You won’t hear Ricky Ponting talk about Rudi Koertzen failing to call for the third umpire when Brad Haddin stumped Sourav Ganguly well prior to him scoring a century. Nor will you hear him talk about M.S. Dhoni appealing for a catch that had clearly bounced when trying to bowl Australia out on the last day.
You won’t hear him complain about Zaheer Kahn’s ridiculous send-off of Matthew Hayden.
And you definitely won’t hear him talk about Virender Sehwag standing his ground in both innings when he had smashed the cover off the ball and been caught.
Unlike India after the 2008 Sydney Test Match, Ponting has been humble and taken this defeat on the chin. He knows that India were the better team over the five days and completely outplayed Australia.
After the Sydney Test match India were bad losers, they complained, and complained and complained when subjected to similar events to what we have seen this week.
Unlike Australia, they were not good losers.
I’m not familiar with the culture of sportsmanship in India, but in Australia “winners are grinners” and to be a bad loser is an embarrassment that you may never live down.
That is why you won’t hear complaints about the umpires or India’s behaviour from Ricky Ponting.
david
Guest
There is no concept of sportsmanship india - as we know it. I live in Bangalore and went to the test match here and have watched most of the games. Indians never applaud when an Australian scores a run, 50 or a century. There is dead silence in the stadium. In contrast, the mildest good play by an Indian will receive the most rapturous ovation you will ever see. I might add that the media are incredibly biased and insular. Most Indians receive a constant stream of nonsense from their media that would make any credible journalist blush. For instance, they ran a 'spirit of the game' contest where you had to choose between Tendulkar and Ponting in the second test. Tendulkar won (what a joke - he is the sorest loser of all time!) because he 'went down the pitch to congratulate his teammate on scoring runs'. Truly - it is second nature in this country to cheat and lie to get anything done. Cricket is no exception and when you point out obvious examples of cheating to Indians they just get this little smirk on their face. They know they cheat and lie, what they cant understand is why we dont!
damos_x
Guest
the Indians whinged like babies when they were here & acted improperly given the 'spirit' that is inherent in cricket. the Australians were trashed in the name of political correctness. my impression at the time was one of a team ( the Indians) which appeared to be very full of themselves when on top but lacked the character to stick together when the chips are down. they may well prove me wrong but the first Test was an escape for the home team, & the drubbing is now in the past & i don't believe we will see a repeat. India have such an excellent team that it is hard not to like them, & hopefully the 'spirit' of cricket will triumph but if the weather turns nasty i wouldn't think for one second that the Australians would react in the manner that the tourists did last year.
El Capitan
Guest
Who really cares? Ponting is scared that the media will jump down his gob if he speaks out in India. Can't blame him after the Sydney disaster. Anything between India and Australia will be heated. A bit like it was between Aust and NZ after the underarm ball. Time will heal the wounds. More of a concern is the aussies bowling stock. Selectors need to bite the bullet and put a young fellow in there. Anyone remember Warnes first game of international cricket? He got belted around the paddock. Its a sink of swim game.
dasilva
Roar Guru
Greg If India hand picked the umpire then that is a disgrace. In most sports that will be considered corruption and match fixing by itself. NSW Football Federation boss is investigated for appointing referees in state league matches. In Italy clubs are relegated for having a role in appointing referees (you don't have to prove that the referee made decisions to benefit your club. If your club was proven to hand pick referee for the match then that's guilty enough of match fixing). Daryl Ricky ponting did complain about Sehwag not walking. He complain to sehwag but not to media. After Sehwag stood his ground you see Ponting saying some tough words to him. Most likely something like you are a hypocrite.
sledgeross
Guest
I agree with Da Silva. We should expect our team to behave in a good manner, and bugger what teh other mob do. I have no respect left for Suni Gavaskar the way he goes on these days. I have deleted all those fine innings of the early 80s from my memory. India played much better than us, so well done to them. Its simple really!
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
Someone wrote on this site a few days ago that India had vetoed the appointment of two umpires for this series. I don't know for sure if this is true, but at the very least we know that India got Bucknor stood down last summer, and presumably they still refuse to play under him. So the statement is believable. The further comment was made that with other international cricket going on around the world (Bangladesh-NZ, the T20I tournament in Canada), this left a limited pool of umpires available for the India-Australia series, so one could argue that India had essentially hand-picked the umpires for this series. I wonder how Matthew Hayden feels about this, having been given out questionably 3 times out of 4? (in particular we know for sure that his dismissal off the third ball of the series, caught behind off Zaheer, was an incorrect decision). Relevance? This is another thing the Australians are not complaining about publicly, as opposed to the Indian carry-on last summer.
Daryl
Roar Rookie
@Stan Morris If you read my article carefully you will find I didn't criticise Sehwag for not walking, I am simply stating you won't hear Ponting complain about it, whereas the Indians were very vocal with their complaints about Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds not walking in the Sydney Test.
dasilva
Guest
Stan The Sehwag incident was to show hypocrisy of him criticising Australia for sportsmanship especially the Ricky Ponting catch that he claim that was shown to be at best inconclusive. In fact Ponting rightfully had a go with him for that after he stood his ground.
dasilva
Guest
The things is that no doubt Indian team behaved disgracefully last tour perhaps outdoing the australian in bad behaviour. However Australia didn't behave very well as well and we haven't behave well for a very long period of time. We don't exactly win with grace either In the end however we are Australian and we want a high standard of our team. The fact is what Indian do is there problem not ours. We have our own standards to live up to irrespective what India or any other team do (I don't buy this India behave poorly therefore it excuses our behaviour). Perhaps that's why the Australian media singled out the Australian team. We want to proud of our cricket team in the way we play as well as how well we play.
Stan Morris
Guest
Daryl, You can't have a go at Sehwag for not walking, apart from Gilly NO Aussie batsman walks/walked. In the Sydney test last summer Symonds was caught behind (didn't walk of course) and played a crucial innings that helped win the test. It's amazing how when an Aussie batsman doesn't 'walk' it's just one of those things that happens in cricket, but if an Indian doesn't 'walk' it's blatent cheating and a disgrace to the time hounoured traditions of the gentlemans game.
Hoy
Guest
I stated after another article on this site, that I can't understand why Australians get a bagging. I agree with this article completely. I hate harping on about it, but it really gets my goat!!! Ha! After the Indians toured, we somehow ended up looking like the bad guys. I don't understand how that happened after the Indian teams disgusting behaviour. AND I am not saying that we don't sledge.
Tom
Guest
Thanks for this, good to hear a rational voice after the idiotic comments of Peter Roebuck et al...