Press coverage of test saga
It’s been interesting to follow the Australian press coverage of the Sydney test match aftermath. On Monday and Tuesday I thought there was a consenus between commentators and publishers (Fairfax and News Ltd). They all seemed to agree:
- The match should have been a draw;
- The umpiring was terrible;
- Harbhajahan Singh was poorly treated;
- Anil Kumble hit the mark with his comments;
- The Australians were brash.
It’s funny the difference a day makes.
Peter Roebuck raised the bar in the Fairfax press on Tuesday when he called for Ricky Ponting to be sacked as captain. That seemed to trigger a mood shift in the rival News Ltd media.
Suddenly Ponting was the hero. News Ltd played the parochial nationalist card and ran a front-page photo of Harbhajahan Singh in The Australian under an emotive headline “Spoilsports leave Test tour up in the air”.
That’s a far cry from the commentary of Mike Coward and others the previous two days in the same paper.
It’s almost like the editorial team sat down on Tuesday and decided to deliberately adopt a different angle to the Fairfax commentators. They were pro-Indian, so we’ll be pro Aussie. That’s more likely to be popular and we’ll sell more papers.
Not only that, they would have thought, but we’ll be more likely to get interviews from Ponting and the Australian players.
I’m a cynical type, for sure, but the turnaround was so sudden I can’t think of another explanation.
Peter Lalor backflipped, but at least finished his article today with some home truths: “There is an argument that Australia did not play fairly. The Australian players and officials must address this.”
Malcolm Conn was entirely parochial in his piece headlined “Praise Ponting, don’t bury him”. I guess Malcolm is thinking ahead to his next interview. He made the strange comment that Harbhajahan must be guilty because he has “form”.
He conveniently forgot that Ponting has form as a liar and a brawler. Mentioning those would have cost him future interviews.
So who are the blackmailers? Is it the Indian team for threatening to pull out of the tour or the Australian players for exerting subtle pressure over compliant local media.
There are no winners, of course. That’s why I go back to my original point: Ponting should have foreseen the consequences of his actions.
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Peter Lalor’s article in The Australian yesterday was about the only sensible piece I’ve read on the subject - and I’ve read them all. What a difference it made that India lost the test; the test that they should at least have drawn and probably won, even with the umpiring against them. India failed to restrict Australia’s second innings, causing serious tension on the fifth day as Australia batted on and on. The Indians were mightily peed off, Kumble set the field against the fence, and the bowlers didn’t want to be there. When Australia finally declared they knew fully that the Indians were shattered - that was their goal and that is good cricket.
I grant that the bad umpiring and India’s loss are intertwined, but neither has the slightest to do with Harbhajan Singh, and even less to do with Ricky Ponting. What exactly WAS Ricky Ponting’s crime? I’m yet to hear a single solid case against the man. The most ridiculous accusations are that the Australian’s celebrations were over the top: they had just claimed three wickets in the second last over to win a classic test match. What should they have done? Doffed their caps and walked off? And how anyone could expect that in this test match, defying decades of cricketing history by ALL nations, the Australians should have had a blinding realisation that walking is the way?
I’m sure Ricky Ponting did forsee the consequences of his actions, knowing India and the Indians as he does. But does this mean he shouldn’t have taken any action? Against a repeat offender? That is the question his critics have to answer. The more the Indians squawk and carry on, the more Ponting - in his silence - gains credibility.
But the man who’s credibility is shredded beyond recognition is neither an Indian, nor an Australian: Peter Roebuck, take a bow for the most ridiculous column I’ve ever read, sporting or otherwise.
Michael O’s last blog post..Armenia Decides
I thought Roebuck went too far, and unfortunately it influenced the direction of the debate. Prior to that, everyone agreed India was hard done by.
Forget Roebuck and listen to people like Geoff Lawson and Neil Harvey (Aussies, not Poms).
Remember also that one of Clarke’s three wickets (the lbw) was highly suspect with two overs to spare.
Lalor was right that we wouldn’t be having this discussion if the game had been drawn, but it wasn’t, and the reason it wasn’t is poor umpiring and let’s focus on that.
It goes back to what I said about consequences. Test cricket is serious business and every decision needs to be accounted for.
Anil Kumble approached Ricky Ponting after the charge was laid against Harbhajahan on the third day but was rebuffed.
"I envisaged that it would spiral into a larger issue," Kumble said yesterday.
I don’t think Ponting even gave that a thought. Compared with Waugh, Taylor and Border he’s not in the same league (as a leader).
A black Indian calling a half-caste Australian a monkey: it’s ludicrous to say that’s racist, even if it’s true, which Tendulkar denies.
Oh, and most of the Australians didn’t shake Kumble’s hand after the game. That’s poor sportsmanship, in my view.
I listened to the last few overs on the radio as you did, and I wasn’t that impressed with Lawson carrying on about the LBW. When I finally saw it I didn’t think it was that bad, and I didn’t read about or hear anybody else questioning that call.
We should focus on poor umpiring if that’s what the Indians beef is, but don’t let that become entangled with everything else and be blamed on Australia or taken out on Ricky Ponting.
Anil Kumble knew it would spiral into a big issue. So did everybody else with half a brain. But, again, does this mean Ponting shouldn’t have reported it?
And does Symonds being a half-caste West Indian then give him the right to call the Indians curry-muchers or black bastards?
Michael O’s last blog post..Armenia Decides
Michael O. - I am with you on this one. I was busy at work but I watched as much as I could. The central issue was unfortunate decisions, but the Australian team was indirectly blamed. Tall Poppy syndrome again I think.
One TV commentator that I respect immensely, Mark Nicholas, stated that all too often, when the technology was used it only added to the confusion.
To other commentators…… Give me a straight answer? Who appeals most (and I am talking about shouting ‘Howzat’): the Indians or the Australians? Some of their LBW appeals were as much as half a metre away from the line. They were laughable.
Someone on this website talked about truth or integrity in sport. It seems to me that the only people that don’t tell lies are the ones that haven’t been caught yet…. and ‘boy are they precious’. Give me any 7 days and I will find dozens of lies and deliberate distiortions of the truth in the media. Why was Roebuck so outrageous? Because his employers don’t want too much truth: it doesn’t sell.
If I go to work and tell my boss I was on the turps the other night so I took yesterday off…. he would sack me, so I tell him I had the flu. Is that the case in your office? Hands up those that always tell the truth.
I’m not usually vindictive, but I hope that Aussies take the Indians apart in Perth and give them something to really cry about and the bleeding hearts to bleat about. But if that doesn’t happen I doubt that anyone will be burning effigies in the streets of Perth.
One other point. WALKING is dead. It’s a relic from a bygone era still practiced by a few, but an ever decreasing few. Lament it if you wish, but it is dead.
An Italian football player dives in the World cup and his team are hero’s. All of us cried, but the players knew that that was the real world.
Bill S.
The great thing about all the opinions expressed around the world on the Sydney test match is they show cricket is more than a game.
The discussion has been about politics, diplomacy, justice, ethics, culture, leadership, power, racism, propaganda, etc.
In fact, the intrigue surrounding international cricket is much like life itself.
Isn’t it ironic how the Perth test turned out though? Let’s leave Brad Hogg out of it…and focus on the bleeding hearts who certainly have something to bleat about!