India and Sri Lanka.

"If a clean chit is not given to Harbhajan, the Indian board's decision is to call the team home," the vice-president of the Indian board, Lalit Modi, said before the verdict was reached. During the Adelaide Test the Cricket Australia chairman, Creagh O'Connor, was negotiating behind the scenes with the Indian board member I.S. Bindra.

As pressure mounted on Cricket Australia to lessen its charge, India's limited-over specialists were summoned from Melbourne to Adelaide to join the rest of the squad in a show of solidarity. The fast bowler Shantha Sreesanth, who clashed with Symonds in October's limited-overs tour of India, was among them. "We have just landed in Adelaide. I don't know [why], I haven't been told anything," Sreesanth said.

Neither Cricket Australia nor the Australian Cricketers Association would comment on the outcome of the appeal last night.

The New Zealand judge John Hansen, who presided over yesterday's ICC appeal hearing, is expected to reveal his full findings at a news conference in Melbourne on Friday, when the scene will be set for a highly charged contest between India and Australia.

Cricket Australia, Cricket Victoria and Melbourne Cricket Club officials yesterday feared that the Twenty20 match, which looms as the biggest day of the summer, would be cancelled, resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Shame on Cricket Australia

Shame on the ICC

Shame on India

 

[Matt23]

This has all left a bitter taste in my mouth, I seriously cant wait for footy season.

 

[El Diablo]

the fans should boycott any game involving India

on the box and at the gate

 

[JW]

Symonds let down by ICC
29/01/2008 7:24:15 PM
Paul Gough

To most Australians, the decision to allow Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh to escape with a fine rather than a suspension for what was deemed 'abusive language' instead of racial abuse towards Australia's only black player Andrew Symonds is further proof the game's governing body - the ICC - really stands for the Indian Cricket Council rather than the International Cricket Council.

Can you imagine the uproar if an Australian player had been found guilty of racial abuse towards an Indian player - as Harbhajan was originally by ICC match referee Mike Proctor - only to later have that verdict downgraded to a lesser charge and a fine on appeal?

Is it a coincidence that this lesser charge and penalty only came about after India threatened to pull out of the Test series and then the upcoming one-day tri series if Harbhajan's original three Test ban for racially abusing Symonds was not quashed?

So instead we see another morally-bankrupt decision from a morally-bankrupt sport.

Remember this is the same ICC that in the wake of the powerful Asian-African bloc of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Zimbabwe now effectively running the sport that changed the rules to allow Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralidaran to become the game's all-time greatest wicket-taker despite being called for throwing on several occasions early in his career.

And it is the same governing body that allowed tough but fair Australian umpire Darrell Hair to be sacked for merely doing his job back in August, 2006 when he quite rightly awarded a forfeit against Pakistan after they refused to take the field in a Test match against England after he and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove - a West Indian - ruled that Pakistan had been guilty of ball-tampering.

Hair's removal also exposed the lack of depth in the ICC's umpiring ranks, which partially led to West Indian veteran Steve Bucknor continuing when he should have retired and it was Bucknor - along with the ICC - that made such a mess of last year's World Cup final and the recent second Test between Australia and India when the visitors were on the end of several harsh umpiring decisions.

But India quickly lost any sympathy they had garnered from fair-minded Aussie cricket fans by then demanding and naturally again succeeding in having Bucknor removed from officiating in the third Test.

Australia by the way lost that third Test in Perth when it got the worst of the umpiring yet did not make similar demands of the ICC.

And don't forget this is also the same ICC that continues to allow Zimbabwe to be one of its senior members despite the shocking human rights abuses taking place in the African nation under rogue president Robert Mugabe.

But India, by far the largest cricketing nation on earth, brings in over half of the game's revenue so effectively the first rule of the ICC has become not to upset India no matter what the cost to the sport's standing in the wider world.

Remember Australia first complained about Harbhajan's conduct towards Symonds back in October during the one-day series in India - where disgraceful scenes of Indian fans racially abusing Symonds were also broadcast all over the world.

Again can you imagine the uproar if this had been an Australian crowd racially abusing an Indian player?

While the original three-Test ban against Harbhajan may have been harsh - particularly given the lack of corroborating evidence from the umpires - at the very least the issue of racism towards Symonds should have been addressed.

Both players should have been ordered into a private mediation session and Symonds be given the opportunity to explain to the Indian spinner just why he found his 'monkey' jibe to be racially offensive while Harbhajan could have had the chance to explain to Symonds why he did not mean to cause offence to the Australian all-rounder.

This is the approach that has worked well in the AFL, which has led the way amongst Australian sports in stamping out racism.

It doesn't matter whether or not Harbhajan used the monkey term or whether or not he or the millions of Indian cricket fans do not believe the term to be racist.
The fact is Symonds believed it to be racist and his concerns should have been acted upon.

However that scarcely seems to matter any more in a sport where its most powerful participant can get whatever it wants, whenever it wants simply by threatening to take its bat and ball and go home if a decision goes against it - regardless of whether or not it is in the wrong.

