2007/2008 Summer of Cricket Discussion

Symonds 'tried to settle race row'

Article from: Herald Sun

AUSTRALIAN all-rounder Andrew Symonds tried to defuse the race row with India's Harbhajan Singh man to man, according to a report today.

The report in The Australian says Symonds first told Australian captain Ricky Ponting after a one-day match in Mumbai in October that he had been racially abused by Harbhajan, who was alleged to have called him a "monkey".

An Australian team meeting then resolved to report Harbhajan to match referee MIke Procter.

But The Australian says Symonds told the team he wanted the matter to go away and that he wanted to talk to Harbhajan first.

While his teammates waited, Symonds walked to the door of the Indian room a few metres away and asked for Harbhajan.

After meeting the Indian bowler, Symonds went back to his teammates and said it had been worked out, man to man.

But when it allegedly happened a second time at in the second Test in Sydney this week, Harbhajan was reported and Procter banned him for three Tests, although Indian officials have appealed against that decision.

It also sparked a fierce reaction on the streets of India where fans were this week fuelling the controversy by wearing racist T-shirts that depicted Symonds as a monkey.

The appeal will be heard by New Zealand judge John Hansen of the NZ High Court judge, who and is the country's representative on the ICC Code of Conduct Commission.

No time, date or venue for the appeal have yet been fixed.

An appeal would normally be held within seven days of the commissioner being appointed but this time period may be extended if circumstances dictate.

The charge against Harbhajan was laid by the two umpires after the close of play on day three of the second Test between Australia and India at the SCG following a complaint from Australian captain Ricky Ponting.

Harbhajan pleaded not guilty but match referee Mike Procter found the case proved and banned the spinner for three Test matches.

Justice Hansen has the power to increase, decrease, amend or otherwise substitute his own decision and whatever he decides is final and binding.

Harbhajan may continue to play pending verdict of the appeal being given.
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jamesgould said:
I don't know how anyone could come out of this saying India need to learn sportsmanship!
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The Indians are being bad sports and sore losers. They need to understand that the good come with the bad!
 
Thats the point I was making. Sportsmanship is make threats about series and chucking hissy fits when thing don't go there way. They do need to learn about it!
 
Bedsey_is_the_best said:
Thats the point I was making. Sportsmanship is make threats about series and chucking hissy fits when thing don't go there way. They do need to learn about it!
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I've deliberately kept out of this until now because I'm only getting bits of info over here. I didn't realise that Andrew Symonds was considered non-white until this blew up. Firstly, racism has no place in sport. Footballers over here have had a dog's life over the years at the hands of opposition fans who make monkey noises and throw bananas about. Harbhajan Singh has travelled a bit and would, in my opinion, be acutely aware of the racist connotations of using the word monkey around the world. Hiding behind some supposed "different" meaning in India doesn't wash with me. If he said it, he should be punished accordingly.

However, Ponting & co have no right to be chatting about the "spirit of the game" when he ranted and raved, in full view of the cameras, going up the pavilion steps after being ran out by Gary Pratt in the 2005 Ashes Test at Trent Bridge. Those in glass houses.........................
 
jamesgould said:
I don't know how anyone could come out of this saying India need to learn sportsmanship!
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Im with you 100%. I Go for Australia generally, But this matter has annoyed me alil, to say the least. In the context for cricket/this matter, they can be alil arrogant/ unliked etc. Im not going to take any sides in this argument, all i want to see is good cricket being played, like the 2nd Test.

Whats happened has happened. Lets get on with the cricket.

Henno said:
ok I hate to say it but i reakon the Indians should now just F$3% off back to their own country. They have done enough damage.

what I want to know that if Kumble wanted to sort it our privately because he saw this happening, why did he appeal the bloody suspension?
Idiots
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Anyone would have appealed it. It was his word against Singh's. The umpires heard nothing. Even Ponting came out and said, if he had the time again, he would have done some things differently.

India are playing ACT.

Its over now, but could all spark up again next week if Harbajan's Apeal is rejected. If that happenes, India will go home and that would be the end of the summer, becasue they need to be here for the Commonwealth Bank Tri Series.

All i wanna say is lets just get on with the cricket.
 
