The incidents that happened on the 2nd day of the 3rd test between Australia and West Indies is really ugly!! But even uglier is the offense charged against the players!! Here is a footage of the entire set of the incidents in the 3rd test:
There are two incidents here, one on day 1 and another (uglier) on day 2.
The first incident is interesting in the light of the not-so-recent Gambhir-Watson encounter. If you have forgotten what I am talking about, see this (at 1:35):
I guess, Ponting and Gambhir did similar offence here. I am not by any means defending Gambhir, but if Gambhir is wrong, so is "Punter". If Gambhir was served a 1-match ban then, Ponting must receive the same. But no one has even talked about this. And the result: Ponting escapes unnoticed!!!
Now coming to the worser issue: In the second incident in the video, there are definitely 3 culprits, Haddin, Benn and Johnson (in order of their guilt). But the match referee was generous to award a Level-II offence to Benn and Level-I to the other 2. All that I can react to this is "Bloody hell!". The referee here is not anyone unknown, Mr. Chris Broad, the one who handed Gambhir his ban, the one who was involved in the Sydney 2008 issue!! I guess someone needs to check these double-standard officials.
This goes to suggest that a player can provoke someone and escape with least punishment and the poor chap who is provoked beyond a point needs to face the heat! The Austrialians have learnt the art of provocation to perfection, why then should they be involved in most of these instances?? Where is justice here??
Indian Penal Code says, more than the doer the one who instigates the doer is more guilty. Its time ICC has a go at a similar rule. Look here for a similar outpour!
Did no Indian player react? Things will change if a united voice demands justice. If the top players had agitated against this practice, then things might have been different. But our team was never known for unity. And given our tendency to interpret character(temperament, consistency, etc) solely based on the game, important traits like integrity, camaraderie etc will be compromised.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, the main team in question here is West Indies, which is already in tatters.. Add to it their prowess among the cricketing heavy weights. They have to go about this issue without much voice..
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