I've lost a huge amount of respect for the Indian team over the duration of this tour.
I knew the BCCI were a bunch of selfish c*ckheads who were happy to suck the life out of world cricket as long as the end result was good for India and involved plenty of $$$. I tempered this by acknowledging that Australia can be ruthless on the field, and all the BCCI were doing was to benefit Indian cricket. Basically they were acting in an Australian way, but off the field - so without the enjoyment of seeing quality cricket taking place.
But the way everything has been handled this summer....Sachin's lost so much reputation it sickens me. Ganguly, Singh...they already had bad boys rep's from previous tours. But Sachin's spineless actions in the middle and his cover-up's and conflicting hazy statements during the two trials....really surprised and disappointed me. Kumble has somehow managed to still come out of all this with his respect intact. I personally find that amazing, and an absolute testament to his character - and I don't think any of this would've gone as far as it has if Kumble had been out in the middle instead of Sachin at the SCG.
But the bottom line is cricket has been embarrassed. This summer has been tarnished, the sport has had its pants pulled around the ankles and has been bent over a table. Many fans have been lost, some probably forever. The Aussie team is far from blameless, but I personally couldn't believe some of the roasting that they received after the SCG Test - some justified, but for the most part I thought a lot of it was way out of line.
Hopefully we can pick up the pieces and the ICC can somehow rebuild a reputation that is in absolute tatters. Does John O'Neill like cricket? Get him involved somehow. He'll kick some heads and sort it out. The man's a magician. That's basically what is needed by now.
