Humble Australia, the world's best sledging team, has been forced out of another well-undeserved World Cup win by a low-intimidating Indian side. Ponting, a humble and chivalrous sportsman, whose principles will force him to stand his ground till the umpire declares him out, will ride into the sunset with an impeccable record as the captain of the team that raised the bar for non-walking, sledging and gentlemanly chicanery. Among the many things that went wrong today, Australia failed to capitalize on the extra man playing for them in Munaf Patel, their bowling focused more on the bodies more than the stumps, and their back-up verbal volleys proved quite impotent.
However, Ponting can find solace that there are TVs on the flight back to Australia, and Indian students still left in the sledging capital of the world. May he find a suitable opportunity to bequeath his wealth of character and vitriol to aspiring cricketers back home.
Good bye Australia, and good riddance Ponting.
Either a cricketer should always walk or should always wait for umpire's decision. Doing otherwise sends a wrong message to the players, public and the umpire. Having said that there were instances where Ponting required Indian cricketers to walk when the umpire had given them not out- So Ponting is not guilty of following a principle but of having one principle for himself while requiring others to follow another!
ReplyDeleteThere are unsporting individuals, unporting teams, unsporting nations and unsporting sports. It takes all kinds to make a world.....
Yet is Sachin Tendulkar was not around, in isolation, he would have been the best performing cricketer of our era, whether a gentleman or not!
International Cricket is no longer a gentleman's game. If all teams use verbal volleys instead of sledge, where do you draw the line of ungentlemanly behaviour? If we see International Cricket as entertainment instead of a sport we will be able to accept and peacefully live with all the unpleasant behaviours on or off of the field!
Well, for starters,- Ponting is Australian.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, the ICC is bedded (sorry, headed) by Sharad Pawar.