Enter the Ugly Indian

Call me old-fashioned and a resident of another age if you will, but one of the things I loved about Indian cricket was the fact that our players were so well-mannered. I grew up watching Bedi applaud batsmen who hit him for six, Gavaskar playfully joshing Imran Khan and Abdul Qadir and Kapil Dev hugging Phil Simmons after knocking over one of his teammates.

Fast forward to 2008 and Gautam Gambhir sticking an elbow into Shane Watson and well, I think you get the drift. And this was by no means an islolated incident. Many of the Indian cricket team today have been found guilty of unsportsmanlike behaviour (even Dravid was once caught rubbing a lozenge on a cricket ball)at some time or the other, notwithstanding their shrill protests of innocence. Be it ball-tampering, over-appealing, not sticking to over rates, bowling with dodgy actions...we seem to be doing it all with relish. Of course, if we are ever caught, the Indian cricket board promptly steps in and threatens to cancel all cricket with the offending nation. How else can you justify the fact that Harbhajan got away on the grounds that he had not called Symonds a monkey. He was, in fact, only abusing his mother ("teri maa ki...")! 

What is really shocking is that most of the media and so-called cricket pundits seem to support this metamorphosis. One TV channel yesterday went so far as to claim that India should stop following the principles of Gandhi and give as good as they get. Yeah, yeah, we know how that one works, right? An eye for an eye. Perfect recipe for a blind world.

So, has the age of the Ugly Indian arrived? Are we going to be what the Aussies were in the seventies and the Pakistanis were in the eighties and nineties? I really hope not. The likes of Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman and among the new crop, MS Dhoni, still represent all that is good about the Gentleman's Game and the way India has always played it.

Oh, and I am sure Gambhir will get away scot-free (a fine, in all probability). After all, if he does not, we can always cancel the Aussie tour!

Testing times

The Border-Gavaskar trophy has been very interesting so far, largely due to the fact that India won the second test so comprehensively. But just when you thought that this series was going really well and that we had gotten past the ugliness of playing the game in 'bad' spirit (last year when India toured Australia) we have some news (breaking news I might add) about an Adam Gilchrist's opinion about Tendulkar (supposedly) on the much-media abused Harbhajan-Symonds fiasco. This is an excerpt dug out of Gilly's autobiography True Colours. What was the point of this exercise? Was the temptation of dragging Gilchrist (the rare gentleman of modern cricket) through the mud too hard to resist? Or was it some misplaced idolism of the God of Indian cricket? Or was the series played a li'l too peacefully for everyone's comfort? Methinks we have gotten so used to sensationalism, it's hard now to not to hype otherwise inconsequential details so as to spice up the game.

But really, there was no need. For anyone who loves this game, Gilly's book excerpt about Tendulkar is an entirely unnecessary & inconsequential information leading upto the third and crucial test of the series. Australians are considered even more dangerous when they're wounded. In such a scenario one would think, we wouldn't let something as trivial as a book excerpt get under our skins. We're only egging a very important player from the Indian line-up to focus his thought and energy on something that's not related to the game.

Thankfully, Tendulkar has been around long enough not to be affected, I beg your pardon, not to let his game be affected by such controversies. A fact he proved with his masterly performance today. True, he will be very disappointed to miss out on a century - he certainly looked in good touch to get it. Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to play for tea after all. Either way if India do well in this test (and they are at the moment at 245/3 looking strong) then it'll be no thanks to the media who definitely did all they could to take the players mind off the game. Honestly the term, 'a welcome distraction' doesn't apply to all situations. Indeed, right after India wins a test match, especially against Australia, any controversial discussion not related to the current series or players is an extremely 'unwelcome' distraction (In bad taste too!).