And the biggest shame of all is that India's 2007-08 tour to Australia will be forever remembered by this country's sports fans for India and Harbhajan's poor conduct and lack of sportsmanship instead of for being the farewell tour of Australia of the man who embodies everything that the game of cricket should stand for in Sachin Tendulkar.

http://sportal.com.au/Cricket-opinion-display/symonds-let-down-by-icc-42360

 

[El Diablo]

and it seems Sri Lanka helped in getting him off

Sri Lanka may have quit one-day series too

the whole subcontinent is rotten

 

[herbert henry1908]

the whole thing is farcical.

Cricket has sold it soul for the money of India.

and people think the Australian cricket team is bad for the sport. f**k me dead.

India will ruin cricket through their power & corruption. Not to mention their super league style tactics taking players away from test nations ( yes i realise its not the BCCI doing this)


Im not one to advocate union action but the Australian players should make a stand of solidarity in support of Andrew Symonds and boycott the 20/20 on friday.

 

[ozbash]

the fans should boycott any game involving India

typo ?

didnt you mean the common denominator in any trouble in cricket, australia ?

 

[JJ]

:lol: gotta know who your daddy is El D :lol:

While India's behaviour has been very petulant, they run the game so accept your bitch slapping and get on with it

If the Aust players are as affronted as they claim, they could of course not play in the lucrative 20:20 contests in India :lol: guess they aren't all that affronted in reality eh?

 

[Twizzle]

absolutely pissweek and immoral by all involved

I'm not surprised by the ICC actions but CA not supporting its players because they are worried ab out getting sued is pathetic

 

[dice]

How can you be sued for doing nothing wrong?

Can I sue my superfund for the stock market crashing?

 

[fish eel]

Cricket Australia should hang their heads in shame.

It is simply unforgivable that they have failed to support their players.

 

[Twizzle]

I guess they are not too worried about the suit being successful, its the cost of the procedure which can have adverse affects on their cash, which really doesn't say much for CA

all morals out the window, lets just worry about our bank account

 

[HevyDevy]

Also, from The Australian:

Peter Lalor | January 30, 2008

INDIA, the team that bleated about the spirit of cricket after being beaten in Sydney, has again held a gun to the game's head and had its demands met.
Judge John Hansen yesterday downgraded the charges against Harbhajan Singh in an appeal hearing in Adelaide yesterday against his conviction and three-match ban for racially abusing Andrew Symonds.
India pulled out every stop to pressure the International Cricket Council and Cricket Australia to cave in at the appeal hearing.
The billionaire superpower of world cricket threatened for the second time in a month to go home if it didn't get its way, while its players refused to continue with the tour and remained in the luxury team hotel in Adelaide.
The players were supposed to fly to Melbourne yesterday, but instead indulged in brinkmanship and even had the seven one-day players waiting in Melbourne flown across to join the sit-in.
The Indians also held the tour to ransom by pulling the same stunt after the Sydney Test when Harbhajan was convicted.
The team agreed last night to fly to Melbourne and continue the tour after Harbhajan's charge was downgraded to the lesser offence of using offensive language.
Even the new charge could have led to him being banned for two one-day internationals but Harbhajan was instead fined half his match fee - about $3000 - a penalty at the bottom of the range.
Harbhajan's counsel, VR Manohar, whose son is a high-ranking Board of Control for Cricket in India official, ran the case from India and made it clear the hearing was a matter of national honour.
The Australian can reveal that the Australian Test team and officials from Cricket Australia had an emotional and often fiery meeting during the Adelaide Test, at which it was resolved to allow Harbhajan to lower his charge from racism to offensive language if he made a public apology.
The players wanted Harbhajan convicted of something because he had allegedly broken his word, lied and twice called Symonds a "monkey".
When the offer for Harbhajan to apologise in return for the lesser charge was made to the BCCI it was rejected out of hand. In the past two Tests, the Indians have reaped the rewards of their petulant outburst following the Sydney loss.
After that game, Indian captain Anil Kumble complained that "only one team was playing with the spirit of the game", while his board put a hold on the tour until an umpire was replaced. Another senior player anonymously labelled Australians "cheats" and "liars". In the aftermath, umpires have been frozen with terror when a bowler appeals and have allowed some questionable tactics by the visitors.
Kumble and other Indians suggested Michael Clarke could not be trusted because he failed to walk when he edged a ball in Sydney and then claimed a catch that looked doubtful on replay.
In Adelaide on Monday, Sourav Ganguly hit a ball that was clearly caught by Michael Hussey but the batsman refused to walk. Replays showed he was out and only then did the batsman leave.
Had the batsman been an Australian - let alone Clarke - India would have reacted with outrage.
When Clarke was batting, Harbhajan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Kartik appealed excessively in the belief that Kartik had taken a bat-pad chance.
Harbhajan's sustained appealing was backed up by Kartik, who appeared to wag his finger at the umpire and later spat heatedly on the ground near Clarke.
In the meantime, Dhoni began to sledge Clarke who had to pull out of facing the next ball because the wicket-keeper was still talking as Harbhajan came in to bowl.
It might have been hard but fair, it might have been mental disintegration, it might have been many things, but imagine what it might have been if it had been the Australians appealing.