Tendulkar driver of boycott

BATTING great Sachin Tendulkar has emerged as the mastermind of India's aggressive stance in the racism row after it was revealed he sent an SMS urging India to boycott the rest of the Australian tour.

Meanwhile it has emerged Australian spinner Brad Hogg is likely to front a hearing next Monday after being charged with making an offensive remark to India captain Anil Kumble and vice-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni during the second Test.

Read more about the Hogg incident here.

According to reports from India, Tendulkar sent an SMS to Indian Cricket Board of Control (BCCI) president Sharad Pawar on Monday proclaiming Harbhajan Singh's innocence and pushing an Indian boycott of the Perth Test if the spinner's punishment was not revoked.

"Harbhajan is innocent and I can assure you on this," the text message from Tendulkar read.

"In this hour of crisis, the board should stand by him. I suggest we play in Perth only if the ban is lifted."

Gallery: Re-live the tension of the final day at the SCG

Tendulkar was batting with tail-ender Harbhajan during the spinner's altercation with Symonds.

The man they call the "Little Maestro" gave evidence at a hearing after the match by referee Mike Procter, who subsequently found Harbhajan had racially abused Symonds and imposed the three-Test ban.
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Ponting's men need an image overhaul
January 10, 2008

RICKY PONTING'S team has an image problem, and yesterday the game's highest official urged Cricket Australia to do something about it.

Malcolm Speed has been working around the clock to bring some calm to the volatile series between Australia and India and to ensure that it goes ahead. Controversially, but in the interests of the game, he acceded to India's requests to have umpire Steve Bucknor stood down from the third Test and called in a referee to stand between Bollyline skippers Ponting and Anil Kumble.

Yesterday, though, the International Cricket Council chief executive touched on a problem almost as difficult to solve, since the Australians cannot understand why they are so unloved as it was an Indian player accused and found guilty of racism.

Ponting's team is on the verge of extending its winning streak to a world record 17 Tests, but rather than being celebrated it is being condemned in some quarters for what has been described as graceless behaviour in the Sydney Test.

CA chief executive James Sutherland believes the criticism is unwarranted and "inappropriate", although the man who at the start of his tenure oversaw a major crackdown on player behaviour admitted yesterday that there were some incidents at the SCG that concerned him.

Speed, himself a former chief executive of CA, at least acknowledged there was a problem.

"They are a great cricket team; I would hate to see them remembered for any reason other than that," he said. "The team is being criticised, members of the team are being criticised, and they need to be aware of that - they need to respond to that."

Sutherland was emphatic in his support of Ponting and would not elaborate on which incidents concerned him in Sydney.
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Symonds 'to blame for crisis'
By Peter Lalor and Malcolm Conn
January 11, 2008

INDIA's cricket manager, Chetan Chauhan, has accused Andrew Symonds of breaking a pact made in Mumbai that he and Harbhajan Singh would not sledge each other.

Chauhan laid the blame for the crisis, which continues to threaten India's tour of Australia, with the Queensland all-rounder after Symonds renewed hostilities with the spinner last Friday during the second Test at the SCG.

The two players met after a heated one-day international last October, in an attempt to personally defuse an ugly clash on the field earlier in the match.

Chauhan confirmed that Harbhajan and Symonds made a deal after the Mumbai game, but he insisted it was only about swearing at each other.

"In Mumbai they had a friendly pact, an oral pact," Chauhan said on Star Cricket channel.

"I would say the first person to have broken that pact was the person who has complained. (Symonds) has said it everywhere that it was he who started it. The cause started from there and then the effect came in.

"He has admitted that he had said something to provoke Harbhajan. So there was a cause and an effect.

"We tried our best to scale down the controversy but were told that the Australian players were adamant to press charges."

Australia captain Ricky Ponting insisted on reporting Harbahajan for calling Symonds a monkey in reply to Symonds's attack.

The Indian was suspended for racial abuse by match referee Mike Procter after a hearing on Sunday night, a situation which has incensed India, whose cricket board has threatened to pull out of the tour if the suspension is not overturned on appeal.
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this whole thing has gone to far india should just accept the suspension and play cricket it's also frustrating that the sydney test will be remembered for the wrong reasons that test from the batting of tendulkar symonds hayden and hussey and inparticular laxmen and of course the last over was one of the best tests ever played and certainly the best seen in australia
 
Got an a joke to try and liven the place up a bit.

