Cricket: What A Big Monkey Business!

Cricketers from the sub continent have long been subjected to on field abuse. The latest being Harbhajan Singh. And when they dared to lash out, they have been targeted as racists. It's quite strange and discomforting to believe that the victims of racism are now faced with perpetuating Racism. And all because a country would want to win at any cost.

Australia pioneered sledging and now faces the backlash. Racist sledging has been vindicated by players like Steve Waugh as mental disintegration. For a very long time the skills of the sub continental players used to crumple under this abuse. Being competitive is one thing but being an outright hooligan is another. I think the country that has stained the gentleman's game the most is Australia. Even though Australia may be a team of great cricket players but they are a group of arrogant individuals.

When the ICC code of conduct was established, it took a great cricketer (Clive Lloyd) with strength of character to impose a befitting punishment. Many in the game lack the backbone or will to stomp out such actions. For far too long some countries have used abuse and bullying as part of their game plan to win games. There is definitely a racial divide in cricket amongst nations, which a lot of people are happy to close the eyes to because it's uncomfortable.

But the theory that racism in cricket may be geographically isolated or simply un-Australian has since been shown to be false. Today Australian team is the direct opposite of standard virtues of the game, which upholds fair play over winning at any cost. For now, the Australian side is a winning factory where there is no room for experiments with the truth. All that matters is the 16th continuous wins.

Cricket stands at the crossroads today and it is not a matter of a solitary game. The situation faced by the Indian team is the product of these abandoned facets of the game. There is no doubt that confrontational mind-sets can scar any sport or game, but the awful lack of umpiring values can ignite the situation such that there is no way out. This is what has happened in Australia.

After the uproar created by Steve Bucknor and his umpiring will need to be dealt with strongly. Would countries be permitted to have umpires of their choice? What’s the professional motive of having neutral umpires? Can those objectives be transparent and visible in actions? Where does technology stand in all this? There’s no denying that technology and sport are here to stay if human error has to be reduced. And for that the umpires have to opt to use the available tools and choice to reach at fair decisions.