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InDepth headlines national business sports cricket regional entertainment technology world travel autos health | in-depth coverage > Indian Cricket Team's South Africa Tour > Sack the racists and save cricket! 18.17 IST 20th Nov 2001 By Ajay Chaturvedi & Manish Kumar 
It seems the International Cricket Council (ICC) has one set of rules for the white players and another for their non-white counterparts. There is no other explanation for the outrageous decision made by match referee Mike Dennis against the “Don” of Indian cricket Sachin Tendulkar and five other Indian players.Well, horror of horrors, Sachin Tendulkar – a nicer guy on the cricket field is difficult to find -- was penalized for tampering with the ball! While the decision itself is highly controversial, the manner of its execution is even more shocking. While new-comer and all-rounder Virender Sehwag was suspended for the third Test, beginning from Saturday, for “excessive appealing” during the ongoing Test match, the ‘guilty’ Tendulkar was given a suspended one-match sentence and fined 75 per cent of his match fee! Harbhajan Singh, Shiv Sundar Das and Deep Dasgupta were also handed down the same punishment. The ‘charge’ against Ganguly was that he failed to control his players. So, he was also handed out a suspended sentence for one Test match and two one-dayers. While players from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England get away with disgusting deportment on the field, those from India (universally acclaimed as nicest of the lot), Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Kenya and West Indies get severely punished even when they appeal within the limits. If this is not un-regenerated racism, then, what is it? If these can be termed as excessive appealing, what do you call South African captain Shaun Pollock’s non-stop appeal, like a man possessed, till he got decisions in his favor? Dennis the “menace’ turned a blind eye to that abominable act. But then, Pollock is a South African, and a white to boot. That made all the difference. The current series is replete with misdemeanors of the most reprehensible variety. But our match referee did not lift even his little finer. Mr. Dennis, your racist slip is showing. Here are some more examples of unbecoming conduct of the South African players, which went unpunished. In the one-day series, which preceded the test matches, South African speedster Andre Nell used the “F” word against Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly, not once, but many times. Nothing wrong with that. It’s fine, so no fine. That seemed to have been the ruling of our match referee! South African fast bowler Nantie Hayward repeated the expletive while bowling in the first Test at Bloemfontein. Then, Jacques Kallis "excessively appealed" after claiming a catch off a ball that had touched the turf. Again no fine or a reprimand! Shaun Pollock appealed four times for a decision in the Port Elizabeth test. Again, on the fourth morning, the South African captain appealed continuously, for almost a minute, until the under-pressure umpire raised the dreaded finger. So, can you blame the hapless Indian for jumping to the conclusion that, when South African players indulge in excessive appealing, they are rewarded with a positive response. But if Indian players appeal, they are fined, and handed out suspension. The discrimination is too glaring to escape criticism. Come on. Such acts smack of racism when they are resorted to with sickening regularity. No wonder, the outrageous decision evoked a sharp comment from that great England cricketer and commentator Geoff Boycott that these people enjoy paid holidays, indulge in racism and show a complete lack of balance in their decisions. One more instance would suffice to illustrate the racist bias. Australian fast bowler Glen McGrath went scot-free when he mouthed all kind of expletives at Sachin, while India’s Venkatesh Prasad was severely reprimanded for showing his joy after taking a wicket during the last Indian tour to Australia! Recently, when Australia toured India, Michael Slater created quite a scene after claiming catch, which he took after one bounce. He haggled furiously with umpire S Venkatraghavan, and said vulgar words to a nonplussed Rahul Dravid. He got reprimanded only after Indian media raised a hue and cry. Another match referee, Cammie Smith of West Indies, gives the impression of being scared stiff of white players, if his decisions are any thing to go by. This raises a pertinent question : Do we really need an International Cricket Council (ICC) that caters only to the needs of Australia, South Africa and England ? An ICC, which does not care two hoots for countries like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka which bring phenomenal crowds and fill ICC coffers? Well, the conclusion is inescapable. The South Africans, Australians and English players find it pretty hard to tackle that genius called Sachin Tendulkar. So, he has to be cut to size. What better way to do that than by hurling an utterly indefensible charge that he tampered with the ball ? And mind you, there was no formal complaint either by any players or by the field umpires or even the third umpire. The atrocious decision was based solely on the footage provided by an overzealous cameraman. In the first instance, he was not supposed to produce the footage unless asked for. There is no evidence to show that he had been asked to furnish the footage. What compounds the offence of Amiss is the chameleon act he executed within the span of a few hours. First, he gave Sachin a clean chit by saying that he had done nothing wrong. But then came the astonishing late-evening somersault. Mr. Dennis, something is seriously amiss. Another victim of the racist rulings has been Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan, who was subjected to the ignominy of being dubbed a chucker. This time the ‘villain’ was an Australian umpire. It is to his credit that Murali, who enjoyed the solid support of his teammates, continues to annihilate the biggies of cricket with his magical spin bowling. These worthies should do well to remember one thing. Players like Sachin Tendulkar(a player and man of unimpeachable integrity) and Muralitharan are made of sterner stuff. They are too good to be detracted or demoralized by such below-the-belt hits. Decency demands that scores are settled on the field, not off it. Is that too much to ask of these square pegs in round holes ? in-depth coverage > Indian Cricket Team's South Africa Tour > [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
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