An epidemic that was spreading fast in Oz cricket team. Worst case of foot-in-mouth disease. Indian team has cured the epidemic and how! Foundation stone of this cure (read victory) was laid by Anil Kumble in Sydney after the second test. He chose his words carefully, was dignified and still conveyed what he wanted to.
Everyone who has played cricket in India has played gully cricket at some point in time. I can tell all the people this much...when we guys played cricket, we exhibited the highest possible spirit, much higher than what the best international team put on display at Sydney. For example, we would never claim a catch that was not clean enough.
To my mind what happened in Sydney was not cricket, it was organised crime in its purest form. If there is something called 'sports terrorism' then the 2nd test at SCG was a perfect testimony to that. As for Symonds, I feel for the monkey! It took me sometime to come out with this...simply because I was thinking all this while, did Harbajhan call Symonds a 'Monkey' or called Monkey a 'Symonds'. I am still thinking, please help :-)
Lets recall some soundbites given out by Aussies in the recent series (before & during the series)
Oz media - Indians will be walloped 4-0 in the test series; CB series would be a cakewalk...
Michael Clarke - It is always important to beat India.
Hayden - Invitation to boxing bouts, obnoxious little weed, number of matches Indians are losing and the like.
Collectively Oz team has used words like integrity, commitment, gamesmanship, mateship so frequently and so loosely that by now these words do not have a meaning.
Take a look at the victims we have claimed
Shaun Tait : He was going to give us chin music, wasn't he? And the Perth test was going to be wrapped up within 3 days....Where is he now? Last I heard, he has taken some sort of temporary retirement from cricket!
Adam Gilchrist : He decides to 'walk' from international cricket after flooring a sitter from VVS Laxman's blade.
Brad Hogg : Poor thing, got his timing wrong. Couldn't even make it to the playing eleven on his final one-dayer.
Ricky Ponting : He is reduced to a pale shadow of his former self. I still regard him very highly as far as his skill with the bat is concerned. After this series, it is quite evident that he has a character flaw. The kind of flaw, which will never let you trust him and the kind of person from whom you do not want to buy a second hand car. He played some awful shots all along the series. If his poor run with the bat continues, he is just one series away from losing his captaincy. And if he looses his captaincy, I do not think his big bloated ego will let him play as an ordinary player in the side.
It is an open secret that Aussies always used off-field tactics, mental degeneration and on field abuses to be world beaters. Along came a team which stuck these to them on their rear so bad that it hurt. I can't help but recall this exchange of verbal volleys between Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies) & Glenn McGrath (Australia) in a Test match. After Lara's dismissal to McGrath, Sarwan came in and he was taking guard.
McGrath : How does Lara's dick taste?
Sarwan : Ask your wife!
At that point McGrath's yelled a lot of unmentionables to Sarwan. Umpires had to intervene to sort it out.The point is, treat the world the way you want to be treated yourself.
Chanderpaul once said "If 50-60% of debatable decision go the other way in any Test series in Australia, Australia will not be the same invincible team it looks like. And this is exactly what has stopped us from taking the test series 2-1.
While deciding the title of this post...I was spoilt for choice. I thought about "Winds of Change - its blowin' then I switched to "Higher you are the farther you fall" and then "Victor and the Vanquished"
Last but not the least, how can I forget Robert Ogilvie, wondering who this guy is? The Brisbane streaker who ran in and Symonds did the rest. When asked "do you regret, what you did"? His answer just takes the cake and candies "No, you live only once, don't you?"
