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Oh, the irony. After sticking to their guns by opposing DRS technology for so long, the BCCI will surely now join the rest of the cricketing world in the 21st century after a Test marred by bad decisions.
Both teams had some decisions go against them, but it will be India’s board doing some introspection after their ‘no DRS’ stance possibly cost them a historic victory on Australian soil.
Infamous for getting their own way, throwing the toys out of the cot, and holding every cricket board from Cape Town to Barbados hostage, the tears must surely be rolling in New Dehli now.
They will feel particularly hard done by due to the second innings, where opener Shikhar Darwan and Ajinkya Rahane were given out with poor decisions and fell just short in what was a remarkable run chase led by Virat Kohli.
But in the end, they have no one to blame but themselves.
The technology may not be perfect, but by stubbornly and ignorantly ignoring the rest of the world’s pleas to use it they have done themselves no favours.
If Darwan had stayed and contributed 30 runs and Rahane another 20, the game could have been very different.
And if they had been able to review David Warner’s not out decision when he was on 70, they could have been chasing a total of 263 instead of 363.
They could have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
As it stands, Nathan Lyon did the damage, not only getting the second innings monkey off his back but hurling it into the upper deck.
To make it clear, I have the upmost respect for India’s cricketers themselves and even more so after the way they fought in this Test.
But there’s always something special about winning over India at home since 2008.
Not necessarily because of the way some players conducted themselves in that series, although it was disgusting, but because of the strong-armed tactics the BCCI used to have Harbhajan Singh’s racial abuse charge downgraded.
Not because of the way they drove a wedge between both playing groups, sullied the names of legends like Sachin Tendulkar, who blatantly lied to protect a racist, and further alienated themselves from the rest of cricket.
But because of the cry-baby poor sportsmanship, and most of all because they essentially forced Cricket Australia to turn on their own players.
When Ricky Ponting’s Australian Story aired last year, there was an interesting and candid confession from Justin Langer regarding the Singh incident.
He remarked that when he approached Cricket Australia officials, he was told “don’t be naïve, you’ve got to understand the politics”.
When he pressed further and said surely they wouldn’t throw their own under the bus, he was reminded of the crucial TV rights dollars that an Indian series injects into the coffers.
Earlier on Saturday some commentators assessed maybe it was time for the ICC to take the decision out of India’s hands and force them to use DRS.
But after today, I doubt they’ll need to.
Maybe now there will be some form of sacrifice from the suits on India’s board, some form of compromise.
And with the mountains of bad luck that went against them this Test, I doubt the players would disagree.
After all, it’s time for the BCCI to realise just because you have a nation of one billion, it doesn’t mean you can dictate the laws of Test cricket.
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