Aussies- An ‘Obnoxious’ Bunch of Hooligans

Before I get on with writing about today’s topic, let me tell you readers that my posts are based on the facts. Along with this I also make it a point to give my personal opinion about what I write. Some readers have been voicing their protest over the way I write, I have been told not to write so formally. This advice was given to me after my post about the IPL, which the reader felt was not only long, but too formal and had most of what the papers had and was hence a little taxing to read. I wouldn’t like to name the reader for the reader will obviously know that I am talking about him/her. I am open to personal views but I would like to give an answer to the above complaint. I would like to make it clear to all of you that I also tend to get a little emotional when I voice my personal opinion, you would have noticed this in the very first post on this blog which was about the aftermath of the Sydney test and also in the post which I wrote when Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were dropped from the team for the CB tri-series. As it happens, the reader whom I am talking about doesn’t happen to follow the game much and as the post on the IPL was basically about the money involved and the teams playing in the league, it wasn’t as exciting as a post about action taking place on the field. Also, the post had to be formal as it was mainly about a huge business venture by the BCCI and aren’t all business ventures supposed to be formal?

Coming to today’s topic, which is mostly based on personal opinion, I will mostly be writing about the erratic behavior of the Australian Cricket Team. My last post was about the wonderful match between the Indians and the Australians at Sydney on Sunday. I remember having briefly mentioned about there being a tiff between Ishant Sharma and Andrew Symonds when Ishant bowled Symonds with a wonderful slow delivery towards the end of the Australian innings. I also remember calling this a petty issue in my last post, but it so happens that the Match Referee- Jeff Crowe didn’t think of this issue as a petty one and fined Ishant 15% of his match fee. The videos clearly showed that it was Symonds who started the issue but he wasn’t even told a thing!

In my opinion Symonds is equally responsible and should be punished too. He was also the one who started the altercation with Harbhajan during the second test at Sydney and even then he got away without a punishment. Judge Hansen of New Zealand who heard the Harbhajan appeal also mentioned that Symonds was determined to interfere in the banter between Harbhajan and Brett Lee, and that was what led to the entire episode. In response to this statement by Judge Hansen, Symonds wrote in a newspaper that these statements on his integrity made his “blood boil”. This statement clearly shows that Symonds is a person of loose character. This man deserves to be called a monkey, not because he looks like one but also behaves like one. I mean, there is proof that he started the entire thing and even then he believes that people are questioning his integrity! This is absolutely ridiculous!

After the Ishant incident, the Indian team manager said that the Australian team has been repeatedly provoking the Indian players, which is obviously the truth. That brings us to the latest issue which occurred yesterday when the Indian team was busy demolishing the Sri Lankans at Hobart. Around the same time, Matthew Hayden was being interviewed by a radio station at Brisbane and when asked about what he feels about India lodging a protest with the Match Referee about the Aussies “provoking” them, he said the Indians were probably doing this because they were losing every match to Australia. What a wonderful statement Mr. Hayden! I think he forgot about the thrashing the Aussies received from the Indians at Perth, where they lost in 4 days and even in one of the ODI matches where we destroyed their batting line up. He even went on to call Harbhajan an “obnoxious weed” and also said that he would like to have young Ishant Sharma join him in a ring! The Indians asked Cricket Australia to take action against Hayden and he was reprimanded by Cricket Australia but no fine was imposed on him. Why shouldn’t he be asked to pay a fine? Why were Harbhajan and Ishant punished when there was no proof of anything offensive having been said by then on the pitch? In this case Hayden came on radio and everyone knows what he said and still he is still let off? This isn’t fair at all. I would also like to mention one of the questions the radio jockey asked Hayden, “Why don’t the Indians shut up and play cricket?” Though I am not qualified to give this answer, I would like to tell the RJ to mind her own business. She isn’t qualified to ask this question so she should shut up too.

Now, during the Sydney ODI, there were banners held by the Indian spectators. These banners had messages like “Hyderabad welcomes Symonds” (Symonds will play for Hyderabad in the IPL), which clearly showed that the Indian fans have left the controversies behind and are eager to watch the Aussies play in India. But, I don’t think the Aussie public has forgotten much. When Harbhajan came to bat in the same match, he was booed by the Aussie crowd. The same thing has happened in all the India-Australia matches in this tri-series. I distinctly remember Sunil Gavaskar asking Harsha Bhogle about which team’s fans being more mature during their commentary for the match. Isn’t it obvious that the Indian fans are more mature?

I have never really liked Hayden, while many of my friends love the way he plays. I won’t be surprised if they start hating him now. I feel that he is an old fool and should quit the sport as soon as possible. And yes, Brad Hogg retired from International Cricket this morning and he probably did the right thing as we didn’t want to see someone stick his tongue out every other moment play the game. I want to write about something called “The Hogg Theory” which I formulated along with a friend, but I won’t write it as it is a little vulgar in nature. I would also like to end this post by saying that the Aussies are nothing but an ‘obnoxious’ bunch of hooligans who behave like clowns while playing the game. There are exceptions, but it is the majority I am talking about. They should be booed and insulted when they come to India for the IPL as only that can be a fitting reply to these rogues.