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I read Peter Roebuck’s article and I was incensed about how biased and one sided it was, so I sent a reply to him. I thought it would be worth sending through to the ACA as I believe the Aussie cricketers are being subjected to the old two card trick by embittered English journalists and Indian cricketers playing the sympathy card and spitting the dummy yet again.
Roebuck’s article on Ricky Ponting has angered me as it was as vitriolic as he has accused the Australians of being. His comment on Matthew Hayden crossing himself only when he scores a ton for Australia not Queensland is simply a cheap shot. Roebuck is slyly suggesting that Hayden only does it for the cameras and the crowd. Clearly, Hayden only does it when he has achieved something that he views as highly significant in his life and career. He probably wouldn’t do it when he wins $10 on a scratchie either.
Obviously, scoring a ton in state cricket is not as significant for him as scoring a ton for his country. You will find that there is a pattern of sportsmen celebrating in more exhuberant and personal style when they have achieved something significant on the big stage. Tennis players who win a game of pennants at the local club don’t go and jump in the Yarra river in celebration; Jason Akermanis probably didn’t do handstands after a victory in the under 14’s either.
In Roebuck’s world everything appears to be black and white — Harbajhan is a “Sikh Warrior” who raised a family of nine. What does Roebuck make of his ridiculously over the top celebrations when he does somersaults, bows to the crowd, and runs 100 metres like he has scored the winning goal to seal the World Cup. His celebrations tend to have a bit more theaterics to them when he claims Ricky Ponting’s wicket. Do you not think that this is antagonistic and a gross display of “triumphalism”?
No, it wouldn’t be because he is a Sikh warrior who has raised 9 children. On that point, are Australians supposed to respect him because he has supposedly raised 9 people. Has Roebuck checked how well he raised them? They might all be social reprobates; they might have been raised by “hired help”. My point is that he is in dangerous territory highlighting such issues as he does not have a sufficient insight in to people’s upbringings and backgrounds to enable him to dictate who should or shouldn’t be treated with greater respect.
I don’t think the average sportsperson would have objected to the Autralian cricketers forming a huddle and celebrating one of their best and most exciting test wins in history. It came down to the second last over and the last five minutes of a five day test. Victory secured the Border-Gavasker trophy and equalled their previous record of 16 consecutive test wins. It was an unexpected win given that Clarke took 3 wickets in 5 balls. How could they not celebrate in that fashion? They still shook hands with all the Indian players. They just didn’t do it immediately because the moment overtakes you when it comes down to the wire like that. When England won the Ashes series they celebrated like they were on a two week bucks night, had a ticker tape parade, and were clearly drunk throughout their public appearances. All Roebuck remembers is Flintoff’s sporting gesture after England claimed victory in one game, not the series.
As for Clarke’s catch, Roebuck is again subtley labelling him and all of the Australian players as liars. That’s a big call to make from the comfort of his commentary position and with the luxury of super slo-mo TV replays which in my opinion do not discredit it as a legitimate catch. Roebuck has obviously forgotten that Ponting appeared to take a catch earlier in the test but informed the umpire he didn’t think he had caught it. The Australians didn’t demand for an adjudication from the third umpire then. This sportsmanship did not get a mention as it didn’t fit in with Roebuck’s provocative, sensationalist form of journalism.
A message to Peter Roebuck: You come across as someone who harbours an irrational level of resentment towards the Australian team. We all know they have the killer instinct and are fiercely competitive as you need to be to be a world champion in any sport. But to confuse these qualities and effectively label them cheats, liars, showponies and bullies only does you a disservice as a biased commentator who is desparately trying to get your name up in lights.
You are an educated man and I’m sure a student of history. You obvioulsy have forgotten about the incessant appealing from Indian and Pakistani teams when games were played on their soil in front of sympathetic national umpires. Do you not remember the appeals for anything that came close to a pad and the trigger happy umpires? Of course you do, but that wouldn’t have fit in well with your article’s angle which is Australians are boors and Indians are downtrodden victims.
Ganguly smashed his bat on to the pitch like a petulant child when dismissed in the first innings. He stonewalled and didn’t walk after being dismissed in the second innings. Harbajhan reneged on his deal not to call Symonds a monkey, as he did during the one day series in India, and clearly knew it upset him and had racial undertones. He also celebrated the wicket of Ponting in the most inflammatory manner and inappropriately patted Brett Lee on the buttocks. Kumble refused to shake the umpires hands after the game, poor sportsmanship in anyone’s estimation as despite their poor performance they are entitled to still being provided with a modicum of respect and decency by the captain of the opposition (Symonds shook Harbajhan’s hand after the game).
You have mentioned none of this and have stated that Ponting should no longer be captain and Clarke not promoted to vice captainscy on the basis of one game of cricket which was one of the most exciting in test cricket history. We all acknowledge that the umpiring was poor. We also acknowledge that Australians were desperately trying to win the game and are not the first and won’t be the last to appeal for catches and LBWs that are not black and white. At the end of the day the umpire makes the decision and has the ability to report players if he deems them to be incessantly appealing or trying to aggressively pressure them to give a batsman out – there were no such reports from this test.
I hope you realise that Australian nor English teams ever pulled out or threatened to pull out of a tour of India because they were incensed by poor umpiring and they had to put up with it for the entire series not just one match. Maybe you need to examine their “spoilt brat” approach on this tour, their histrionics when they won the 20/20 world cup, their behaviour towards the Australians in the one day series in India before you spout off about Australia’s behaviour in this test.
You say that the Australians are insulting the “widely respected” Indians out of the corners of their mouths. Maybe in your next article you can tell everyone what they are actually saying. But why ruin a good story.
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