Qu. Why is Sachin Tendulkar the only indian player who eats curry before their games??

An. I dont know he just seems to be the only one getting the runs.

Lame i know, but hey i tryed. :)
 
Some More articles. Just keeping You guys updated :)

Roy taunt lost in translation
By Iain Payten
January 12, 2008

HARBHAJAN Singh's racial abuse case took a bizarre twist with claims Andrew Symonds had misinterpreted a derogatory Punjabi phrase which sounded like "monkey".

The tourists are now expected to argue at Harbhajan's appeal hearing that he called Symonds a "Maa Ki..." in his native tongue, which translates into "motherf.....".

While this defence would land him in hot water for general abuse, it may be enough to clear the pugnacious Indian of the more serious charge of racial vilification when his hearing before New Zealand High Court judge John Hansen is conducted on an as-yet-undecided date.

Australian Brad Hogg will have his case for allegedly calling Indian captain Anil Kumble and his vice-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni "bastards" heard in Perth.

Australia will argue the term "bastard" does not insult a person's descent after Hogg, like Harbhajan, was charged under section 3.3 of the ICC's code of conduct during the drama-filled Sydney Test.

While Hogg is expected to admit he used the term "bastard", Harbhajan maintains he never said "monkey".

"He didn't say that. He is not a racist, but maybe he said something else," an Indian official said yesterday.

It's unclear whether Harbhajan used his Punjabi defence in his initial hearing on Monday, but Symonds and teammates Matthew Hayden and Michael Clarke are adamant they heard the "monkey" gibe.

Australian players are also adamant Harbhajan initially taunted the Queenslander with this slur during a one-day international in Mumbai in October.

At the heart of the tourists' anger is that they remain bewildered why match referee Mike Procter believed the evidence given by Hayden and Clarke but not that of Sachin Tendulkar, who refuted the claims. Batting great Tendulkar was batting with Harbhajan when the incident flared at the SCG.

The tourists remain incensed Harbhajan was banned for three Tests without any television footage or audio replay proving him guilty, or confirmation from umpires Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson, meaning Procter had to rely solely on the word of the players.

An Indian team source was last night reported in respected newspaper Hindustan Times as saying: "The appeal is actually a factual matter.

"We've pointed out that it's a very strange situation, one where Mike Procter took private notes and did not record evidence.

"Harbhajan's case is that in the view of the lack of audio-video evidence and the fact that the two umpires did not hear it, the presumption should have been that 'I didn't say it'."

As revealed in The Daily Telegraph, irate senior Indian players are pushing to boycott the triangular one-day series later this summer if Harbhajan's ban is not overturned.
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INDIAN cricket supremo Sharad Pawar has been given unprecedented power to order his team home as it emerged last night senior players are behind a stunning push to boycott this summer's triangular one-day series.

Pawar last night revealed to The Daily Telegraph that the Board of Cricket Control of India had voted to allow him personally to decide the fate of the Australian tour if Harbhajan Singh was not cleared of racially abusing Andrew Symonds at appeal and his three-match ban overturned.

Pawar is best known to Australians as the star-struck Indian official who was pushed off the victory podium by Australia's Damien Martyn at the Champions Trophy in 2006.

A decision of this magnitude would usually have to be voted on by the BCCI board, but so angry are officials that president Pawar - arguably the game's most powerful man because of India's financial dominance - can now make this call without discussion.

It is also a clear sign the BCCI is ready to act on the wishes of its senior players who are fuming with recent events. Pawar last night revealed the threat of terminating the tour was real if Harbhajan's ban remains.

"Let's just see what happens, but allegations of racism against a member of our cricket team is not acceptable,'' he said from New Delhi. "After the meeting, we then will take action.''

He also confirmed he had been given emergency powers to personally decide if the tour should be terminated. "That is true but I will only the use the power in support of Harbhajan for the rest of the country,'' he said.

"There will be a (ICC) committee hearing. We are confident in the hearing he will be cleared.''
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FINALLY BACK TO THE CRICKET!

