In what is really a disgraceful decision the ICC has bowed to pressure from the almighty dollar and backed down over their decision to ban Harbhajan Singh for three test matches over his calling Andrew Symonds a monkey. Ok there wasn’t enough evidence to ‘convict’ him… there never really was. All we had was the word of a couple of people countered by the word of a couple of others.
What stinks is that the ICC has apparently bowed not to the facts of the case, but more to the economic muscle India has developed over the years in terms of revenue generation for the game.
That India even before the decision had been reached, had chartered a flight to take its team home was appalling piece of bad sportsmanship and in some ways it’s a shame their bluff wasn’t called.
The international game has laws and rules and India was a party to the creation of those laws. Insisting it would take their bat and ball and go home if they didn’t get their own way was *not* the way to solve the dispute! What’s the point of having these laws, rules and codes of conduct if you threaten aggressively to ignore them if you don’t get your how way??
I have no idea whether Symonds was called a monkey or not… I’m not sure it matters, the Australian’s themselves aren’t exactly novices at sledging themselves, and this name calling (racial vilification or not), is just another side of the same coin. However, what I *do* know is that the naked display of economic muscle displayed by the Indian cricket board was not a pleasant sight. I’ve no idea what can be done about them, but something needs to change. This sort of behaviour brings the entire game into disrepute and shouldn’t be allowed to continue.
The Eclectic Interweb 