 

[Twizzle]

In Adelaide on Monday, Sourav Ganguly hit a ball that was clearly caught by Michael Hussey but the batsman refused to walk. Replays showed he was out and only then did the batsman leave.
Had the batsman been an Australian - let alone Clarke - India would have reacted with outrage.

they make me laugh when they talk about the spirit of the game

 

[fish eel]

I would love to read what Tim May thinks of all this.

Is he still head of the player association?

He is a very strong advocate for the players, and I cant help but think this has just driven a massive wedge between CA and the players. Be interesting next time playing conditions are discussed to see if the players play hard ball.

 

[HevyDevy]

I have to laugh at our Kiwi friends who are so pleased to see things go against Australia that they fail to notice the long-term danger signs this sends for our sport.

 

[_goParra]

Also, from The Australian:

Peter Lalor | January 30, 2008

INDIA, the team that bleated about the spirit of cricket after being beaten in Sydney, has again held a gun to the game's head and had its demands met.
Judge John Hansen yesterday downgraded the charges against Harbhajan Singh in an appeal hearing in Adelaide yesterday against his conviction and three-match ban for racially abusing Andrew Symonds.
India pulled out every stop to pressure the International Cricket Council and Cricket Australia to cave in at the appeal hearing.
The billionaire superpower of world cricket threatened for the second time in a month to go home if it didn't get its way, while its players refused to continue with the tour and remained in the luxury team hotel in Adelaide.
The players were supposed to fly to Melbourne yesterday, but instead indulged in brinkmanship and even had the seven one-day players waiting in Melbourne flown across to join the sit-in.
The Indians also held the tour to ransom by pulling the same stunt after the Sydney Test when Harbhajan was convicted.
The team agreed last night to fly to Melbourne and continue the tour after Harbhajan's charge was downgraded to the lesser offence of using offensive language.
Even the new charge could have led to him being banned for two one-day internationals but Harbhajan was instead fined half his match fee - about $3000 - a penalty at the bottom of the range.
Harbhajan's counsel, VR Manohar, whose son is a high-ranking Board of Control for Cricket in India official, ran the case from India and made it clear the hearing was a matter of national honour.
The Australian can reveal that the Australian Test team and officials from Cricket Australia had an emotional and often fiery meeting during the Adelaide Test, at which it was resolved to allow Harbhajan to lower his charge from racism to offensive language if he made a public apology.
The players wanted Harbhajan convicted of something because he had allegedly broken his word, lied and twice called Symonds a "monkey".
When the offer for Harbhajan to apologise in return for the lesser charge was made to the BCCI it was rejected out of hand. In the past two Tests, the Indians have reaped the rewards of their petulant outburst following the Sydney loss.
After that game, Indian captain Anil Kumble complained that "only one team was playing with the spirit of the game", while his board put a hold on the tour until an umpire was replaced. Another senior player anonymously labelled Australians "cheats" and "liars". In the aftermath, umpires have been frozen with terror when a bowler appeals and have allowed some questionable tactics by the visitors.
Kumble and other Indians suggested Michael Clarke could not be trusted because he failed to walk when he edged a ball in Sydney and then claimed a catch that looked doubtful on replay.
In Adelaide on Monday, Sourav Ganguly hit a ball that was clearly caught by Michael Hussey but the batsman refused to walk. Replays showed he was out and only then did the batsman leave.
Had the batsman been an Australian - let alone Clarke - India would have reacted with outrage.
When Clarke was batting, Harbhajan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Kartik appealed excessively in the belief that Kartik had taken a bat-pad chance.
Harbhajan's sustained appealing was backed up by Kartik, who appeared to wag his finger at the umpire and later spat heatedly on the ground near Clarke.
In the meantime, Dhoni began to sledge Clarke who had to pull out of facing the next ball because the wicket-keeper was still talking as Harbhajan came in to bowl.
It might have been hard but fair, it might have been mental disintegration, it might have been many things, but imagine what it might have been if it had been the Australians appealing.

The umpire might have given it OUT

 

[skeepe]

Here's an interesting snippet from an article on an Indian website

Under some skilled cross-examination from Manohar, Symonds admitted that there was no written record of the incident in Mumbai and added: ‘‘We had sorted that out with an understanding that it would not be repeated again.’’ Symonds did not mention his race even once and said he was offended because that understanding in Mumbai had been breached during the Sydney Test.

Hearing this, judge Hansen immediately said that Symonds was annoyed not because the utterance was a racial slur, but because it was a breach of an understanding. The judge had no other choice but to remove the racial charge.

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/Breach_of_pact_annoyed_Symonds_Hansen/articleshow/2741512.cms

Now, I don't know whether or not they know something the rest of us don't because as far as I know the reasons for the decision haven't been released yet, but if true then it shows this decision up for the joke it really is.

 

[Twizzle]

I would suggest its crap Skeepe much like alot of the stuff from the Indian media

the explanation of the decision wont be released till 5 oclock this afternoon

they can't possibly know

 

[Twizzle]

now Foxsports are saying the BCCI want to take legal action against Roy and CA

you shouldn't have backed down to the threat of legal action boys, you are gonna cop it anyway by the looks of it


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