Australia haven't exactly covered themselves in glory over the Harbajhan affair

Bat and ball / Andrew Hughes / 13 January 2008 / Leave a Comment

Andrew Hughes give us his take on recent events in the 2nd Test between Australia and India that included sledging, racist allegations, absence of sportsmanship and a suspended umpire

George Orwell wrote that sport was 'war minus the shooting' and tended towards 'orgies of hatred'. Of all sports, the cricket field, an arena in which two sides are compelled to spend whole days in confrontation, provides an environment where a spark of controversy can be fanned to the conflagration of a diplomatic incident, from the bouncer which felled Bill Woodful in 1933 to Mike Gatting's finger-wagging in Faisalabad. Following the Sydney Test, there has certainly been an orgy of outrage if not hatred.

In this international standoff, the ICC is once more under pressure. They have been wrongly criticised for suspending Harbajhan's three Test ban, pending his appeal, surely a reasonable accession in which justice is merely delayed, not denied and which managed to take some of the heat out of the situation in the short term.

However, the dropping of umpire Steve Bucknor is a spineless act, the second time in 18 months in which an umpire has been punished at the request of a cricket board. A quiet assessment of an umpire's performance at the end of a series is one thing, a public demotion for poor decisions is quite another. It hastens the end of the principle that the umpire's word is final and brings forward the use of technology to adjudicate on all decisions by several years.

But it is Australia who have fared worst in the media war, odd when you consider that one of their number was allegedly the victim of a racist slur. Instead the focus has been on the rather peculiar cricket ethics that exist in that part of the world, ethics that allow for players to continually abuse a fellow professional for several hours, but consider a racist remark in retaliation completely beyond that pale. Ethics that state that it is fine not to walk even when the seagulls on the top of the Sydney Opera House heard you nick it but completely unacceptable for anyone to doubt that same player's word when he later claims a dubious catch.

The ludicrous 'Spirit of Cricket' document they produced in 2003 should now be torn up (perhaps the pieces could be burnt and the debris kept in a little urn). Maybe the citing of Brad Hogg for using the word, 'bastard', is actually the beginning of the end of sledging. Indeed, if Levels 1 and 2 of the ICC Code of Conduct were rigorously enforced every time Australia took the field, they would gather so many fines and suspensions that messrs Hayden and Symonds would have to take second jobs.

However, the fact remains that India were unable to bat out 70 overs in Sydney to save that match and they will need to make changes before the Third Test in Perth. Yuvraj Singh, his technique shot to pieces, will be dropped and Wasim Jaffer's hesitancy against fast bowling may also see him rested. Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik are likely replacements and ironically Harbajhan himself could make way for Ifran Pathan. The Perth pitch is reputedly back to its fiery best this season with spinners in the Pura Cup playing little part and the Freemantle Doctor that blows across the ground should help Pathan's left-arm swing.

The draw looks about right at [5.0] and there will be plenty lumping on Australia at [1.41]. But the [10.0] about an Indian success is worth a closer look. If Sehwag and Karthik play, they will have six batsmen in form. The events of the past week will bring them closer together as unit, whereas the Australians, their behaviour under a microscope, are likely to be a little muted. And though the probable four-man Aussie pace attack is designed to intimidate the visitors, quicks Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait can be expensive. Of course, if you want to take that price, you will have to weigh all this up against the fact that the WACA pitch will be a real test for Indian batsmen unused to fast bouncy tracks. India have played here twice, losing both, the last in 1992 by 300 runs featuring an eighteen-year-old Sachin Tendulkar.