Appeal outcome won't affect tour

January 12, 2008

INDIA'S tour of Australia will continue whatever the result of the Indian board's (BCCI) appeal against spinner Harbhajan Singh's ban for racial abuse, its president Sharad Pawar said.

Harbhajan's emotion-charged appeal against a three-match suspension for racially abusing Australia's Andrew Symonds in last week's second Test in Sydney is likely to be heard after the third Test in Perth, although the ICC is yet to announce a date.

It was initially thought that if the suspension stood the BCCI would consider sending the Indian team home before next month's one-day series with Sri Lanka and hosts Australia.

But Pawar told the Hindustan Times newspaper: "There's no question of a pullout.

"The series will not be affected.

"We are focussed on fighting Harbhajan's case, but it all should be within the game."

Australian spinner Brad Hogg is expected to face an ICC disciplinary hearing in Perth on Monday charged with making an offensive remark to Indian batsmen Anil Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni during the Sydney Test.

If Hogg is cleared of the charge the West Australian faces another hurdle at the selection table with Australia likely to recall South Australian quick Shaun Tait to the eleven as part of a four-man pace attack on the bouncy WACA pitch for the third Test.

The Indian team travels to Perth after completing a three-day tour game against the ACT XI in Canberra.

India's opening batsman Virender Sehwag, who appears to have sealed his Test recall with a sparkling 113 off 78 balls against the ACT XI, said the tourists will not back down if the Australians talk tough in Perth.
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Captains end cricket feud
By Jon Pierik
January 15, 2008

CRICKET'S great war is over after Australia and India Monday night made peace and the tourists dropped a racial abuse charge against Brad Hogg.

On another dramatic night, warring captains Ricky Ponting and Anil Kumble shook hands and declared the rest of the summer would be played in "great spirit" after their face-to-face private meeting.

This preceded Hogg's hearing, which quickly ended in a stunning fashion when the tourists dropped a charge with match referee Mike Procter despite believing they would have won the case.

"It was a magnificent gesture by the Indians," Procter said.

Hogg had been cited for allegedly calling Kumble and vice-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni "bastards" during a tumultuous second Test.

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was a surprise witness at the aborted hearing.
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Source: DT
 
Charge against Hogg dropped

Article from: The statesman

PERTH, Jan. 14: In a move that is likely to reinforce suspicions that India’s actions are orchestrated by cricket control board officials eyeing berths in the International Cricket Council and that they will always stop short of upsetting Cricket Australia so a proposed Premier League remains unaffected, the country’s team touring Australia today dramatically withdrew a complaint against Australian spinner Brad Hogg for making an offensive remark against skipper Anil Kumble and wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni during the second Test in Sydney.

A quid pro quo reprieve for Harbhajan Singh, banned for three Tests for “racially abusing†Andrew Symonds, though, was unlikely as, according to the ICC’s laws, once an appeals commissioner has been appointed, the legal process will complete its full course, even if the complainant wants to drop the charge. Harbhajan’s hearing will be held after the Adelaide Test. Kumble announced the dropping today following talks between him and Australian captain Ricky Ponting, leaving Hogg eligible to play in the third Test starting on Wednesday. The captains met in the presence of the ICC’s chief match referee, Mr Ranjan Madugalle, and agreed that both sides would play with renewed respect for each other.

“We had a discussion ... and after that it was important that ... cricket moved on,†Kumble said, adding: “Cricket is larger than individuals and it was important that we forgot about what had happened in Sydney as one of those bad moments. We decided as a team that we withdraw the charge made against Hogg.†Ponting, Kumble and Mr Madugalle met for about an hour.
The Indian team’s media manager, Mr MV Sridhar, said Kumble’s magnanimity was unrelated to any understanding with Australia on the ban on Singh. India’s administrative manager, Mr Chetan Chauhan earlier made it clear he counted upon the hosts’ reciprocation, however. The BCCI said the step had been taken in the “larger interests of the game.†Ricky Ponting and Hogg were said to have expressed their “gratitude†to Mr Chauhan. The match referee, Mr Mike Procter, today lauded the Indians, describing Kumble’ action as “a magnificent gesture.â€
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